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Last night, The Daily Show‘s “Senior Mumbai Bureau Chief” Aasif Mandvi’s sketch on the Richard Gere incident was lackluster at best. It just wasn’t that funny. Here’s my pause ‘n play analysis. Incidentally, if you haven’t watched it yet, go ahead and do so. Then come back here for the fun-alysis.
Play
First, Jon Stewart opens it by making a joke about how public displays of affection are a touchy subject in India ever since a “certain spiritual leader” was groped on the subway – with a shot of Kali at her eight-armed worst in the corner of the screen.
Pause
See, I would’ve done some research here. Firstly, Kali isn’t a spiritual leader, she’s a goddess. Secondly, does any city in India even have a working subway? I’m not sure about this one, but I know for sure that Bombay doesn’t. Yes, Calcutta does. Nonetheless though, I would have probably used a picture of Phoolan Devi, and said it’s a taboo topic ever since someone tried to grope her and she shot him. You got to admit, she looked pretty fierce.
Play
This was followed by the sketch itself, with Mandvi talking about the time difference by calling it “Pamini Vandla Vuru” time.
Pause
This is like Nahasapeemapetilon. It sounds vaguely Indian to the average American, but is not. The solution? Just ask any desi what Indian Standard Time is in his native language. Why make up fake words, when there’s gold in reality?
Play
Then Mandvi is interrupted by a phone call, which he answers in a British accent with a customer service line, something like, “Hello, this is Chandler, how may I provide you with excellent service?” At which point he realizes he’s on camera, apologizes to Jon, and sheepishly says “We all do that here.”
Pause
That one gets a 4 out of 10. The call center jokes are getting old. They’re like, sooo December ’06! Seriously though: Yes, there are call centers are in India. We get it. Now can we move on?
Play
Then he talks about burning effigies and Stewart asks him how one can get a Richard Gere effigy. And Mandvi answers by saying, “You take a Josh Hartnett effigy and age it by 30 years.”
Pause
Hmm, we’re starting to see some humour (finally!). The best joke though, was right at the end, when he talks about Al Sharpton: “If you’re darker than a caramel, Reverend Al speaks for you.” Now, that was classic Daily Show fare.
The Bottomline? Now that desis and Bollywood are fairly in the mainstream culture at the moment (what with Desis@Macy’s, etc.), it’s time the American comedians took a little effort into doing some research before cracking jokes about us. I mean, ask your local newsstand dealer, for god’s sake! Ignorance in the US, especially among the lower-level comedians is pretty universal and hard to fight, but I thought Jon Stewart and Aasif Mandvi (Helloo – desi!) at least, could do a little better. Hell, Colbert pulled it off pretty well!
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33 responses so far ↓
1 Arun // Apr 18, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Yeah, at least high profile comedians like Jon Stewart should do some research before cracking “jokes” that reflect their ignorance.
2 The Great Ganesha // Apr 19, 2007 at 9:28 am
you said it, bro!
3 The Great Ganesha // Apr 19, 2007 at 9:42 am
incidentally, thanks for the link-love over at Nirali. i just noticed it, and it’s much appreciated.
i just discovered the mag a few days ago, and it’s already on my feed-reader. great stuff.
4 rxgeek // Apr 19, 2007 at 1:45 pm
excellent analysis!! Really enjoyed reading it….
5 Nikhil // Apr 19, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Um….let me be the first to invite you to take a ride on the Calcutta subway. It’s been operational since 1984 (the first in the country, btw) and works very well. It’s got stern looking Soviet-built trains, but it’s air-conditioned and is still the best way to travel when you consider what’s on the surface.
Ok, now that I’m done showing my Bengali subway pride – that was a really good post. Agreed – those call center jokes are getting really stale. Hell, we’re outsourcing those call centers to Bangladesh, Vietnam and China now.
6 The Great Ganesha // Apr 20, 2007 at 10:22 am
i stand corrected, sir. and the post has been duly updated. long live kolkata, long live cpi(m)…
thanks for the correction.
7 Nikhil // Apr 20, 2007 at 10:42 am
….and cpi(L) – show some love to the Leninists.
8 The Great Ganesha // Apr 20, 2007 at 4:36 pm
of course, of course. and we mustn’t forget the maoists, the trotsky-ites, the stalinists, the tito-ists, and my favorites – the ones who beautifully (well, somewhat beautifully, at any rate) mesh capitalism with communism – the bos-tards, named for famed w. bengal cm jyoti bosu…
9 laxmi // Aug 5, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I think you may have misunderstood what the joke was about regarding “a certain spiritual leader being groped on a subway”. It seemed to me that he was referring to kali as being the one doing the groping, because of the many arms and the protruding tongue (which you gotta admit, would be quite a groping), and the spiritual leader being one of the people who wrote the law restricting the lewd behavior.
10 The Great Ganesha // Aug 6, 2007 at 10:44 am
hey laxmi – what you’re saying makes sense… but why would he call a politician a spiritual leader? or maybe i’m missing some of the background.
11 Vivek // Sep 14, 2007 at 5:25 pm
amazingly in depth analysis considering that we are talking about a funny, fake news show. their first priority is to get laughs. chill guys. jon stewart is the birbal/jester figure here. making a point through humor.
12 The Great Ganesha // Sep 16, 2007 at 11:49 am
vivek – humor is a serious business and don’t ever think otherwise.
13 Kamaniya // Dec 1, 2007 at 5:30 am
Well what a delight to stumble upon your blog while I was googling images of Goddesss Kali! What a great writing style you have, pulled me right in. Wow, is the call center “joke” really the best they could come up with? Boy, I’d say they need to get the Great Ganesha aboard their writing department! So interesting to see supposedly intelligent people perpetuating questionable stereo-types of their own culture.
And as for your comment to Vivek: “humor is a serious business and don’t ever think otherwise.” … well, that is just pure genius!
Gam Gam Gam Ganapataye Namaha!
14 The Great Ganesha // Dec 2, 2007 at 4:39 am
wow. thanks, kamaniya. i’m truly flattered. wish i could take credit for that quote, but it’s from a ’60s us comedian. can’t remember his name.
also, just to be on the safe side you should tell people that i’m not paying you to say all that!
keep coming back. i appreciate it.
15 Veena // Dec 18, 2007 at 12:43 pm
He wasn’t saying Kali is a spiritual leader, he was cracking a joke about someone being groped, and showing kali with her many arms…what gropes women? why yes, arms and hands grope women. That’s why the picture was there, it was not there to illustrate her as a spiritual leader.
Well, I thought it was funny.
16 rohan iyer // Jan 15, 2008 at 4:11 pm
don’t ever try to interfere in other’s culture & religion. By the way, i have seen an indian show in which comedians were making fun of a mad guy. that mad guy was jesus christ & i think that jesus is a homosexual.
17 Natalie // Mar 21, 2008 at 10:34 am
the joke is ABOUT how americans are ignorant to other cultures for instance india… thats the joke….. thats what’s funny
If they used real indian words for instance instead of making it up, then what would be the point of it being on a comedy show, the point is to poke fun at the fact that Americans wouldn’t know the difference and that in most cases they don’t care
being someone who is quite ashamed of that aspect of her country, I thought it was very witty
18 Mikael // Apr 10, 2008 at 11:27 am
First of all, Jon Stewart has never been funny – and he never will be ever again.
Second of all – refer to the beginning of this post.
19 Bhairavi // May 26, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I never agree with you through my whole life.
I am an Indian so only the Indians know weather Kali is the leader. You are a person from other race.Even I am an Singaporerean and I know more about Kali because I am an INDIAN.
20 Bhairavi // May 26, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Stuiped!
Next time you talk bad about Kali I tell you”you will be in this world but your life won’t be in this world!!!”
If you want to go to heaven by me you stay alive or you go and die!
21 Linsey // Sep 9, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I agree with Natalie…I think the majority of people who posted on this site didn’t get the joke…that entire skit is making fun of Americans for their one dimensional stereotypes of Indian people…i thought it was hilarious.
22 Teddy // Sep 15, 2008 at 4:01 pm
perhaps he was making fun of the rough looks of the Spiritual Leader that WAS groped.
He’s a smart man that probably know that Kali is a goddess, seeing as everyone in over the age of 14 in developed western civilization does.
while it wasn’t really funny, it was COMPLETELY over your head.
23 The Great Ganesha // Sep 16, 2008 at 8:49 am
if the average american is ignorant about those things, as you say they are. and the point of the joke is to highlight this ignorance, then how would they even know whether stewart is making up words in a fictitious indian language or is using real words? it seems to me that the joke is pretty much pointless.
24 Peter // Sep 23, 2008 at 3:11 pm
“then how would they even know?”
Well John Stewart’s show is aimed a people that are ‘above average’ in education and general worldliness. The show often makes fun of the ‘ignorant masses’, so you might say they tried to parody American prejudices. Although some Americans probably do simply find the idea of foreign traditions (and gods) funny.
I think Natalie is right, the target audience for this was never ‘Desis’ but Americans, and even the educated ones are more likely to laugh at their own (mis-)conceptions of a country than accurate portrayal.
That said I didn’t think this sketch was terribly funny either.
25 Maa Durga // Sep 30, 2008 at 6:44 am
i agree… when i saw this i was like “whoa the writers should of done some research before writing what they did”.. i laughed b/c a lot of it was wrong but it did bother me that this distortion of the facts would cause people who dont understand Hinduism to learn the wrong facts.
26 Maa Durga // Sep 30, 2008 at 6:47 am
btw i got the whole aspect that is was a joke.. i have a lot of respect for John, its just there are a lot of ignorant ppl out there who will take this as fact.. Billo the clown O’reily is one of those examples of ignorant ppl who would think this is the real deal.
27 Hannahc // Nov 17, 2008 at 11:16 am
Despite how negative she may sound or look she is today considered as the goddess of time and change. Many Hindus call her the mother goddess.So Kali isn’t that bad
28 Hannahc // Nov 17, 2008 at 11:20 am
well,Kali isn’t at her eight armed worst as you said..Kali is today known as the goddess of time and change! so there.
29 atul // Mar 5, 2009 at 4:26 am
i thought an educated person like u will have some sense but u r senseless an dont have brains we indians big time beleive in god an people like u ruin our culture an faith u dont have any right to comment on our culture an our tradition even tough u are asked to
30 Angela // Mar 28, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I think its understood that kail, is not a religous leader, and there are no subways in India. (or subways are not as relivent to india as say, new york) but he can not go into depth about hindu culture for an american audiance. It was a joke dumbed down I don’t think he was making fun of hindu cluture.
31 The Great Ganesha // Mar 30, 2009 at 8:04 am
i am not asking him to go into depth. just a little research into getting things right would piss me off a little less. dumbing it down is fine, getting things wrong is not. and besides – a call center joke? come on! i’m sure even the “dumb americans” are tired of those by now…
32 tyler // Oct 29, 2009 at 12:20 pm
me likey
33 oregonbird // Jun 4, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Not to belabor the obvious, but it didn’t start getting funny to you until it left the subject of India and Indian culture far behind.
Jokes about American actors or African-Americans? Funny. Except for one thing — the use of Al Sharpton made that joke *not* funny. Why? Wrong black leader! Which is exactly the complaint you have regarding the show’s choices for your culture, isn’t it?
Jokes aren’t about accuracy, and they aren’t meant to convey information — just context. The Daily Show attempts to provide something additional, actual content. But again, the content has nothing to do with the incidental examples chosen as a framework.
In other words, you missed the point due to being unable to access the cultural viewpoint used to present the material. You didn’t get the funny, because the writers weren’t Indian. You’d probably object if there had been a fish on a pole, too.
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