A couple of weeks ago, Fox Television premiered a new reality comedy show "Banzai," a British imitation of popular Japanese game shows featuring practical jokes, silly stunts and experiments with a chance for audiences to place an interactive betting on their outcomes during the show. Since the show aired, many Asian American organizations and civil activist groups have protested against the show's condescending nature towards the Asian ethnicity, inspiring a current debate on whether the show is a demeaning Asian stereotype or just a goofy, harmless comedy. Here are two opinion columns presented over this current debate:


1) Degrading Depiction of Asians Does Not Deserve a Place on Prime-Time TV:

As an Asian American, I was very much offended by the new Fox Television comedy show "Banzai," and its skewed depiction of Asians as heavy accented and nerdy dressed "goof-offs." This imitation version of the popular Japanese game shows and its Asian characters have successfully secured a prime time spot on Sundays for a visitation right to American living rooms across the nation. But, the show's portrayal of the Asian characters as oddly weird foreigners, out of place from the mainstream American culture has inevitably made millions of other Asian Americans watching the show feel quite uncomfortable in their seats.

The image of Asians portrayed on the show is either immensely exaggerated or misrepresented. Let's take the characters' accent for instance. The most recognized slogans on the show, "place your bets now," and "betting over," are spoken in a distortedly heavy accent so many times throughout the show that I, for one, got sick of hearing them by the end of the show. Every time those slogans blared, it was an opportunity for those people with preconception that Asians can't speak English to be affirmed and reaffirmed of their preconception. And, what about those blinking Asian-looking subtitles that were neither Japanese nor Chinese? They seemed to have been systematically implemented as a psychological visual aid to drive home that message to such viewers. Sure, Asians do have accents as any other ethnic Americans do, but come on, who really speaks like Mr. Banzai?

The outward appearance of the characters on the show was also a degrading misrepresentation of the way Asian Americans dress and carry themselves. The fact that just about every Asian male on that show, with an exception for Mr. Banzai, the host of the show (who incidentally looks like a monk dressed in a robe), wears thick glasses, a tight corduroy jacket, and a nerdy looking tie seems to insinuate that Asian men are nerds who cannot assimilate into the popular culture. How about the characters' demeanor then? The characters perform weird "scientific" experiments, such as "squirrel fishing", shake hands with Hollywood movie stars just to see how long they can shake hands with them, and conduct one-line interviews with rock'n roll stars just to see how long they can last. Not so dignifying to say the least.

It's not that I cannot take the humor in the Asian accent or the stupid looking suit. I can laugh at the joke as long as it stays a "joke." But, the makers of "Banzai" have pushed the show to an extreme end of the stereotyping spectrum where the joke is no longer a "joke," but only mockery and derision. Especially in a culture where a positive image of Asians is a rare treat, "Banzai" tips the balance way over to one side of an ethnic depiction. I am particularly concerned that the children and young adults of Asian background watching the show and its demeaning images of their own ethnic group will come to perceive themselves as lesser or inferior in the absence of positive Asian American role models on TV. All in all, the show's condescending depiction of Asians just does not get my betting in favor of the show.


2) Hypersensitive Asians Need to Take a Joke:

I wasn't surprised by the outrage surrounding Fox's new reality show Banzai. As an Asian American who found it hilarious, it seems that I am in the minority. Even while I was giggling I knew that Asian American (AA) organizations and watchdog groups would be all over it. Asian actors with thick accents and the occasional Kung-Fu move tossed in for good measure. Blatant disregard and confusion between Japanese and Chinese. Blinding graphics and bizarre betting competitions. In short, it's the perfect formula for an Asian American rights feeding frenzy.

These days it seems to me that Asian American organizations and watchdog groups are totally "missing the plot." They get their panties in a twist over just about anything and are looking for any excuse to join the mad dash for the politically correct bandwagon. Sometimes they are justified but I often sense that their rage is a knee jerk reaction that only displays their inability to see beyond the construct of AA protocol. What bothers me is that while they claim to promote diversity, they often tend to have a lopsided view of the world wherein the Asian is always the victim by virtue of race and every argument is colored to suit their agenda. No offense, but I think this is a case of hypersensitivity and a lapse of cross cultural communication. Banzai is a British parody of Japanese game shows and I found it to be infused with British and Japanese humor as well as the current irreverent sense of American humor that has been the trend in pop culture. It's a counter-culture hodge-podge that is so completely deranged that you would have to be mentally challenged to take it seriously.

As for reinforcing negative stereotypes of Asians, lets give the viewer a little credit and not assume they are too stupid to understand that Lady One Question and Mr. Shake Hands Man are make believe caricatures and not real representations of Asians. The characters and stunts are so over-the-top that taking them seriously is more absurd than allowing yourself to laugh at them. The self-righteous indignation of many of these AA groups projects an equally if not more offensive image of Asian Americans as militant, hypersensitive and completely devoid of any sense of humor. Sorry but I find myself cringing at many so-called "acceptable" depictions of AA's in the news. That infamous photo of that girl with her face twisted in rage, protesting the Abercrombie & Fitch fiasco did much more damage to the popular perception of AA's than Mr. Banzai ever could.

If you want to get angry about racial stereotypes it's your prerogative but don't indiscriminately attack anything that deviates from Asian American convention. If you are going to charge ignorance, wouldn't it make more sense to go to the source of the problem and spend your energy promoting Asian Studies, race-relations and cross-cultural education in schools? If you think that kids will buy into the stereotypes they see on TV, teach them to have a more global view of the world and give them critical thinking skills but don't take away their sense of humor.


Poll Question: Do you think the new Fox reality show "Banzai" is a degrading stereotype or a harmless comedy? PLACE THE BETS NOW.