In an episode of “Drawn Together” in which Ling-Ling taped his eyelids so his eyes would look more Western and started a worldwide trend of Asians taping their eyelids, there was a series of quick shots showing how taping their eyes led Asians to stop engaging in stereotypical Asian behaviour (their driving improved and the like). One of the shots indicated that Asian men at public urinals are in the habit of dropping their pants down to their ankles rather than just enough to allow access for urination. I’ve never seen nor heard of any such stereotype. Is this for real or something made up for the show?
I have been in men’s rooms in parts of Asia and have never seen this. Certainly never seen it from Asian men in the West.
Have you seen what’s on the floor in some public men’s rooms? I can’t believe anyone would do that.
Could it be something to do with the stereotype that Asian men have small pee-pees?
I have no idea what “Drawn Together” is, but from the OP’s description it sounds pretty bloody racist. What would the reaction be if a black protagonist used lightening cream, and this set off a worldwide trend among blacks to refrain from eating watermelon and shooting craps at the streetcorner?
As for the question in the OP, that just sounds bizarre. For example, I’ve heard that mainland Chinese are occasionally made fun of for some rustic bathroom habits, but I’ve never heard of that even as a joke.
In Japan, some public bathrooms are what my wife and I called “Squatty Potties” which are basically holes in the floor, such that you do have to drop trou all the way to your ankles to do number two.
But nothing about dropping all the way to use a urinal. And I don’t know if they have squatty potties as a rule outside Japan.
-FrL-
I’d bet it’s making fun of the stereotype, not the stereotyped. The joke turns on the realization of how ridiculous it is to think that something like this could happen. The victim of the joke is anyone who would think the world works anything like this.
It can be hard to tell the difference, though, and I think some racist-minded people probably do laugh at this kind of joke for the wrong reason.
-FrL-
They sure do in Taiwan. And I’m sure Taiwanese would make fun of me for the only way I’ve found to deal with them without disaster: if forced to use one, I take my pants completley off and stand on my shoes. (Squat while standing on my shoes? Not sure how to phrase it–“squatting on my shoes” would carry a far different meaning.)
A friend of mine worked at the headquarter for a Japanese car company. He said he was entering the men’s room once and the power went off.
He said there was a executive from Japan at the urinal who freaked. He told me he had to go lead the guy by the hand to the door, and when they got there the executive’s pants were around his ankles.
Don’t know if it’s true, but it makes for a funny visual.
The show spreads it’s racism and stereotypes to all race, creed and color. It tries to be more outrageous with every episode. Your scenerio does not appear to be that far off for that show.
Squat toilets are the norm in China. I have not travelled in Japan, but I stopped at Narita (the main airport in Tokyo) once. This would have been ~5 years ago. It was the cleanest public restroom I have ever seen anywhere. There was so much polished stainless steel that I was going blind, and every single thing was automated, including the flush mechanism in the stainless steel squat toilets. :dubious:
Based on this I would bet that they are also fairly common in the rest of the country too.
Squat toilets to me sound are a pretty good idea. They would be more sanitary that the western style toilets, but the downside would be that squatting is pretty hard on the legs after a while.
Drawn Together is an animated series on Comedy Central. It parodies Big Brother-style reality shows by having several archetypal animated characters forced to live together in a house and be taped by “one million” cameras. The characters parody Betty Boop, Superman, Disney princess, Scooby Doo/Josie and the Pussycats-style crime-solving musicians, internet Flash cartoons, video game heroes, Ren and Stimpy-style gross-out characters and Pokemon. There are no sacred cows and I can’t think of a single racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or other group that hasn’t been viciously and hilariously ripped on the show.
Yawn. Crude little boys always think they’re the first to think up potty humor.
I’ve never seen the show, but from your description I’m sure I’ve seen it a thousand times.
And if they’re not kept meticulously clean, they’re nasty.
My wife is Asian. I don’t think any amount of taping could improve her driving. 
If you’re such a fan of potty shows, you should catch this one, then.
Amen a thousand million times. I’ve been to squat potties in various places in China, and there were some sit-down toilets, but there were also squat potties. I want to say that the Forbidden City had squats, but I could be wrong. Either way, in the worst ones, I swear my bits wanted to invert even more than they are by nature.
That’s my take on it. They guys were dropping trou to show off the impressive new equipment they had.
It’s a crock. I’ve backpacked extensively around Asia. No one drops trou to the floor to pee.
I saw the first episode and I already felt like I’d watched it a thousand times. I am continually surprised it’s still on the air. Does anyone actually still find that stuff shocking enough to be funny?