Here are excerpts from The Daily Show on Dubya’s South Asia trip:
Sub-Continental Divide: The deal: our scientists will help India build nuclear reactors if their children stop crushing us in spelling bees. We’re trying so hard. I mean, for god’s sake, your names already have, like, 20 letters in them. That’s a huge advantage…
Holy shit, what is that? That’s a potato? India is so kicking our ass!
Obligatory geography lesson for American viewers 
Insight on India and Pakistan: Resident Expert John Hodgman takes a look at India and Pakistan… which are two different countries.
The two countries are obviously quite close. They historically share a fondness for nuclear weapons and field hockey…
Pakistan is a military dictatorship run by General Musharraf, this small, bemedaled man…
… Prime Minister Singh, a brilliant economist, an intellectual, who dresses like he’s about to take a little nap…
When people think of India, they think Gandhi. Gandhi isn’t going to throw a nuke at us, is he? No. He’s not going to because of the nonviolence…
India itself has the second-largest Muslim population in the world… so both nations have a healthy dose of anti-American rage.
But India is a melting pot that has 23 official languages, 500 different styles of field hockey. And its many religious traditions worship some 23,000 deities encompassing some 8Å“ million heads and arms, plus at least one baby with an elephant trunk. So you can see the point that with so many gods, the hate is diluted.
The humor here is so tentative, so defanged, so basic-educational, like the Aishwarya interview on Letterman. Comedians on American TV treat living, breathing desis like they just fell off the back of a UFO, and these specific Gandhi and Hinduism jokes went stale a long time ago. But overall, it’s a pretty cute segment.
potato! isn’t that the yummy jackfruit?
I liked how Hodgman called it the non-violence. That’s almost honorary desi of him.
:potato! isn’t that the yummy jackfruit? He was kidding ofcourse. but i don’t think he knew that was a jackfruit… Continuing the potato joke he said…. Our big potatotes are actually called “small potatoes” over in india.
Finally, some Americans are getting it.
M. Nam
He was kidding ofcourse. but i don’t think he knew that was a jackfruit… Continuing the potato joke he said…. Our big potatotes are actually called “small potatoes” over in india.
ok. just watched the clip. Hodgman’s deadpan delivery is funny.
Manish, I was hoping to beat you to it by posting the clips in the News section – too late!
As an aside, am I the only one getting tired of the Gandhi jokes?!
Forwhatever reason, when you know its a show on comedy central, you don’t get offended. Atleast I felt so.
Nice find and nice post Manish.
I try to stay up and watch the daily show…. whilst pretending Jonny is my b.f…. heh heh….
However, about the spelling bee joke:
These kids aren’t from India – yeah, they are of Indian descent, but it isn’t their (India’s) kids, it our (America’s) kids. These kids that are winning in spelling bees are American born and raised. Yeah, yeah, I know it was a joke, and done for jest, but why does it always come down to if you aren’t white, you aren’t American (or Canadian or what have you)???? I’m not going to boycott my boy Jonny or anything, but this has always been a major peeve of mine! And, I don’t like going to bed mad at my boy!
Everything else was hilarious, of course 🙂
Forwhatever reason, when you know its a show on comedy central, you don’t get offended. Atleast I felt so.
Its not comedy central as much as its Jon. I am sure Manish and most people here would not have found the segment funny if the host was Dennis Miller in place of Jon. Jon means well and is an equal opportunity offender. I also agree with Manish on the basic-educational treatment of subjects from India. This of course is changing with Aneesh Raman (Fox) and Zain Verjee, Ali and Sanjay Gupta (CNN) and other Indians becoming regulars on TV. Btw, am I the only one who thinks that Zain Verjee is incredibly sophisticated and hot.
“Btw, am I the only one who thinks that Zain Verjee is incredibly sophisticated and hot.”
she’s good looking. however, it would help the educational treatment of India if she didn’t keep referring to Varanasi as Vanarasi during the whole story they did on the bombing.:) as for comedy central,they generally don’t make fun out of a derogatory, derisive or bigoted motive. and they are equal opportunity, as pointed out.
Comedy Central is great. There was one Colbert Show episode which made me wince though: ‘Ching Chong Ding Dong,’ even as a parody of a conservative wingnut.
Was kind of cute I thought.
Stewart did say “Prime Minister” Musharraf on first reference though…
I just watched those clips off of CC and as tired as the Gandhi and the many headed gods references are… you just can’t help laugh along with the Jon. I think, like Al Mujahid was saying, it’s all in his delivery and the fact that he manages to exude all this warmth even when he’s poking fun.
It really is too bad that jokes about the Motherland can’t deal with much more than the most basic and the lowest of denominators – Gandhi and Apu-accented many-armed gods are STILL India’s legacy in the popular American imagination. Sigh When can they start making jokes about the really good stuff like say, Bihari politics or Bangalore thugs named “Koli Fayaz”, “Gun Munir” or “Chain Raja” that people will actually get? I guess jokes always hinge on broad-based stereotypes. But still… a girl can always dream.
Damn straight I’ve got a clear advantage on spelling bees by virtue of my name.
I feel like a moody Sean Penn defending Jude Law here;
Very funny bit. But forgive my compromised sense of humor; just wanted to point out that those brown kiddies are Americans, not foreign spelling bee invaders. 🙂 I go to UBC in Van, I remember reading about a tv station here in Canada who did this bit on an ‘invasion’ of students from China to the UBC campus…and for the bit they showed clips of mostly Canadian students, most who were born here and who had lived in Canada for generations.
Does what I’m saying make sense? Hope so, I’m a bit sleep deprived but I hope I got my thought across in a coherent way
(Read w/ desi uncle accent):”We Indians are not bothered about spelling. We have 23 major languages and not one of them has a ‘spelling bee’ contest. Not even one, I say.”
Beeta and metric ang, I felt the same tinge of annoyance about referring to Indian-americans as their kids, as much as I absolutely adore TDS and Jon Stewart. As Manish pointed out, they walk the line, and do occasionally make you wince.
Hey, so, I get what you guys are saying about Stewart’s “India’s kids”-comment, but does anyone here really believe the over-abundance of desis in the spelling bee doesn’t have something to do with being a “child of India?”
Sivaramabalamuralikrishnan Aghilandanayagaswami Iyenggar:
Meh, it’s all phonetic :p
While I absolutely adore the Daily Show, there’s always been this off-color edge to it (vis. race and gender) that I find disappointing at times, and it only became apparent to me during last year’s Emmys why: with one exception, it’s a white penis party.
dhaavak’s postulate – “the overlap between the target markets of two similar organizations determines the separation in the two entities’s operations “.
What this translates to is that
bill O’Reilly == jon Stewart
Walmart == Whole Foods
Greenpeace == NRA
sierra club == oil patch
Pro-life == Pro-choice
hater 1 = hater 2
us == them
see also my little diatribe on “it’s not easy being green”.
This was a great segment, I like The Daily Show in general. Jon Stewart’s delivery as has been mentioned is what sets him apart and makes people more forgiving even if he does come close to the line…or even crosses it.
“Btw, am I the only one who thinks that Zain Verjee is incredibly sophisticated and hot.”
I’d give her the sophisticated but I don’t think she’s hot. There’s a Indo-Canadian news/weather girl in Toronto called Nalini Sharma. I find her incredibly hot and sophisticated, I believe she’s married and even talks about her son (who’s school age) in those parts where the presenters start talking to each other but she looks so youthful and she’s incredibly attractive.
Sorry dhaavak, I’m lost. Can you please tell me how that relates to what I said?
Stupid question but can someone tell me why Bush is called ‘Dubya?’
Because his middle initial is the 23rd letter of the English alphabet, and where he comes from it happens to be two syllables long.
Thanks madurai but I still don’t get it? I am particularly slow today…sorry
Msichana,
The letter “W” is sometimes pronounced as “Dubya” by many people from the southern half of the US.
“W” is the current US President’s middle initial.
Thanks Jai…I finally get it.
msichana,
apologies!