Check out this picture. It is the cast of Beauty and the Geek 3 which debuts in January (here is a background on the series):
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Is that Matisyahu with the white cap? |
The CW (which I guess someone must still be watching) has decided to demonstrate that it is a network of diversity by featuring THREE Asian brothers in ONE reality show. This is unprecedented. We’ve now had a number of Asian Americans in reality shows but here three out of the eight men (competing for the mostly white women who are supposedly out-of-their-league) are Asian. What the F*ck? Can I get a “what what?” I mean, cynic that I am I always believed that the proper formula for a sexually charged reality show (The Real World being the paradigm) was to throw sex-crazed alcoholic white people together with angry black people and then add a homosexual in the mix to take the edge off. How do Asians fit in to that choreography? Oh wait…I get it. This is a show about Geeks. The guy in the middle with the glasses and red vest, that’s Sanjay from Westminster, California.
The producing team of Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg (“Punk’d”) recruited an all-new group of eight gorgeous but academically impaired women and eight brilliant but socially challenged men for the third installment to test intellect and social skills. This cycle will remain true to the series’ format — pairing eight gorgeous but academically impaired women with eight brilliant but socially challenged men to test intellect and social skills — for a chance to win a $250,000 grand prize. [Link]
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Sanjay, if you are listening then call up Ankur from Season 2 for some advice. And let’s all be grateful for the CW for featuring real Asian men. If I was an executive there I would have picked 8 nerdy women and 8 dumb-as-dirt but socially adept men (and three of them would be Asian). But alas, I’m not the TV exec type. I’ll just continue to pick nerdy South Asian women to blog for SM to compensate.
Amen, brother. Nerds are hot 😉
that picture is aggressively heteronormative.
I’ll be sure to tune in to “White Women Are Stupid” and check it out.
And yes, yes I see her but come on it ruins the joke…
Oye vey Abhi you’ll do anything to get a picture of scantily clad women up there. Admit it you are a little jealous you aren’t Sanjay from Westminister.
Is this some Nerd mantra Ennis? *ducking
If young Sanjay is taking any cues from past CW South Asians (this means you Anchal from America’s Next Top Model Cycle 7), then he will initally wow us with his stunningly exotic
looksbrains, get our hopes up when he doesn’t get kicked off in the first 5 episodes, and then crash and burn when his typically South Asian lack of self-confidence gets the better of him. In any case, his parents must be proud.P.S. Am I wrong for proposing an Asian woman join the beauties at one point or another? Or are we just not “reality TV dumb” enough?
HELL YES! I give good nerd. Or, more accurately, I give good extrovert while my inner nerd snorts and then adjusts her glasses. 😉
Nerds are the new [insert something here].
indeed – a show about geeks would make no sense unless 1/3 of the cast was Asian. that’s why there are no Asian hotties among the ladies – easy to find hot asian chicks, nearly impossible to find hot AND academically-impaired asian chicks.
Gangstas?
Word. Nerds Represent.
J. mehta:nearly impossible to find hot AND academically-impaired asian chicks.
But they need not fear.
Just what I was looking for…
heh… Weird Al Yankovic has his say on the subject…
kids on the block?
wtf indeed. If I have learned anything white women aren’t the ones out of my reach its the ones of my own race that are out of reach.
i hear you man. what’s your story?
brown is the new black
dhilbur shikdoom, shikdoom…………..dhibur, shikdoom
Wow – 2 Indians guys featured on Beauty and the Geek that has been on for only 3 seasons, yet after a dozen seasons, no Indian male doctor on ER. Reality TV rules!
Nerds are the new.
New girls on the block
[navy blue of India]
kavita, i LOVE that quote! i use it all the time and people look so confused…sigh. 🙂
nerds are the new sexy 🙂
Nerds are the new [insert something here].
Surds, of course.
nerd is the new mard .
I just spent a minute trying to write an appropriate response to this, which included an attempt at developing a “sad yeti” emoticon [e.g. {8:(} ]. I hear you too.
oh you should have gone to my high school… we were well stocked… regardless of my anecdotal, this screams model minority myth doesn’t it?
i could go off on this for a while, but this has been discussed a lot before. i was going to search for some of those discussions but i lost my momentum now… whoops 🙂
The more the merrier.. here is a list from my recent memory
Actor | Show | Plays as | Link
Ravi Kapoor | Crossing Jordan(NBC) | Dr. Mahesh “Bug” | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0438500 Parminder Nagra | ER(NBC) | Dr. Neela Rasgotra | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619406 Sendhil Ramamurthy | Heroes(NBC) | Mohinder Suresh | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0707983 Lakshmi Manchu | Las Vegas(NBC) | Sarasvati Kumar | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1711203 Padma Lakshmi | Host (Food Network) | Herself | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0482290 Ajay Naidu | Random Shows | Desi/Middle Eastern | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619651 Mindy Kaling | The Office(NBC) | Kelly Kapoor | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0671980 Ajay Mehta | Random Shows | Desi roles | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576538 Raj Bhakta | The Apprentice(NBC) | Himself | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1722404
i’m watching this show right now… it’s very painful. they need to call this show “ditzes and the geeks”. the geeks are at least aware and almost apologetic for their absence of coolness and tact. the “beauties” are so incredibly stupid and they think it is funny. nice study in contrast.
ankur is a nut and an ego maniac! he was rambling about his insane mit gpa and his acceptance into berkeley’s ph.d program (hiss). this guy’s all about his biodata and had the nuts to say “i’ve accomplished so much in my life already, it’s hard to pinpoint the most significant thing i’ve done” followed by his GPA musings followed by “get someone who’s done what i have and then we’ll talk”. gag
HEY! hey, now!!!! If I didn’t know better, I’d think that based on being the last SM female guest blogger picked by Abhi that I was just called NERDY! humph…
BTW, I LOVE this show- it’s not at all competition driven- well it is, but it’s more of a sidestory. It’s about seeing what happens when smart folks have to work with pretty folks.
This reminds me of the time I tried out for the Real World a couple years ago in DC. As a desi woman, I didn’t have a shot. They took us into a room in groups of 10 and made us talk. The nerd I am, the conversation went to politics (was wearing a political T-shirt that day), and I spent most of the time observing the 18-24 yr old youth. It was cool – like a focus group on youth politics.
Ok. sigh. I am nerdy. Needless to say, I wasn’t picked to be on the Real World.
no story…well maybe its just not a story for the web. 🙂
Azher – Bloody oath.
You are not alone mate.
After heaps of rejections from desi sheilas I go with the white bread for now.
To paraphrase the pollies – how about a fair go for regular desi blokes?
The name Sanjay will make all the panties drop. If he want the panties to drop any faster then I hope the last name is Patel. Anybody watches HEROES here? What the hell kinda name is Sanjob?
You’re lucky nerdy is so “hott” then, huh?
In terms of nerds being the new ‘sexy’ or ‘cool’, I would have to say Ugly Betty and Napolean Dynamite are prime examples of mainstream media portraying ‘nerds’ or ‘geeks’ in a different light. Viewers associate with them, they care about ‘what they’ll do next.’ That’s some momentum in a much wanted direction ;).
As for nerds being sexy, I find myself attracted to ‘nerdy’ guys. They tend to be sensitive and aware – good traits for lovers.
But sorry boys, I am taken…
you tease!
Nerds are the new gangstas. Taj from Van Wilder has his own sequel coming out soon Rise of the Taj. “I want to take it through the car vash and vax that shit..baby”
That’s been true for at least 10 years though.
I mean honestly, the last good “National Lampoon” film starred Chevy Chase (!!), and the Onion has been wiping the floor with their magazine since the early 90s too.
Bidismoker, “It’s not just the excessive pandering by Mr. Modi aka Kal Penn in hopes of furthering his career,” Mr.Modi’s sole responsibility, esp, in the nascent stage of his career in this most fickle of industry, is solely to his pocketbook and his employer. Not to the greater Desi community.
hey, if i’m hung like a moose, it doesnt mean i have to be a porn star. 🙂
i love the guy – because of harold and kumar – it brings a tear to my eye to remember my asiian buddy (doing a snarl like colbert) and the good times we had together… oh.. down to the midnight cravings we had for eating at this nasty ass greasy diner… and strangely enough… uncle ben’s wild rice with asparagus soup… it brings a tear to my eye.
and fart jokes, and beavis and butthead, and steempy, and … -sigh-… we are all kumar … or harold. i dont care.
You seem to believe that just cause he’s brown he has to have some kind of self sacrificing obligation to his brown community. Lets get real.
btw – that pic up there – that’s hurting my eyes – i just keep thinking of large hocks of ham hanging from a cleaver. somebody post a new article soon… pliss.
hairy d
“hey, if i’m hung like a moose, it doesnt mean i have to be a porn star. :-)”
No, you don’t. But, If you did take the path of my idol, Ron Jeremy, who are we to question.
i’m hung like a moose
Srini, how could you leave out my man naveen?
Naveen Andress // Lost(ABC) // Sayid Jarrah // http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004710/
Tazzy grrl, all the bloggers here, guests or permanents, are nerdy – and nerdy is hella sexy, even on Mr. Libertarian (but he’s a handsome devil, and that helps him on whatever righty leanings the nerdy schitck don’t cover).
Even the socially awkward nerds are sexy when they can own the Ken-doll-frat-boy in something that is not related to beer pong or chasing ass. Poor things, though, they don’t know how to react even when you are impressed by them. I’d go out with even the socially awkward desi nerds if my bubbly interest didn’t scare them so much that they would go the extra mile just to avoid me 🙂
While this show gets pretty rife with model minority concerns, I actually think it’s fairly interesting. I mean, statistically people are more attracted to, and more willing to work with, people they find physically attractive than people who are necessarily smart/qualified [cite: Blink]. Maybe I am a sucker for editing, but I think some of the reactions of the “beauties” as they go through the show are pretty meaningful. How many times do you watch one of those women break down and talk about how they are superficial and would never have associated with their geek-partner in the real world.. but now, maybe they’ll give it a shot.
Again, sucker for the editing, but there is some nice commentary there. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they put “hot” geeks with “hot” beauties. Or if they did a role reversal? (nerdy women and good looking men) This show also always makes me wonder about the gender politics behind it, but I digress.
Im a socially ackward desi nerd, and even i dont head for the hills like that. I think i used to in my youth,but I have grown a bit since then.