# Sitcom man says regarding a girl he's met "She's part African American but has a great personality" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164 "2015-02-20T04:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/101 "2015-02-21T15:15:16Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I’ve heard eejits here in Ireland who were trying to be polite about black Africans use that term. George Bush _fils_ once called Nelson Mandela a “great African American.” I have seen 2BG only once. DH and I watched because the ads said something about them trying to make their bakery kosher, and dealing with Orthodox Jews, so we thought “what the heck.” It was so awful, I don’t know where to begin. Really. So I won’t. I’ll just leave it at “It was so awful, I’m never going to watch it again, not even the episode with Valerie Harper, and I’ve had a crush on her since I was four; I even watched an episode of that show about the Christian family living in the RV because Valerie Harper was on it.” ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/102 "2015-02-21T16:16:24Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > “Stupid show makes stupid joke” really is a non-issue, I agree. Shock humour is about as easy as it gets, which is the most offensive thing about the whole incident. > > But seriously, “She’s X but she has a great personality” is one of the oldest jokes around, up there with “Take my wife… please!” Again, you don’t need to know anything about X to know the humour comes from X being undesirable and a sign of physical unattractiveness. > > “She’s a redhead, but she has a great personality!” > > Do you take that line to be complimentary to redheads? I mean, let’s not kid ourselves here. Anyone who can’t figure this joke out is probably too stupid to operate a remote control. But that’s not the joke. The joke is, when asked about someone, “She has a great personality” and you’re supposed to infer that she’s fat/redhead/ugly/whatever the plot requires. If you just come out and say she’s fat, but has a great personality, what the hell is that? ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/103 "2015-02-21T16:27:02Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > I thought it was a grossly offensive dig at Indigenous Australians, and my first thought was obviously along the lines of yours, Princhester - would American audiences be so indifferent to it had the character referred to an African American girl, or even another race or ethnicity? > > She’s Polish but she has a great personality. That’s pretty much par for the course for 2 Broke Girls. In fact, one of the characters on the show is Polish and they pretty regularly make tasteless jokes about that. They pretty relentless make jokes about characters who are Asians, Italians, Hispanics, and gay for shock value and the humor often seems to be of the Chelsea Handler “Hey, we’re cute girls talking dirty! Aren’t we being edgy!” variety. That said, the main target of the show’s ire seems to be hipsters. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/104 "2015-02-21T17:57:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Ok, so it’s [this](http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/2-broke-girls-season-4-under-fire-for-racist-joke-about-aboriginal-australians-20150220-13k055.html), and he says part Aboriginal not part African American. Since most Americans are dumb as posts, especially the ones that watch that show, they won’t understand what it means. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/105 "2015-02-21T18:58:47Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > How would that go down in the US? Many of you probably know why I’m asking, and I’ll explain shortly. But I’m curious… So, you say here that many of us won’t know why you’re asking, but we’re still hypocrites for not reacting to this thing we’ve had no exposure to. Damn us all! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/106 "2015-02-21T20:02:16Z")
I’ve only ever seen a few minutes of _Two Broke Girls_, but hearing that there was an offensive joke at the expense of an ethnic group on the show is about as surprising to me as hearing that an episode of _Law & Order: SVU_ centered around a rape investigation or that an episode of _Glee_ featured singing. What little I’ve seen of the show indicated that it’s not only full of stupid, tasteless jokes but that there are at least two regular characters who are basically just walking ethnic stereotypes. As noted by others in the thread, _Two Broke Girls_ has also been called out repeatedly by American TV critics for racist and otherwise offensive jokes for as long as it’s been on the air. The AV Club’s brief piece on the recent controversy is titled “[2 Broke Girls manages to offend another racial group, wins racist bingo](http://www.avclub.com/article/2-broke-girls-manages-offend-another-racial-group--215559)”. I’d assume that anyone in the US who watches this show isn’t bothered by this sort of thing. Did Australian viewers really fail to notice all the tasteless ethnic “humor” until _Two Broke Girls_ finally got around to making a joke at the expense of an Australian group? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164/107 "2015-02-21T22:38:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > A lot of knee jerk reactions from people. Larry Wilmore made a joke about African American women being bossy on his new Nightly Show and received a ton of flack for it. That would I assume have more to do with sexism than race. Calling women bossy when they are being assertive is a hot topic right now (or at least was a few months ago). “Bossy” is said more about women than men, studies show, despite their actions being about the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-man-says-regarding-a-girl-hes-met-shes-part-african-american-but-has-a-great-personality/713164.md?page=5)