Buoy Don’t Float

Asian comedy has yet to blossom. I came to this realization sometime last week. I’ve been glued to the TV lately and a good 70% of that time is spent on comedy central, where I’m watching South Park or Scrubs most of the day. Once in a while, I get lucky and come across The Chapelle Show. But, more commonly in my late night channel surfing endeavors for something worth watching, I usually end up settling for stand-up comedy–or worst yet, Mind of Mencia. And although I get plenty of laughs here and there, I find that the asian jokes are simply uncreative and, I’m sad to say, boring.

Racism is comedy. We’re at a point in development where racist tensions still run high and so it is easy to laugh about racial differences. I have absolutely no problem with this. I laugh easily with the most demeaning jokes about black, mexican, white, or purple people.

Black people love black jokes. Hell, I think its safe to say asian people love asian jokes.

Now, recently, its come to my attention that many comics use their cultural background–basically, their race–as a source of comedy. You’ve got Dave Chapelle, Russell Peters, and other comedic greats waving the flag of their ethnicity. Being Vietnamese, lets focus on Dat Phan.

Dat Phan is not funny. Sure, in a room filled with white people a horrible imitation of a Vietnamese accent might garner a few laughs. But I have this challenge. I want to see Dat Phan make a room full of Vietnamese people laugh. Personally, I find his jokes boring and repetitive. They are jokes that any decent comedian well-versed in Vietnamese culture could come up with the night before. As Vietnamese persons, we’ve all heard the jokes before.  He just happens to be the first one to take what we here our whole life onto the stage.
On the contrary, Dave Chapelle is funny. Russell Peters is funny. (Hopefully, that shouldn’t need explaining and hard evidence, but if you aren’t convinced, watch all three comics back-to-back.)
Now I understand that my analysis is based mostly on personal experience and that my argument lacks much evidence. It’s a blog and I have other commitments. But if you read this and you agree or disagree, let me know your thoughts. I think it would be nice to push asian comedy to a new level: one that actually makes asian people laugh.