Everyone knows that men can’t drive and that Latinas are cool-tempered to the point of frigidity.
Of course, these aren’t stereotypes associated with either group. A joke based on the premise that men are poor drivers would make little sense, because it references a broadly held belief which does not exist.
If this all sounds a little obvious: Yes.
Yet the Saturday Night Live writers have, in their quest to avoid being funny at a non-white group’s expense, failed to understand this basic concept.
Comedian Aziz Ansari appeared on SNL this Saturday as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Kash Patel.
“You guys should not be reporting the lies and the gossip. You should be reporting on the historic nature of my appointment,” Ansari-as-Patel briefs the audience.
“I am a trailblazer. I’m the first Indian person to suck at their job.”
“Everyone says Indian people are smart, hardworking, incredibly intelligent. I’ve proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that we can be just as incapable and incompetent as the whites.”
Certainly, there’s an idea that East Asians (the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in particular) are good at math or strive for perfection in school. Indians, and their American-born children, probably do share in some of that striver-culture.
Think of Vivek Ramaswamy’s Christmas Eve post instructing Americans how to fix their culture: Stop venerating prom queens and jocks, start venerating nerds, put your kid in intensive academic extracurriculars, etc.
But I grant that a non-insignificant portion of Americans probably find value in Ramaswamy’s prescriptions.
There are other, even less flattering stereotypes commonly associated with India and Indians. A YouTube video exhibiting India’s “MOST UNHYGIENIC [sic]” street food has over half a million views. This is a genre.
Then, there are the stories of female tourists being raped and/or brutalized while on vacation in India.
And if you’ve perused X in the past two years, you’re likely familiar with other accusations lobbed at Indians — take a look at the replies under this clip of Ansari on SNL for a sample of typical remarks.
That’s all to say: The American perception of Indians is not universally positive. It’s a mixed bag. It is okay — and possibly even funny — to acknowledge that fact.
But we don’t come to SNL to laugh. We come to SNL for moral instruction.
Ansari himself seems aware that there are negative stereotypes associated with Indians. He was a vocal critic of “The Simpsons’” Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. Apu is a convenience store owner. He is hard-working, but sometimes manipulates and scams his customers. He was, for some time, an illegal migrant.
But it appears the SNL writers have no desire to invoke negative stereotypes about non-whites, even for the sake of a joke.
Self-aggrandizement can be funny, even charming, when it’s done in a self-aware manner. SNL disguises self-aggrandizement as self-deprecation.
It’s a little like a woman with brown hair saying: “I know that everyone thinks women with brown hair are really smart and virtuous and good-looking, but honestly, on the inside, I’m more like one of you stupid and immoral blondes.”
Not to mention, SNL’s obligatory jab at the incompetence of “the whites” (another stereotype which, so far as I’m aware, does not really exist).
The late Norm Macdonald was the master of the stereotype joke.
For example: