Lizzie sent us a link to some trailers for NBC’s forthcoming comedy, “Outsourced,” with the comment: “Looks super-[crappy].” Here is a clip:
I’m leaning towards “not,” though I could still be persuaded, if they get past the “Man-meat” jokes… I think their idea is to make fun of kitschy Americana and get traction on the culture-clash (which means a certain amount of stereotype humor). What do readers think?
Damn it is a good time to be an Indian actor.
It will get cancelled after 3 weeks, but the Indian doing a Southern accent was funny.
I’ll give it chance, maybe a few episodes and not write it off from the get go. Plus, it’s good to see Desi actors working even it’s on the stereotypical side.
“Parks & Recreation” started out weak, but is now consistently funny. Let’s see what happens.
I enjoyed the movie immensely. And that was a 18 months before I visited India. The crew captured the spirit pretty well. Wonder how the a season long show would be, because Movie—>Show generally is a downgrade, but Show—>Movie is an upgrade. But the original Outsourced is an indie unlike other big budgets that went the Show way.. But this has got Diedrich Bader of Drew Carey Show fame, so gotta see at least one episode. And the accent jocks are real. I met quite a few on my last visit to India, mostly B.A. English/History types who now don’t have to struggle to enter the IAS. There’s an entire career path available to them, Call Center—>BPO—>KPO—>Tech writing—>Copy Editing—>Market Research and so on. With McKinsey having relocated their market research backoffice to Chennai, the opportunities are booming.
How many cliched, pseudo-racist jokes before they run out of steam? Detroit city of black people? SMDH. And, Rebecca Hazelwood == acting dry like toast. Silent Madhuri is gets paid to make googly eyes and whisper? Utterly embarrassing. Then, again, the peacock network has screwed up before.
What, like being cast as an Indian?
It’s one of my regrets that because the influx of desis happened around the beginning and rise of political correctness, we missed out on one of the rich features of American culture – ethnically specific jokes. Some of this, I know – bear with me, may be an imposition and objectification, but substantially has arisen from greater visibility and gradual acceptance. Of course this NBC show is not about desis in the US, it is about desis in desh, but don’t we always like to go to the source and even export Americanizations back to the home country/ St.Patrick’s Day (especially the custom of the US President hosting the Iriash Taosieach on this day at the White House), Cinco De Mayo, and Pizza – all examples.
Right now, seems badly written. But maybe KXB is right and it’ll find its legs.
the movie was kind of crappy IMO. though i guess others disagree. though to be fair, the movie might have been better as a 30 minute sitcom than a 2 hour movie.
I am certain you know what I mean, unless you are pretending to be obtuse of difficult. A show about call centers? A character who is a shy, meek Indian woman? The accents? The attire? Etc. None of this even borders on stereotype?
This show has disaster written all over it. Straight coon shit!
I’m not sure if I’ll be tuning in to watch this show but I am wondering if the economics of making tv shows in a globalized world. Are there tv shows that would have been economic losers in the past when broadcast in the US alone but now make economic sense because of international satellite tv ? If a show is watched by 3% of all people of south asian origin in the world that makes like 50,000 people which is a pretty significant audience is it not ? It’s possible that the purchasing power of south asians isn’t strong enough yet to make it worthwhile but perhaps in the future.
okay so i found a lot of the jokes to be dumb, but seriously, some did make me laugh out loud. and the lead character is pretty cute. please, please, please don’t let it be horribly offensive! i’d like to see a show about brown people.. like little mosque on the prairie, but that show is kind of slow on the laughs
30 rock, Parks, OFFICE and Community, who decided to put piece of crap in the line up? Come on how many seasons can you run a show based solely on making fun Indians….? Oh and there is a white girl there….and I hope there is a love triangle…and maybe some Bollywood guest appearances…and how about a dance episode….them vs the smart intel guys? The possibilities are endless…
I’m a DBD who came to the US back on an H1. 12 years later after a GC and naturalization and a mortgage I’m on the verge of losing my job to someone from Wipro unless I get rebadged. No, I don’t find this funny at all. Am I pulling up the ladder after me if I resent this? Maybe I am. Am I hypocritical if I say that 12 years back I was supplementing the workforce but the people coming over en masse are now displacing them? Not, really.
Oh the irony
Is this inspired by the 2006 indie movie outsourced starring Josh Hamilton and directed by John Jeffcoat. Except the cast the whole thing looks the same
Govind, all the expansion in employment is happening out there, over there. You are disappointed, no hypocrisy there it’s your job you are worried about. The service sector in India is nothing like the world has ever seen. And it long ago stopped being about offshoring. When IBM employs more people in India than anywhere else in the world, and over 20% of ISABS national event participants are expats in India, you know that it is a new game.
Stereotypes tend to have an element of truth. The call centers, accents, attires…I’ve seen all that in India. Of course, there are other types of Indians, but it’s laughable to think this type does not exist.
Just because there are Indians in it doesn’t mean you HAVE to premise the show around making fun of them. Why can’t we just have well-written, lovable Indian characters?
Been there, done that, and failed miserably already.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ibdfb90c835ef4775edb12cde286c598a
Never said or implied that they didn’t exist or these things weren’t even partially true.
This is my issue. Stereotypes tend to give characters two-dimensionality and take away depth. It would nice to see a well-rounded Desi characters in a situation comedy that veers away from that easy and lazy caricature. This, however, is not a deal breaker for me. I will watch it and give it chance and might even keep on watching despite the cartoonishness of some of the characters.
I agree with some of the commenters above: its good to see so many brown actors getting work. Even if this effort fails I think a few of them may get a chance to break out.
You can. In India.
America’s most powerful minority, the Jews, makes successful movies about themselves pretty often. But TV? Seinfeld. That’s it. And even in that one, the ethnic stuff was very, very toned down. America’s most numerous minorities, blacks and hispanics, have their own shows, but they’re kept on high-numbered channels.
Also, the Chinese are still waiting their turn, and we’re probably in line behind them.
aw hell no
Let’s see why…
-Maybe there are loveable characters, but they are boring, when I told my Indian friends that I was on unemployment last year, they were shocked -The spelling bee/academic talent steretype has been worked to death – starting from Archie’s Dilton Doiley -And then of course not all desis are doctors, but since a disproportionate number of docs are doctors, their absence in the doctor shows is puzzling; but then what about taxis? Although a v.large number of them are driven by desis and Nigerians (among other W.Africans) at least an extra character here and there would do. But reality could be stranger – like when my son rode in the front and got into a very detailed discussion on Achebe’s departures from Igbo culture vs. Soyinka’s style with our Nigerian taxi driver, who incidentally has family in India! Now that would make a good dramatic situation.
Err.. Don’t you mean lovable ‘South Asian’ characters?
The tone of some posts and comments that are posted on this blog would make a gullible one believe that India is a myth :).
wow..what genius..did someone say emmy award!!!
LOL INDIAN PEOPLE HAVE ACCENTS ARE ARE FUNNY BECAUSE THEY TRY TO ACT ALL AMERICAN IN AN INDIAN WAY LOL!
i’ll give it a try, but…i dont know. seems dumb even for stereotypical humor.
but yes, it is good to be a desi actor right now.
If by stereotype you mean choosing a certain setting and making characters for actors to play, then, yes I suppose so.
Interesting you focused on the shy, meek Indian, not the large curvy one or the hot outspoken one. Accents? It’s supposed to take place in INDIA for chrissake. Should they speak with American accents? Attire?? It’s supposed to take place in INDIA for chrissake!!! The mix of Indian dress (sari, salwar suits) and western clothes is pretty similar to any metro I have been to.
Call centers? A very common temporary job for young urban professionals in India who speak English.
“America’s most numerous minorities, blacks and hispanics, have their own shows, but they’re kept on high-numbered channels.”
Crucially most of the showrunners are not black or hispanic…Its always nice when others get to decide what a group should or shouldn’t find offensive.
I thought Tyler Perry pretty much had a monopoly on shows about Black families at this point.
You know what I’d like to see on NBC? A show about an Indian chipmunk who works in a call center. He always talks in a high-pitched Indian accent, but his boss tries to get him to speak in a deeper voice. Nevertheless, all his callers end up screaming, “Wait — IS THIS A CHIPMUNK???” and then they hang up on him.
Plus, his girlfriend is training to be a doctor against her family’s wishes, who want her to become a stripper. She takes him to work on her unicycle.
“I thought Tyler Perry pretty much had a monopoly on shows about Black families at this point.”
How old is this outsourcing-callcenter-accent schtick? I can’t believe NBC thinks that genre still has legs. Some time in the middle of the last decade, this stopped being funny to Americans. You occasionally hear a Leno or Letterman joke about it, but not a whole lot. What’s on trend is American’s self-deprecating about losing their jobs, or, thanks to Mr. Mandvi, empire-strikes-back jokes.
I don’t see how this show breaks new ground.
OK, I’ll admit I laughed at some points and cringed at some others.
But I really don’t see how this will last more than a few episodes. You’ll wear out all the “ooh look we’re in an exotic location with people with funny names and goofy accents” shtick soon enough. It may be enough for a movie, but then again I guess they made that movie “outsourced” which I never saw (and I don’t think did all that well either, even by indie standards).
We’ll see how long this show lasts. Another question is, will Americans really care to see a show about jobs being shipped overseas? I mean, what if this were a show about factories being closed down and shipped to China? No, call centers aren’t the same thing, but nevertheless the unemployment rate is still high. Are Americans really ready to laugh about this kind of thing? I have to wonder who NBC is really targeting this show at. Americans are more open to multi-ethnic and multi-racial casts, but I’m skeptical of the response to a show almost entirely made entirely of “foreigners”.
But I’ll agree with some others. I think it’s cool to see some brown folks from the subcontinent getting acting gigs. Hopefully this will lead to more opportunities for them. NBC’s Thursday line up is good and the desi characters on those shows are pretty funny.
The show is “about” jobs being shipped overseas… but is that what it is really going to be showing week to week? I doubt it. I think the whole humor bit lies in a.) Oblivious American traveling to a country and the awkwardality (yes, I made that up) yet humorousness of adjusting to another culture (and then his employees attempting to adjust to American culture for their jobs) b.) the storyline of him trying to keep his job while being purposefully given under-qualified employees in attempt to ‘get rid of him’, and how he will figure out how to reach his employees and beat the odds and everyone will become awesome and amazing.
Who knows if it will be good or not. I watch the original “Outsourced”, and it looks like this show shares the same plot, basically. The movie wasn’t the best, but it was kind of funny. The acting kind of sucked. But these days, American t.v. shows love to use something else to base their shows off of (The British version of the Office (only two seasons and much funnier, in my opinion) becomes the never-ending American series the Office (which ripped entire plots from the British office, just having them played by different actors), Ugly Betty is based of off a South American series (I can’t remember where at the moment). I’m sure there are others.
Whether or not it is good, I think it is hilarious that people are crying “stereotypes!!” about this. That just seems way over the deep end to me. If I watched a show in India depicted Americans wearing shorts/jeans/t-shirts to the mall and speaking with New England accents– would that be a stereotype? I think the whole reaction is more about people’s fears about dumb jerks using the show to make up new and more stupid ways to be racist jerks and harass Desi-Americans. But I think that the dumb jerks are going to find ways to be dumb jerks, regardless of the content of a show. I haven’t seen the show yet, but perhaps, having a cast of characters that appears 98% Indian might actually humanize Desis for people who only have assumptions about them. That is, if it is well-written enough and lasts long enough….
Looks like inspired from “Mind Your Language” TV Series.
there is a british version, Mumbai Calling, with the same concept which manages to be funny week after week on HBO Asia, accents, cross-cultural differences, attire and all. the big difference being the main character Kenny Gupta, played by comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar, is a brit of deshi origin.
I’ll give it a try. The movie was OK. I miss India so it might help soothe my “home sickness” even though I wasn’t born there.
For all the protests about “stereotyping Indians” – it’s Americans who come out looking super tacky if they buy those products.
Maybe I should protest “occidentalism”?????
The irony is that all the Indian accents are horribly fake.
l
Shock! Horror! Go back to the But Is It Racist thread.
Im just disgusted of the unimaginative bs. What would the reaction be if the roles were reversed?
The thing is, at the end of the day, desis are a minority in the West. Therefore, our portrayal in the media is always going to be somewhat stereotypical. Also, our say in that portrayal will always be limited, unless alot more desis go into the media and influence it that way. This is one reason why I feel we should support people like M Night Shyamalan. His being in a position of power is good for desis, as it hopefully breaks down doors for others to come through. Even just by being there he makes it easier for desis.
In general, I would imagine that programmes in Japan or even India would portray Americans or British in a stereotypical light also.
I think it is hard to battle against that. Better to just not watch it. Or even better to make sure that in your daily life that you don’t live up to those stereotypes and just show people that we are normal human beings too, just like everyone else.
Having said all that, it is not the way it should be. All people should be portrayed with respect and equality.
going from the trailer bit saccharine but the southern accent bit amazing!
“In general, I would imagine that programmes in Japan or even India would portray Americans or British in a stereotypical light also.”
I suppose one major difference, is that people who watch these movies also see American(and possibly British) movies. The reverse is not the case in the US. But then, as someone said, the dumb jerks will be the dumb jerks in the US, regardless of what stereotype of Indians is displayed on TV.
I agree with what most people have stated above. I don’t think this show will last even one season. However, I could think of one benefit (from an undergraduate student’s perspective.) I find that most undergraduate students who are business majors (especially the ones who go to mostly-white schools) aren’t comfortable with the idea of going to work in a foreign country like India (for obvious reasons.) Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of Indians who work there or attend college with them so they really can’t ask anyone about India. So hopefully those students will see this show and feel much more at ease about the possibility of working in India. Even though there have been a lot of articles written about how receptive Indians are to foreigners, they won’t believe it until they actually SEE it. Does anyone else agree? I’m wondering what others have to say about my comment. I just thought I would give a business student’s perspective on this since it’s vastly different from what most other people have stated.
In addition, did anyone notice that Madhuri is played by Anisha Nagarajan, the same woman who played Priya in Bombay Dreams on Broadway?
Ummm…. the portrayal of non-Indians in Hindi films is extremely stereotypical, makes this look almost ultra-realistic by comparison. LOL tell me you’ve never watched a Hindi movie where the villain has a crew of all-African goondas at his beck and call, this is pretty much the only way in which Africans are portrayed in Hindi movies.
Yet again, more whining and moaning about something completely inconsequential while we do the exactly the same thing, except are much more shameless about it….
I disagree that it is inconsequential. If a large number of people consistently see stereotypes propagated in the media, it does affect them – both consciously and subconsciously. More insidiously, it also affects the people being stereotyped themselves as they start to see themselves in a similar way.
It should be protested against and vigorously so. The only thing is the chances of changing it are slim. But that still does not mean it is not worth speaking against and highlighting.
Any right-thinking person does not want to be stereotyped and speaking out about it is not whining and moaning. It is simply having self-respect.
And I agree somewhat that the difference is that westerners generally never see the stereotypes that other countries might make of them. Whereas Indians and other foreigners often do, especially those living in the west.
I cant believe the stupidity in wanting to watch this show.
This is clearly a racist show….this will lead to discrimination!!
Maybe on the liberal coasts people COULD be open minded, but not the rest of the United States.
For those who think we should be open minded about the show until we see a few episodes…NO!!!
Who cares about whether Desi actors get involved in the media!!!!!
The American media wants stereotypes and they will ridicule and make jokes at Indians and laugh at them instead of with them.
Stereotypes like this are always bad!!! especially in this economy!!!! Forget your liberal thinking…this show must be canceled before harm is done