Pak Attack

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This has been forwarded to me ~15 times and you are all right, it’s some seriously funny shiznit. “Yo Momma” is an MTV series that looks for the best trash talkers around the country. I watched last season end to end (ah, the miracle of Tivo) and it was ridiculously good. This time around, the show’s been infiltrated by a desi dude who’s donned the character “Pak Attack” and if he can keep the gimmick going, he’s actually got what it takes to go all the way & win the show.

You smell so bad that people would rather sit next to me on an airplane…

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p>In this clip over at MTV.com, he DESTROYS his yo momma competitor, Osa. Set aside ~10 min of your life to watch a Russell Peters worthy performance. Except, of course, there’s a much higher improv quotient here & Pak’s strictly amateur. (His myspace page indicates that in real life, he’s probably a GeorgiaTech engineer. )

Now I’ll warn you, gentle mutineers, that there’s a certain brand of humor you’ve gotta be ready to accept on any show called “Yo Momma”… with that caveat in mind, a couple of Pak’s laugh lines –

“It is true, it is true, I work at 7-11, but just like my store, yo momma’s legs are open 24-7”

“The only difference between my camel and your momma, my camel spits”

Social commentary?

Well, I love it. Pak’s humor pokes as much at the purveyors of prevalent racial / ethnic stereotypes as it does his opponent. He’s obviously a buffoon and therefore, so must be the folks who actually buy into these stereotypes. Despite clearly being a harmless, good natured, Pakistani guy, most of his material is about being confused as both an Arab and a terrorist (by ignorant, racist idiots). Laugh with him and you therefore laugh at them.

Strategically, he finds both content and an unassailable perch of power by revelling in every nook and cranny of the character ad absurdum. Given Yo Momma’s competitive format plus the modern rules of PC, Pak’s allowed to leverage nervous laughter from these jokes. The competition however, can’t follow him into that territory without appearing, well, racist. It’s an unexpected reversal for many of the black kids on the show who throw around N*gga jokes left and right leaving their non-black opponents staring into the camera wondering if they’re even allowed to laugh…

So eventually there’s The Question that dogs any desi we find in the media. In this case, for desi’s as whole, I contend that Pak’s a positive image. As discussed here in relation to Aishwarya showing up in beauty commercials, pop culture vehicles like Pak leverage the same dynamics that made Will&Grace (arguably) better drivers of Gay social acceptance than QueerNation. Smart non-desi folk should readily recognize that Pak Attack is donning a character but they’ll also suspect that the real guy under the salwar khameez seems like a pretty cool dude to hang out with. And voila he’s now a “real guy”.

Of course, none of this would matter if he weren’t genuinely funny.

59 thoughts on “Pak Attack”

  1. ak, excellent points. It’s hard to disagree. And you’re right, people in India themselves show such a wide variety of different behaviors when it comes to this stuff. Even in India they have to deal with finding a balance between tradition and the ever-stronger western influence. Rich kids in Mumbai are probably some of the most liberal people I’ve ever seen. But I still cringe when I see a younger sibling cuss out an older one. And one very nice thing I witnessed once…I was in one of those desi grocery stores in NJ…there was this young mom, with two small kids, a girl of around 5, and a boy of around 3. The girl kept trying to say something to her little brother, but he wasn’t listening, he was preoccupied with something in the store. The girl kept trying to get his attention without success…the mom, who herself was mostly focused on her shopping, distractedly said to the boy ‘didi kuch bol rahi hai, suno’. Which means ‘your (older) sister is saying something, listen to her’. I thought that was very desi, and very nice.

  2. amitabh, it’s definitely interesting to see the changing trends, esp. in desi cities. i think one good thing is to ingrain in kids that there is some notion of respect for elders – even for the sibling that was only born 12 or 18 months ahead of you – so that this remains with them to some extent, even if they choose to later lessen its degree. when i was younger, i always used to call my sister akka (didi) but stopped when i realised that not only was my younger brother not calling me that, but that my parents didn’t even expect it of him! (yes, middle children put up with a lot :)) even to this day, my parents maintain a sort of reverence for my sister as the eldest sibling. it is both frustrating and nice. my sister maintains her ‘elder’ status for the bossy things, but doesn’t take that role seriously when it comes to other roles, like advise, which i much would have preferred; if that was the case, i would have no problem maintaining the elder-younger sibling divide. on the other hand, my younger brother, who makes fun of me to no end and has dispelled with most formalities, still relies on me for advise, which i gladly dispense. so the tradition still presents itself to varying degrees. btw, cute story about the kids.

  3. I’d say that his sister is okay looking in the face. From the looks of her on video she has the body of a 12 year old boy though and that’s kinda disappointing. I’m glad I got to finally watch the videos though and see what all the hype is about.

  4. I’d say that his sister is okay looking in the face. From the looks of her on video she has the body of a 12 year old boy though and that’s kinda disappointing.

    How are your disparaging remarks regarding his sister’s looks relevant to the discussion? Keep your sexist, disrespectful words to yourself.

    The vague “she’s hot” thing upthread was bad enough, evaluating her body and insulting her crossed the line. Enough about the sister.

  6. What part of “enough about the sister” did you not grasp? One more comment about the sibling and this thread will be shut down.

  7. i think more people are paying attention to his sister than him

    oh and she is quite the cutey btw

  8. Late reply I know. Work very busy.

    Richardson Texas is a suburb just outside of Dallas with a large Indian and Pakistani population and some good restaurants by the way. Shiska-Bobs (get it!!), Afrah, and Jasmine’s. The church I attend is in Richardson as well.

    I assumed Dallas and thought Texas. I thought we were the only state that stole names from other places (i.e Paris, TX, Italy, TX). There’s even an India, Texas just south of the Dallas VA hospital. It’s not very big though only a couple of houses and no major buildings.