Why I Hate Modern Family
I really don't understand how this TV show has been so critically and commercially acclaimed. It boggles my mind, especially as I was ready to despise the show before watching it. I'd read this article about an episode that belittled Nigerians as "grinning, dumb Africans"...a great piece which goes into depth about the "hilarious" racism and other chauvinism, and the clips provided made my blood boil.
I'm sure some defenders might say I'm missing the context since I didn't see the entire episode, and in fact, had never watched any previously. However, there's no context in which this is funny, rather than simply mean-spirited at best. One of the best things about the U.S. is our freedom of speech, and I'm glad to use mine to chime in about how obnoxious Modern Family is. If I wasn't such a fan of the First Amendment, I might approve banning something as pathetic as this.
However, I try to keep an open mind, so when a couple of my friends, who love this show, wanted to show me a "funny" Bad Asian Driver episode, and I learned that at least one of the series' writer/producers was Asian-American Elaine Ko, I wondered how bad could it be?
In "Fears", the couple of blatant caricatures of Euro-American gay men, who have adopted an awful Asian daughter stereotype (if she were 18 years old or more, she would meet the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder, aka a sociopath) had their Asian-American pediatrician (Suzy Nakamura) over for dinner.
At one point, she discusses how she triumphed over her parents by refusing to follow traditional roles for Japanese women as exclusively wives and mothers. Series creator Steve Levitan, even with a token Chinese-American on staff, didn't realize that another Asian-American stereotype is for Asians to solely work in "professional" fields such as medicine, law or engineering--truly clueless. But, at any rate, after hitting that point over the head, as she begins her drive back home, she backs up into a garbage can. Funny? Not so much.
Since I wasn't so keen on the show already, I wondered if I was letting prejudice intrude unfairly. Was I a "special snowflake," the kind we read of in internet space, especially as Modern Family is noted to be so very"progressive" as well as Emmy-winning?
For instance, if I found out that Joss Whedon wrote this Asian episode, would I find it funny and not offensive? After thinking about it, I'd probably give Joss Whedon the benefit of the doubt, or a pass this time, but would wonder what is the poor guy thinking in writing such dreck? Has he lost all of his writing skills overnight? (My cat Emmy, portrait in blog masthead above, probably would've slept comfortably through these episodes, if she didn't choose to yowl at the screen.)
On the other hand, I do find Bad Asian Driver jokes funny if delivered well in interesting ways, such as Wanda Sykes' joke about Tiger Woods crashing his car. Sykes' delivery was brilliant and absolutely hysterical, as she pokes fun at stereotypes (and inept "news coverage"). Ali Wong's Asian jokes are also equally humorous, in part because she knows what's she's talking about, in her Netflix Special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra.
Perhaps the "silver lining in the cloud" is that at least I only had to suffer through two complete episodes to know that Modern Family is still atrocious, since my friends then showed me another episode featuring the Asian daughter (that's how I came to find out that she has Antisocial Personality disorder).
One episode of Modern Family is one episode too many. Even so, if this episode had been in any way actually good, I might've had to watch a few more to fairly assess that Modern Family is dreadful. It was a relief that the episode "Fears" was as bad as I suspected it would be.
My Mario Character
Since I found Super Mario Odyssey gameplay quite compelling, I occasionally Google the video game to watch more clips. Unfortunately, one of my Google searches led to the controversy that Nintendo may have incorporated yet another culturally insensitive insult with "Sombrero Mario" in their upcoming game.
I can't speak for the Mexican community, but the name "Sombrero Mario" was enough to make me cringe, given the history of Nintendo and the already unfortunate stereotyped depiction of Italians in Mario and Luigi themselves. I'm expecting the worst. As an Asian-American woman, if Mario was "Rice Hat Mario," I wouldn't find this as honoring my heritage.
Again, comments ran to how "special snowflakes" are ruining video games by being upset needlessly over Nintendo's possible negative depiction of Mexicans. Even the writers of these articles themselves seem to feel that any controversy is overstating the case. This is one of the first articles that comes up on Google where the writers find any outrage ridiculous.
I've decided, then, to make my own Mario Character who might go over quite well with the Asian population (and any who aren't charmed just have to be Wrong, sarcasm). His name is Ching-Chong, and his brother is Ching-Chang. His skin color is yellow, with prominent buck-teeth, complete with Asian Rice Hat, pocket calculator, and also an abacus. It's important to conflate Asian cultures (since we're all the "same"), so he's wearing a Karategi (i.e. karate uniform). When he jumps, he says "Ah so, ah so."
The story behind this set of platform games is that Princess Ming is kidnapped by Bai-Luo who forces her to be a "Comfort Woman". Our intrepid hero, Ching-Chong, the Electrical Engineer, needs to save her.
In addition to Ching-Chong's platform games, there's Ching-Chong Kart. Here, I program the analog sticks to be inverted, ranging anywhere between 1 to 10 seconds in randomized manner. By not knowing when the sticks will invert, it's very easy to crash the Kart. Ching-Chong is the only character that has this control scheme, while the other characters have pin-point precise control over the steering wheel. Therefore, the only Asian driver is easily the most accident-prone one of the game.
I think even if this were done in a satirical manner, the bad jokes and, say, offhanded references to the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking would get old very fast. If you really and truly want to honor a community, its crucial to speak to members of that community and run your ideas by them.
I don't think it costs a lot of time and effort to do that, and certainly, a multi-billion dollar corporation such as Nintendo can easily afford to do so. However, I've a strong sense that Nintendo did not do that and just thought it was "cute" to put Mario in a 1940s American cartoon-style Mexican outfit.
New XBox One Elite Controller
Fortunately I had a warranty and was able to get a full refund on the controller. I learned that due to the build-quality issues of the old model, Microsoft released a new one, and the new Elite controller surprisingly is even better. The LB and RB buttons are now so easy to press that you only need light pressure. Further, you can press these buttons with the same light pressure from any angle, any location that you feel comfortable. I like pressing at the very edge, when with the regular XBox One and the old Elite models, you had to press a bit harder from a certain angle.
I'm so happy with this controller, since I can kill enemies with considerably less effort, as I can press the RB (i.e. R1 for Sony) hit button so quickly. It amazes me that it's made the gameplay significantly easier and more enjoyable.
I also hope that this new version holds up considerably better than the old one did.
Another thing I would like to see improved in this controller: the face buttons to be color-coded, so X will be blue and so forth, as opposed to the current situation where all the buttons are gray.
The How of Happiness Review
I really don't understand how this TV show has been so critically and commercially acclaimed. It boggles my mind, especially as I was ready to despise the show before watching it. I'd read this article about an episode that belittled Nigerians as "grinning, dumb Africans"...a great piece which goes into depth about the "hilarious" racism and other chauvinism, and the clips provided made my blood boil.
I'm sure some defenders might say I'm missing the context since I didn't see the entire episode, and in fact, had never watched any previously. However, there's no context in which this is funny, rather than simply mean-spirited at best. One of the best things about the U.S. is our freedom of speech, and I'm glad to use mine to chime in about how obnoxious Modern Family is. If I wasn't such a fan of the First Amendment, I might approve banning something as pathetic as this.
However, I try to keep an open mind, so when a couple of my friends, who love this show, wanted to show me a "funny" Bad Asian Driver episode, and I learned that at least one of the series' writer/producers was Asian-American Elaine Ko, I wondered how bad could it be?
In "Fears", the couple of blatant caricatures of Euro-American gay men, who have adopted an awful Asian daughter stereotype (if she were 18 years old or more, she would meet the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder, aka a sociopath) had their Asian-American pediatrician (Suzy Nakamura) over for dinner.
At one point, she discusses how she triumphed over her parents by refusing to follow traditional roles for Japanese women as exclusively wives and mothers. Series creator Steve Levitan, even with a token Chinese-American on staff, didn't realize that another Asian-American stereotype is for Asians to solely work in "professional" fields such as medicine, law or engineering--truly clueless. But, at any rate, after hitting that point over the head, as she begins her drive back home, she backs up into a garbage can. Funny? Not so much.
Since I wasn't so keen on the show already, I wondered if I was letting prejudice intrude unfairly. Was I a "special snowflake," the kind we read of in internet space, especially as Modern Family is noted to be so very"progressive" as well as Emmy-winning?
For instance, if I found out that Joss Whedon wrote this Asian episode, would I find it funny and not offensive? After thinking about it, I'd probably give Joss Whedon the benefit of the doubt, or a pass this time, but would wonder what is the poor guy thinking in writing such dreck? Has he lost all of his writing skills overnight? (My cat Emmy, portrait in blog masthead above, probably would've slept comfortably through these episodes, if she didn't choose to yowl at the screen.)
On the other hand, I do find Bad Asian Driver jokes funny if delivered well in interesting ways, such as Wanda Sykes' joke about Tiger Woods crashing his car. Sykes' delivery was brilliant and absolutely hysterical, as she pokes fun at stereotypes (and inept "news coverage"). Ali Wong's Asian jokes are also equally humorous, in part because she knows what's she's talking about, in her Netflix Special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra.
Perhaps the "silver lining in the cloud" is that at least I only had to suffer through two complete episodes to know that Modern Family is still atrocious, since my friends then showed me another episode featuring the Asian daughter (that's how I came to find out that she has Antisocial Personality disorder).
One episode of Modern Family is one episode too many. Even so, if this episode had been in any way actually good, I might've had to watch a few more to fairly assess that Modern Family is dreadful. It was a relief that the episode "Fears" was as bad as I suspected it would be.
My Mario Character
Since I found Super Mario Odyssey gameplay quite compelling, I occasionally Google the video game to watch more clips. Unfortunately, one of my Google searches led to the controversy that Nintendo may have incorporated yet another culturally insensitive insult with "Sombrero Mario" in their upcoming game.
I can't speak for the Mexican community, but the name "Sombrero Mario" was enough to make me cringe, given the history of Nintendo and the already unfortunate stereotyped depiction of Italians in Mario and Luigi themselves. I'm expecting the worst. As an Asian-American woman, if Mario was "Rice Hat Mario," I wouldn't find this as honoring my heritage.
Again, comments ran to how "special snowflakes" are ruining video games by being upset needlessly over Nintendo's possible negative depiction of Mexicans. Even the writers of these articles themselves seem to feel that any controversy is overstating the case. This is one of the first articles that comes up on Google where the writers find any outrage ridiculous.
I've decided, then, to make my own Mario Character who might go over quite well with the Asian population (and any who aren't charmed just have to be Wrong, sarcasm). His name is Ching-Chong, and his brother is Ching-Chang. His skin color is yellow, with prominent buck-teeth, complete with Asian Rice Hat, pocket calculator, and also an abacus. It's important to conflate Asian cultures (since we're all the "same"), so he's wearing a Karategi (i.e. karate uniform). When he jumps, he says "Ah so, ah so."
The story behind this set of platform games is that Princess Ming is kidnapped by Bai-Luo who forces her to be a "Comfort Woman". Our intrepid hero, Ching-Chong, the Electrical Engineer, needs to save her.
In addition to Ching-Chong's platform games, there's Ching-Chong Kart. Here, I program the analog sticks to be inverted, ranging anywhere between 1 to 10 seconds in randomized manner. By not knowing when the sticks will invert, it's very easy to crash the Kart. Ching-Chong is the only character that has this control scheme, while the other characters have pin-point precise control over the steering wheel. Therefore, the only Asian driver is easily the most accident-prone one of the game.
I think even if this were done in a satirical manner, the bad jokes and, say, offhanded references to the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking would get old very fast. If you really and truly want to honor a community, its crucial to speak to members of that community and run your ideas by them.
I don't think it costs a lot of time and effort to do that, and certainly, a multi-billion dollar corporation such as Nintendo can easily afford to do so. However, I've a strong sense that Nintendo did not do that and just thought it was "cute" to put Mario in a 1940s American cartoon-style Mexican outfit.
New XBox One Elite Controller
Fortunately I had a warranty and was able to get a full refund on the controller. I learned that due to the build-quality issues of the old model, Microsoft released a new one, and the new Elite controller surprisingly is even better. The LB and RB buttons are now so easy to press that you only need light pressure. Further, you can press these buttons with the same light pressure from any angle, any location that you feel comfortable. I like pressing at the very edge, when with the regular XBox One and the old Elite models, you had to press a bit harder from a certain angle.
I'm so happy with this controller, since I can kill enemies with considerably less effort, as I can press the RB (i.e. R1 for Sony) hit button so quickly. It amazes me that it's made the gameplay significantly easier and more enjoyable.
I also hope that this new version holds up considerably better than the old one did.
Another thing I would like to see improved in this controller: the face buttons to be color-coded, so X will be blue and so forth, as opposed to the current situation where all the buttons are gray.
The How of Happiness Review
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