Here are some thoughts about Russell Peters, who I presume needs no introduction; Sepia Mutiny has had many posts on him over the years, and you’ll find tons of his stuff up at YouTube. (Also, see Manish’s recent post on Peters’ show in Bombay from earlier this spring. I saw him last night in Philadelphia.)
At his best, Russell Peters airs out the intra-community dirty laundry. He plays with the mixture of embarrassment and pride that tends to circulate amongst members of various ethnic groups, especially immigrant ethnic groups. While many people might feel isolated within a particular ethnic niche, Russell Peters manages to draw people out, and create a certain amount of cross-ethnic solidarity.
Because he has a good deal of “insider” knowledge about Desis, the Chinese, Jamaicans, Arabs, and Persians, Peters can usually pull off humor that works with ethnic stereotypes. It also helps that he has a good ear for accents, and usually sets up his jokes with shout-outs to members of the audience: “You in the first row, are you Chinese? [Yes] What’s your name? [Tim] Tim, what’s your real name? Anyway, thanks for coming out tonight… You know, the thing about Chinese people is…”
Of course, all of that doesn’t quite work the same way when Peters makes deaf jokes, as he did for quite some time at his show last night in Philadelphia. There are, presumably, going to be very few (if any) deaf people in the audience at a show like this — so the sense of talking to people rather than just about them isn’t there. Also, in my view humor relating to a disability by someone who doesn’t have it doesn’t work the way ethnic humor works coming from a brown comic. Some of Peters’ deaf jokes were a bit corny and stupid (i.e., wouldn’t it be nice to be deaf, because then you wouldn’t have to listen to your girlfriend/wife nagging you), while others were flat-out mean.What was interesting about the end of Peters deaf-joke routine was the way he brought it back to ethnicity. He pointed out that in American Sign Language (ASL), the signs for people of different ethnic groups were, historically, based on pretty offensive caricatures. According to Peters (I haven’t been able to confirm this), the official sign for a Chinese person involved a pulled/flattened eye, and one sign for a Jewish person involved a big nose. Even today, the official ASL sign for a Jewish person involves making the shape of a long beard — though apparently the sign for “Chinese” has changed. Also, to sign “Indian” one makes a “dot” on the forehead with the thumb — like a bindi. It’s not really a “stereotype,” but it’s also not exactly a neutral or arbitrary symbol. (See The ASL browser for video representations of many ASL words.)
The point behind this being, presumably, that even deaf people are capable of ethnic stereotyping — it was even built into the fundamental structure of ASL as a language. Of course, if that’s what Russell Peters was saying with this whole routine, we could easily respond that the history of offensive signs in ASL (most of which have been replaced) doesn’t say anything about whether the people who used those signs believed in the caricatures.
With the new wave of self-consciously “offensive” comics (Sarah Silverman, George Lopez), it’s often said that can they get away with it because their audience doesn’t really believe, in a literal, non-ironic way, in the stereotypes that are being played with. But I sometimes wonder if the extensive reliance on these stereotypes — this is Russell Peters’ whole career, in a nutshell — really helps people understand each other better. Sometimes it feels more corrosive than cathartic.
At this point I have a bit of a bad feeling in my mouth about Russell Peters, though I do recognize that he’s a very talented comic, and I admire his earlier material. Who knows? Perhaps he’ll have a version of a Dave Chappelle moment, where he takes it as far as he can go, and then stops to rethink what he’s doing. Given what just happened to Don Imus after he said something not so different from Russell Peters’ comedic bread and butter, I would have to say that’s within the realm of possibility.
Anu, well said!
I haven’t found the genius or talent that people speak about Peters. Of course his earlier works may have been great but when I saw him live here in Orange County, CA… I found him to be desperately “trying” to get laughs… and then there is this “rude” element – that works in comedy… and there is just plain “rude” (over the top arrogance), as observed in his performance here.
amardeep, meet sarcasm. sarcasm, meet amardeep. don’t sleep together on the first date.
Russel Peters had 2 good shows and he will never have another good show again regardless of the material. Think about it, he’s already done all of his funny accents which was about the only good part, now he can repeat some, add some not so funny stuff and hope he doesnt die off but sadly he already has.
You are right–laugh at THEMSELVES. I haven’t seen RP do this once. He laughs at others, not himself. Are his jokes about immigrant Anglo-Indians, with all its potential for contradictions? No. He has no right to ask others to “take it easy”. He only laughs at a variety of Indians or Chinese or MEs he does not base his identity upon.
He is a bigot, with very little capacity for real humor. There is hardly the surprise element and no insight (and he claims he has insider info) into any community he pokes fun of—Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert seem to do better with desi humor. Most of his “jokes” are not even his own—they are what I hear from bigots when they think they are “among themselves”.
I made the mistake of watching his show on DVD with a Chinese friend of mine, and frankly, I felt deeply uncomfortable. All the racist stuff I hear from the dregs of our desi society were paraded on stage by this rascal. And the same story with every community he spoke about.
On the other hand, his bigotry has won him a lot of money, usually from people who seem to cry racism about everything they are told to by the “in” crowd. This I do find very amusing.
Oh he is street smart alright—he won’t make fun of powerful people. Just those with very little voice.
Well to each his own. But don’t give me the crap about thicker skin. I consider RP a successful bigot—and if RP is offended, he should develop a thicker skin. For real desi comedians, I will stick to Hari and co.
I think the thing about comedy is it is going to offend somebody.
Some Korean people don’t like Margaret Cho because she of her usage of Asian accents in her comedy routine. So even within communities of colour people are afraid of a comedian airing their culture’s dirty laundry.
For example, some black people hate Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle they feel their brand of humour is classless. For example, some older blacks prefer Bill Cosby’s comedy which is more clean. But the beauty about comedians is there is someone out there for everyone to enjoy. I personally don’t like Sarah Silverman I find her brand of humour tastless and just not funny.
I like Russell Peters humour not just because he’s a fellow Canadian but because he has a real insider knowledge about communities of colour. I like the fact he makes fun of ev erybody and he doesn’t just focus on one community.
I don’t find Joan Rivers very funny now that is one comedian I feel is very mean spirited against just about everybody. Ditto for Kathy Griffin she’s another acid tongued comedian.
Now I am of Jamaican hertiage but I wasn’t insulted by Russell Peters Jamaican jokes there is actually a lot of truth to the humor. I do understand where Amardeep is saying that he feels Peters is being insensitive to deaf people since they cannot hear. However, some
Orville: I like Russell Peters humour not just because he’s a fellow Canadian but because he has a real insider knowledge about communities of colour. I like the fact he makes fun of everybody and he doesn’t just focus on one community.
Really? You like his humor, good for you. Please don’t say it is because he has any insider knowledge, not because he makes fun of everybody. It is like saying Sarkozy has “real insider knowledge” about the Roma. The fact you kick someone doesn’t mean you really know anything about the person.
There was a time when I thought he was the ultimate stand-up comedy act, but the its not funny anymore…
There was a time when I thought he was the ultimate stand-up comedy act, but the its not funny anymore…
There was a time when I thought he was the ultimate stand-up comedy act, but its not funny anymore…