Yesterday I was going to change up my commute to pass by a bookstore, so that I could check out Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. Tweeps and blogs like SNL, Vulture, Splitsider and ShelfLife were agog over the cuteness of her floral, pink-sweatered, wry-mouthed book cover. Given her writing background and popularity as a tweeter, I imagined that physically flipping through a copy would offer some kind of quirky comedy contact high.Then I read that her book doesn’t come out until November, which made me sort of feel like how I do when I see ads for Sonic and TCBY despite never having seen either one in person (do they really exist?). Except worse because I don’t have to wait long for frozen yogurt.
Kaling described her book as short essays, comedy pieces and pictures, and earlier gave its title as The Contents of My Purse, according to Movieline. I think the current title better reflects the kind of personal insecurity that people sympathize with and find humorous in her tweets and in person like on last week’s Letterman show.
I’ll definitely pick up a copy when it hits stores – this girl is funny! I love her expression on the cover and the title as well.
Yeah her stand-up persona seems similar to the character of Kelly Kapoor, who (whom?) she plays on the The Office, except more toned-down…a superficial, materialistic sort of character, except she comes across as so sweet and bubbly in her interviews.
Mindy is such a sweety! She’s quite witty, classy, and a classic New England girl, who happens to be of Indic-origins.
Kudos goes to David Letterman for doing an excellent job as interviewer/host, and who is so at ease around South Asians, unlike Conan who seems a little tense and confused with how to deal with us South Asians.
On another note, has anyone else noted that Conan is a little condescending/tensed out around South Asians?
boston_mahesh: “Kudos goes to David Letterman … who is so at ease around South Asians,”
Seriously, wtf? WTF?
Exactly – this boston_mahesh character is a real hoot – I think his real name must be boston_malcolm!
Idk, I thought his Aishwarya Rai interview was pretty awkward to be honest :/
Alina,
I don’t think that Letterman was awkward in that interview. I think that Rai was, however.
Also, O’Brien had Kal Penn on his show back in ’08, when O’Brien was on NBC after Leno. O’Brien, whom I adore, by the way, acted like he was having the conversation at an arm’s length, skeptical, and/or mentally prepared to be dealing with someone disagreeable. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find that interview online anymore.
Right, cause Aishwarya Rai is totally comparable to Mindy Kaling. 😛
I’ve got nothing to say about Mindy’s standup comedy/ tweets/ interviews, but I have to say Mindy looks gorgeous on the cover of her book! I wish Indian beauty standards would accomodate more Mindies, and I wish I had grown up knowing that this look is just as awesome as any. (but please don’t derail this thread into another dark skin/fair skin discussion…)
Mindy is super smart and talented but she is a 6 at BEST.
Mindy needs to be smart to make us forget that she is not pretty, remember really attractive women don’t need to be talented to get our attention.
Mindy needs to be smart to make us forget that she is not pretty, remember really attractive women don’t need to be talented to get our attention.
….which brings us back to Rai 😛
anyway, looks aside, she is a talented writer and usually comes across as witty and fresh in interviews, so I’ll definitely pick up a copy of her book.
SNAP! Truth hurts.
I love Mindy- I can’t wait to read. And yes, she’s cute. No, she’s not an overpowdered, bleached-out, scrawny model, but she’s cute as hell.
she looks cute enough on the cover IMO. make up can do many things. go to youtube and look up bollywood stars without makeup. mindy kaling might not be lookin’ so bad after you see that 🙂
“but she is a 6 at BEST.”
On a scale of faceless Internet Handles to Meena Kumari?
I remember that Letterman/ Rai interview. Letterman was extremely uncomfortable and a little bit rude, actually. I think he called her out on the old Asian standard that she lives with her parents or something and she countered with “well, at least I don’t have to make an appointment to see my parents!” – which I, and the crowd, thought was actually a really good comeback!
Haven’t seen the Conan interview with Kal Penn, but would be surprised if he was uncomfortable and standoffish – he is normally the most relaxed, least egotistical of all those talk show monkeys. I think your mind be playing tricks on ya…!
boston_mahesh said “On another note, has anyone else noted that Conan is a little condescending/tensed out around South Asians?”
Conan is always slightly awkward and tightly wound. I don’t think he is condescending at all. Check out his American express commercial made in Jaipur India. He looks like he is having a ball.
This is a brilliant point that I totally didn’t consider. In Conan’s American Express commercials, Conan was, in fact, very open-hearted with Indic culture. He was definitely having a blast on the elephant and flirting with that old auntie.
BTW, David Letterman was actually quite polite to that Ash Rai. She became quite defensive about the whole living-at-home arrangement thing. Also, there was a point in the interview – before the blow-up – where she tries to give him flirty goo-goo eyes, and it was awkward for me to watch.
Mindy is super smart and talented but she is a 6 at BEST
Well, that’s just your taste Maneesh. To me she’s easily an 8. This is really shallow, I know.
“On a scale of faceless Internet Handles to Meena Kumari?”
ROTFLMAO!
Great. However it will refreshing to see Asians in the west writing and helping our heritage language and literatures and if course to read the same. Be it Punjabi Gujarati or Tamil
I’m not 100% sure but I think Mindy has mentioned in interviews she doesn’t speak another language, so I’m assuming she doesn’t read/write South Asian languages either…actually what’s kind of funny is she can’t even do a decent Indian accent, which she pokes fun of herself for.
But I don’t know why Americans of Asian descent would be expected to write in a language that’s not their own…I mean 60% of the world is asian, it’s not like we have a shortage of asians writing in asian languages!
I’m not 100% sure but I think Mindy has mentioned in interviews she doesn’t speak another language, so I’m assuming she doesn’t read/write South Asian languages either…actually what’s kind of funny is she can’t even do a decent Indian accent, which she pokes fun of herself for.
i think her parents are different ethnicities. one bengali, the other tamil, so that is part of the reason.
But I don’t know why Americans of Asian descent would be expected to write in a language that’s not their own…I mean 60% of the world is asian, it’s not like we have a shortage of asians writing in asian languages!
agreed.
and i’m as superficial as the next guy, but let’s be real, the key fact is that mindy kaling is mad talented. props.
“she looks cute enough on the cover IMO. make up can do many things. go to youtube and look up bollywood stars without makeup. mindy kaling might not be lookin’ so bad after you see that :-)”
Her skin’s been lightened on the cover, not that I’m complaining or anything. Just an observation. I’ve also seen those youtube videos and one of the tactics used by the video makers is to use before photos that always have poor lighting which brings out their baggy, puffy eyes and the after photos are of the actresses with more make up than they usually wear in movies with extreme bright lighting. It has also been shown that make up only increases attractiveness by 33% or less (google it), so people who are stunning with make up are still good looking without.
Mindy is talented and cute as hell. End of story.
Looks without brains is hollow…, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&feature=player_embedded
As long as she didn’t plagiarize like Kavya K, more (brown) power to her! I look forward to reading her book. By the way, Kavya K is now in law school, so I heard.
She looks a bit better now that she has lost all that weight. She’s not pretty but she starved herself for an award show and she tweeted about how much she hated to be thin to walk teh red carpet but also knew that she looked good. this was two years ago, I think, during height of Office mania.
She’s unattractive but has a cute personality. Is she dating that guy from office? she tweets him a lot.
She looks good in the letterman clip but that’s because she is slim and is wearing sexy mini dress.
Has Mindy Kaling been on the Chelsea Handler line-up? She would kill on that!
She looks cute on the cover though. :p