Day 21: I'm one of *those* ethnicities. I'm also Harry Houdini.

This post is brought to you by Futurama: Season 6, specifically this episode written by another idiot who thinks stereotypes = humor oh, I meant Patric M. Verrone. 

I've taken to watching Futurama Season 6 - an addiction I developed thanks to Daisy (who no longer blogs).
The show used to be interesting for its take on, among other things, Othering. Take captain Turanga Leela for instance - female, cyclops and one of the mutant sewer people. There's a good message there, right?

Wrong, apparently.
Because its forward-thinking take on othering has less depth than, oh, let's see, the threads on a car tire that's been used for twenty years.

I'm talking of course, of Futurama's "eyePhone" episode.
It started out fairly well - taking jabs at consumerism, internet phenomena and social networking.
See this clip:

Funny, right?

Except, not really.
This episode more than once, singles out desi communities in the roughest of stereotypes.

Watch closer.
You're one of those ethnicities that knows about technology, right?
Um, this is not really the compliment that it sounds like.
I'm that ethnicity Patric Verrone. And I'm A LITERATURE GEEK. I'm by no means a Technology Geek.

What? I'm over-reacting you say?
No, I'm not.
This line of comedy is problematic for two reasons.
First, it perpetuates a stereotype, and not even a funny one at that. Second, it sets the tone for conversations in real life.
(I wish more producers of television shows really understood how true this is.)
Like yesterday.
My very white, very bald, more-or-less friendly neighbor caught me trudging home from school and asked if I or my husband could help him fix his internet router.
When I explained that we'd gotten help with our own from the internet service provider, he said (well-meaningly, of course): "Oh, I'll ask the other Indian guys here then."

This is also problematic because I don't want my identity to be reduced to one aspect of one thing that some people, who are sometimes desi can do, and do well. This is like my associating every white person with George Bush, or *ahem* Michael Jackson.
It is incorrect. And stupid. Not funny, stupid.

II
Now, look at this apparently self-depreciating commentary on the first world taking responsibility for ewaste.

This bit is terribly written. It focuses less on the commentary and more on the general "shock-value" of Third World poverty. If that's not a barely veiled reference to Slumdog-Millionaire*, I don't know what is.

This is a reaction I expect out of my freshman (who, incidentally have called Bharati Mukherjee that weird Indian Chick with a weird name). But coming from a popular television show, ugh! This is juvenile.

(As an aside a.b., this is the other reason that I think Ted Women is a positive influence. People need to see the non-hyped images of women, indeed of people, doing real work in the real (third) world.)

III

And..... my final bugaboo with the show is this little dialog: 

Leela (speaking of a two-faced goat that eats at one end and vomits at the other) : What do you feed him?

Bender: What comes out one end we feed to the other. Also, Indian food.

Such scathing wit! Oh look everyone, it's Noel Coward.

No, no. Don't get me wrong.

There's no reason everyone should like Indian food. 

Indian food can be an invasion on the senses and can be, um, reeky.

But really, this is disappointing. 

For a show that used to have a decent take on othering, this sucks. 

----

Really, Patric Verrone seems to have used this episode as an outlet for some really personal issues. 

Why didn't anyone tell me that's what good comedy was about?

Oh wait, because it isn't.

I've skimmed through a few sites and while several people have mentioned the censorship of the last scene in the episode, nobody seems to talk about these incredibly insulting racial slurs in the episode.
I'm shocked.
And disappointed.
And, oh yeah Fucking Tired of Being Treated As A Generic Stereotype.

*This is a complete post in itself. Among other things, I've been asked if India is really like that. I've taken to saying yes, we all swim in shit and have to leave the country so we can get a bar of soap.