Thursday, June 14, 2012

Indian Stereotypes in UK´s TV shows



When I was looking up some information for my presentation of Indian Communities in UK I found a very interesting program called “Goodness Gracious Me”: this was a comedy show televised on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001. The show was about the integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life and how that produces a conflict between 2 different cultures.
But in spite of being a comedy this was so offensive because in the show they laugh at Indian stereotypes and I noticed that the actors were British Indian people. It does not make any sense!
Is ok to laugh at the situations, but not at the people.  And I noticed too that in the comments, many people were protesting because of it and because the show was directed by white people, for example:

“Indian people make fun of themselves
Asian people make fun of themselves
Black people makefun of themselves
White people....they make fun of others”
OR
“I am Indian and I am totally and utterly offended”

I don´t know which are your opinions but I think that this show is  funny but offensive enough and I believe that this type of programs promote furthermore the creation and consolidation of stereotypes.

3 comments:

  1. I absolutely agree with you!
    This is completely offensive for the Cultures involved.
    But let’s take a look around here in Chile.
    We make jokes and laugh about Peruvians or Bolivians, and also about all the people who has a Caribbean accent. And we just accept it as something funny.
    We are not far away from that reality.
    First we should think about our own mistakes in terms of discrimination and stereotypes before criticize other people.
    It’s a very good topic to for discussion.

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  2. I agree with you too, laughing at others is not good, because most of people don't think about what does the other person feels or just laugh but in the moment somebody laughs at them, they get angry. We are always making jokes about peruvians or bolivians, but we say that they are discriminating us if they make fun of us.
    Most of us just make fun of others or criticize them and don't take the time to stop, look at ourselves and see that we are not perfect people, I think if we should not make fun of others, we should make fun WITH others.

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  3. Sorry but, I desagree in some points. Although it is politically incorrect to laugh at other cultures, especially if they are minorities, actually in every society happens... Making fun of others, involves fears and other negative feelings, such as feeling diminished by the differences or fear to be ridicule.
    My question is ¿Why we can laugh about north "Americans" or Europeans but not of Asians or others cultures?

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