General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs anyone who finds the "Sum Ting Wong" / "Wi Tu Lo" joke funny automatically a racist?
According to Channel 2, the crew was comprised of:Captain Sun Ting Wong
Wi Tu Lo
Ho Lee Fuk
Bang Ding Ow
&feature=player_embedded#t=0s
40 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited | |
Yes. That joke is not funny, and anyone who sees any humor in it at all is a racist. | |
7 (18%) |
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Not necessarily. It's OK to privately find it amusing, but if you openly admit it then you are a racist. | |
0 (0%) |
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No. I found the joke to be funny and I am not a racist. | |
29 (73%) |
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No. I didn't think it was funny, but those who do are not necessarily racists. | |
4 (10%) |
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1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
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Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll |
treestar
(82,383 posts)We should get opinions from Koreans who speak English.
Or see if we can put up with the opposite, if English names can sound like something else in another language.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)He might just dance away!
pintobean
(18,101 posts)He didn't understand the question.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Apparently, humor is not allowed any more because we are supposed to be outraged about something all the time. Meh.
PsychoBunny
(86 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)jessie04
(1,528 posts)no more fun in life.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)illustrated by Betty Wont, and published by Andy Diddent.
Sophomoric humor, but not meant to be racist.
PADemD
(4,482 posts)Following the real staff is a lengthy list of pun-filled fictional staffers and sponsors such as statistician Marge Innovera ("margin of error" , customer care representative Haywood Jabuzoff ("Hey, would you buzz off" , meteorologist Claudio Vernight ("cloudy overnight" , optometric firm C.F. Eye Care ("see if I care" , Russian chauffeur Pikov Andropov ("pick up and drop off" , Leo Tolstoy biographer Warren Peace ("War and Peace" , hygiene officer and chief of the Tokyo office Otaka Shawa ("oh take a shower" , Swedish snow-board instructor Soren Derkeister ("sore in the keister" , and law firm Dewey, Cheetham & Howe ("Do we cheat 'em? And how!" , among many, many others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Talk
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)However, there are some people that are particularly dour and will find it so.
I find such people to be tedious in the extreme.
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)Of course it's racist. Playing games with names from another language is a typical racist thing. They call it a joke. It's not funny at all, though.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)It's like the shitty rap-rock band that booked an international tour of 6 US cities and one show in Djibouti just so they could end their tour by announcing from stage at the beginning of their concert "Tonight may be the last show of out tour, but we're going to rock Djibouti!"
MineralMan
(146,338 posts)We don't understand Korean, so it's easy to make up fake names that sound somehow "oriental," but that have English connotations that are obscene or degrading or whatever. There are many names in Asian languages that sound funny to people who speak only English. That's because English-only speakers have no understanding of the language. It's ugly, in the same way that Americans got the reputation for being "Ugly Americans."
It's a type of racism or culturalism I dislike intensely. It's childish and stupid.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)jessie04
(1,528 posts)just kidding
LuckyLib
(6,821 posts)example of the many contexts in which it has appeared.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)If a Korean person made a joke about Anita Bath or Oliver Klozoff, would it be racist?
FSogol
(45,555 posts)Jokes making fun of last names are not particularly new or necessarily racist, however the plane crash one is really in bad taste and border-line racist.
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)what i did find simultaneously funny and horribly sad is that the 'bubble-headed-bleach-blonde' could be so stupid as to actually read them on-air...
sP
While I am sure most people know this... 'bubble-headed-bleach-blonde'... it's a lyric...
BeyondGeography
(39,386 posts)Didn't get flustered in the least and, most important, pronounced Fuk as "Fook."
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)And pronounced "fuk" that way as a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation.
BeyondGeography
(39,386 posts)your brain is screaming "holy fuck." I know mine was. Props for Fook.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)a real 'journalist'.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)They actually went along with it. It passed through so many hands and nobody caught it.
TheBlackAdder
(28,227 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)Moe's Tavern, "I got a call here for Seymour Butts! Seymour Butts!"
"How about I.P. Freely!"
DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Where maybe 20 percent of the audience is Asian.
If nothing else, how could no one have noticed that most of the names sound Chinese, not Korean??
Quantess
(27,630 posts)And, that she was totally clueless. I instantly knew it was a put-on. Especially the first 3 on the list.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)The 3 tines I've seen it I crack up laughing. That's funny.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)and what about OK Corallis?
OK should get to speak.
Personally I thought George Pancake was a pretty funny name. And then really surprised to find there was more than one of them in the 1850 census.
And, in the Grant family there was a daughter who married a Mr. Sadd and named one of their daughters Happy. Happy Sadd.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)in a joking way. One of the "book" title's was: "Riot in the Chinese Brassiere Factory" by Wun Hung Lo.
Now that I think about it, it was not only racist but sexist too. But it seemed funny then after a day of stacking books and unstacking them, and ripping covers off of those to be returned.
Maximumnegro
(1,134 posts)For reductionist hair-on-fire extremes like DU and on the other side, there is not much value given to context. Those names certainly could be considered funny - indeed I laughed when I first saw the story - but it's about why you're laughing. Is it funny because it makes fun of asian names, is it funny because some idiot got it on live tv, is it funny because the event was tragic and this happening is so absurd all you can do is laugh? There so many, many ways we process humor. The important thing is what you know to be true in yourself.
Humor is extremely complex. If you stop to think about stand up or films and how and when and why you laugh in an objective way you realize how complicated it is.
Then again, if you're making slant-eyes and repeating the names while watching - you're probably being racist.
anomiep
(153 posts)It's really about intent, I think. If someone finds that funny but also finds names like 'Ben Dover', etc, as I saw in one of the other threads here, then hey, the likelihood that they're taking it/intending it in a racist manner drops.
Now, if someone doesn't mean it in a racist way, but someone is actually getting offended by it and asks that it be stopped - it should be stopped, no question, and if someone doesn't stop in that situation - that ups the likelihood that they do in fact mean it in a racist way.
I remember as a little, little kid, the first time I read the joke title "'The Yellow River' by Ye Pee Long", I laughed, a lot. But back then, I literally had no idea there was such a thing as 'race issues' and it would have completely baffled me if someone tried to explain it to me (I was, I think, four or five at the time).
allin99
(894 posts)maybe it would be about the kids toys, or pampers, i mean, those would be about the same relevance. (pardon my example, i wouldn't even be able to think up a joke for either tragedy)
also, growing up around people of every background, many Asian, i never found those jokes very entertaining b/c i was used to asian names. the sounds weren't inherently amusing to me b/c they were normal to me. etc.
1monster
(11,012 posts)I believe there is a parody web site out there that takes phrases and songs from other languages and posts "lyrics" of what the words sound like in English.
It's done by speakers of languages other than English, who occasionally make up jokes of a similar nature too.
Is it racist to laugh? I think that depends on the mindset of people who hear it. (I've been surprised into a laugh on things that I'd NEVER say and find totally inappropriate...)
Is it racist to make up jokes of this nature? Probably almost always yes.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)well, I'm actually not shocked that you did.
the joke itself is racist and foul and hurtful.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)I typically don't vote in my own polls.
scheming daemons
(25,487 posts)Jeezus
tularetom
(23,664 posts)The stick up their ass has a stick up its ass.
Of course the humor is juvenile and maybe even borderline racist.
But the funny part is somebody got a dumbass TV station to repeat it on the air.
d_r
(6,907 posts)isn't the names - which are obviously racist - but the fact that the news channel reported it.
olddots
(10,237 posts)the Asian name jokes are based on the irony of language just like the English language ones are .
Amaya
(4,560 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)that it made it all the way to the teleprompter without a single person catching what some prankster actually wrote. Then the mindless "read whatevers in front of me anchor" doesnt have brain cells enough to catch it before it comes out of her mouth. I think its a good example of what passes for "news" outlets in this country.
Anyone can feed whatever they want into the teleprompter and the good little puppet will read it. Its kinda sad, actually.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)I have seen them read "This is (NOT THEIR NAME) signing off"..
That "joke" written out and handed to a real news person, would have never made it to air..
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)The racist names wouldn't be funny to me if someone just said them to me.
The joke is racist, but really, what prejudice can you discern from someone who laughs at it?
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)and thought it was funny. She figured it was an asian kid who punked them.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)And I found it horribly wrong but funny.. Its tragic that it happened around the deaths of some sweet Chinese girls, but the fact that someone read this on the air, and it got though all the so called scrutiny of a Broadcast station .. to make it on the air just made me laugh.
You know, in the DU lounge people sometimes post those photos of Chinese Menus.or signs, the ENGRISH website..and people laugh at that, because they find it funny. Someone who is totally serious might be very offended by those. I am not. Yes, Engrish can be very funny under the right context.
Yet, why has no one complained about that? I saw that The Asian American Journalists Association posted a proper reply to this, and they said:
"The Asian American Journalists Association also released a statement on the gaffe: "Words cannot adequately express the outrage we ... feel over KTVUs on-air blunder that made a mockery of the Asiana Airlines tragedy and offended so many loyal viewers of the San Francisco Bay Area station."
They didn't find it so funny. I guess its based on your perspective.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)msongs
(67,462 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)... if it did not involve an accident that killed some beautiful kids, pictured right before the "joke"
PD Turk
(1,289 posts)...but after working 13+ years in the television industry I think the fact that the newscaster just reeled it off the TelePrompTer like that is a riot. Every station I've worked at has been full of merry pranksters and my first thought was, "damn, they sure pulled one over on her!!"
Spirochete
(5,264 posts)what was funny to me, is the dumb media got suckered into broadcasting it again. I always get a kick out of it when they get fooled into publishing names like Heywood Jablome, etc.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)Whenever he called in, the rep would put him on mute and say, "Phuk Boi on line 1!" to much tittering and chortling. Juvenile? Absolutely. Racist? Doubtful.
distantearlywarning
(4,475 posts)I think it's funny, in the same way that "Seymour Butts" and "Ben Dover" are funny - juvenile, but amusing. I don't think that makes me a racist, but whatever. I guess some people will think that about me if they want to.
I actually think it's more horrible that all the TV people didn't catch it before reading it on air. Bubble headed bleach blondes indeed. And I think the fact that it is making fun of a serious accident where people died is actually more problematic than the "Asian names" aspect. But at the same time dark humor has always been one way in which people reassure themselves about death and uncertainty.
NoGOPZone
(2,971 posts)bluedigger
(17,087 posts)Which, given that the blame has been placed on a lowly intern, is not too surprising. People that laughed at it aren't necessarily racist, they just have a different sense of humor than I do. Not that mine is high brow or anything.
Response to Nye Bevan (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Warpy
(111,383 posts)Even when she reads the stuff out loud, she doesn't get it at all.
ETA: if the GOP gets in again and finishes off the economy to the point we all have to turn to crime, we have a ready sucker list of people ready to believe any scam, Republicans.
Happyhippychick
(8,379 posts)markiv
(1,489 posts)because we all know they were thinking racist thoughts when they did it
Warpy
(111,383 posts)It's not whether a parody of names is funny, it's whether you think a whole race of people is inferior enough to keep them under totalitarian control--or just snub at cocktail parties.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,050 posts)When people die, I'm not as comfortable about looking for humor in the situation. But that's about taste, not race.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)- signed Harry Dick.
markiv
(1,489 posts)zappaman
(20,606 posts)pipi_k
(21,020 posts)a choice that says just plain "No", without all the "and I'm not a racist" stuff?
Do people really have to justify themselves?
What are the rules on that, anyway?
I mean, is it really OK to say "I'm not a racist" now? What is it that makes people think they're not racists, while other people are?
And what makes people who accuse others of being racists think it only confirms their belief that the person they accuse really IS a racist when that person says, "I have black friends"?
Does admitting you have black friends really mean you're a racist?
What if we ask the finger-pointers if they have any black friends?
Are people really racists because someone else said they are?
The rules are too complicated to follow.
Anyway, I found the joke hilarious.
But then, I have an extremely warped sense of humor.
PS...not a rant on you personally...just a general observation on how often the term "racism" gets thrown around here
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)Blaukraut
(5,695 posts)We thought they were hilarious and dirty, but obviously not racist. I still chuckle at a couple of them.
MadrasT
(7,237 posts)DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)name not needed
(11,660 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)But two dearly loved family members are Asian Americans who have had to put up with the slanty eye jokes, the "what's it like to eat cats?" cracks, and the ever popular Asian name games. Imo, racist, but admittedly, I ' m emotionally invested.
Meant as a separate OP comment, not to above posters.
tarheelsunc
(2,117 posts)I've seen some of these before, specifically Sum Ting Wong and Ho Lee Fuk, and I've laughed. I don't think it's at all in good taste to use these in connection to this flight though and whoever got this on the air probably deserves a good talking to or suspension.
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's also funny as hell.
It's one of those Andrew Dice Clay-like horrible things. People who disapprove of racism will, nonetheless, laugh at the prank because it is funny, because it was "put over" on a news organization, and because it has a nice dash of xenophobia-lite.
It makes fun of eastern languages (these guys were Korean, but I've heard that "sum ting wong" thing with Chinese jokes as well) and it sounds, on first inattentive blush, plausible. It is only when one pays attention to the entire list that one sees what is going on.
The reason the joke is funny is that "not too many" people died. If the entire planeload of passengers had been killed, that would be deemed extremely poor taste, for mocking a situation where there was so much death.
Because so many people walked away from what looked like an horrific crash, there's a sense of giddy relief, even from those just watching the events on TV. It's that giddy relief that makes it "almost" OK to laugh at the joke. Also, the names describe what was going in in the cockpit, the pilots realized there was something wrong, that they were too low, Holy Fuck! they crashed, and Owwwww, bang, ding, the plane and passengers were banged up and the plane was dinged.
Not that it makes it any "better," but we're not the only racists, or people who insult others based on their country of origin, in the world. Other cultures make brutal fun of those who aren't like them, too, and they also make fun of Americans because they're Americans (regardless of race). The French have that down to a fine art.
This is a Japanese singing group (the Gosperats) that has been "big" for a long time. Look carefully at the backup singers...no, that's not sketchy lighting...they are wearing BLACKFACE.
They've toned it down a LOT over the years (as if that makes it "better" --they used to make it look like Al Jolsen had a light touch.
blogslut
(38,019 posts)However, to me, name/culture jokes are lazy and highlight the ignorance and prejudice of the teller.
Brooklyns_Finest
(789 posts)I live in the bay, and work with many Asian people. They are not hyper sensitive as so many other groups in this country are. In fact, most Asians immigrants understand hat their names sound odd to the average American so when they come here they acquire an American name and give their children American names.
grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)Get what? "Getting it " and " putting up with it " are two different things.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Last name of Dong.
So you can imagine the humor that arises from that, a good portion of which originates from her.
mythology
(9,527 posts)to play off of cultural or racial differences/stereotypes. It's hard to do that well, but for example I find Blazing Saddles utterly hilarious and it's full of racial stereotypes.
But in this instance, where there's just been a major accident, with lots of injuries and multiple deaths, whoever started this, is at best completely tone deaf. I get the black humor thing, but that's usually best left not broadcast on television.
I think there's a difference between going up to a random individual person of an ethnic group and making a comment and making it among friends. For example, last year for a friend's birthday, I got her a book titled "How to be Black" by Baratunde Thurston which she loved. And I even wrapped it in black and white paper because her mom is white and her dad is black. She found it hilarious, but I know other black people I wouldn't give that gift to because it's not their style of humor.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)But try explaining that to the poutraged.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)of one's history, finding it funny may just be more evidence of racism.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)What might sound like a good joke to those outside - might not sound so funny to those inside an identifiable group. For example someone might make a comment that might seem to make light of African-Americans or Jews or Muslims or others. Those inside those groups might very well find some such remarks deeply offensive. - But someone outside such a group might not be aware of the sensitivities involved. I thinks its always best to differ to other peoples sensitivities.
6000eliot
(5,643 posts)The fact that we laughed despite knowing better demonstrates just how deeply racism is ingrained in our culture.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)accident was caused by gross pilot incompetence which is likely to be confirmed by further investigation. I don't think Asiana Airlines wants to draw more attention to that than the accident already has. If the speculation is correct as to the cause of the Accident - Asiana Airlines will be very lucky if they can remain in business after all the legal actions against them.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,201 posts)Nimean_Tiger
(1 post)but anyone who gets upset at those that find it funny are overly sensitive PC morons.
uppityperson
(115,681 posts)LeftinOH
(5,359 posts)INEPT on the part of the TV station for failing to notice they had been pranked.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)and I'd say that the average American is pretty ignorant about Asia and doesn't mind being ignorant (about that or anything else).
I'm reminded of the incident on King of the Hill in which Hank asks his new Asian immigrant neighbor, "Are you Chinese or Japanese?"
"We're from Cambodia."
(Pause). "So are you Chinese or Japanese?"
This sounds like an exaggeration, but I've heard things almost as stupid.
This incident was especially offensive because someone snuck these fake names into reports of an incident in which two (now three) Chinese teenagers (most likely their parents' only children) died and many people were seriously injured. Barrel of laughs.
Imagine a news report in which someone tried to sneak in fake African-American names or fake Jewish names or fake Latino names. How would that go over?
The Asiana pilots had real names:Li Kangguk and Li Jungmin. NOT
Hosnon
(7,800 posts)(Didn't feel appropriate to vote claiming I'm not a racist at all.)
snooper2
(30,151 posts)pokerfan
(27,677 posts)It's just wordplay. Like Bart Simpson's prank calls: Al Coholic, Oliver Klozoff, I.P. Freely, Jacques Strap, Seymour Butz, Mike Rotch, Ivana Tinkle, etc.
This, however, is racist (Rush Limpballs warning):
onenote
(42,782 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Tikki
(14,560 posts)stooopid talking heads try to be funny. They are not now nor will any of them ever be The Daily Show.
They are just puppets yakking away wearing a plunging neckline and dyed, styled up hair.
Tikki
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Other possibilities exist. Idiot. Ignorant. Not very good at speaking English.
About covers it.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)Bay Boy
(1,689 posts)Hah, I'm kidding, she's an idiot. I mean serious, you read the words Sum Ting Wong in regards to an airplane crash and you don't figure something is amiss? Then she's smart enough to say Ho Lee Fook instead of Ho Lee Fuck but still doesn't catch on? White people are so gullible.
Vogon_Glory
(9,133 posts)I suspect that Koreans (both North and South) have rude jokes about Caucasians and Caucasian names.
I doubt we'll ever hear them; they probably don't translate well.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)Xyzse
(8,217 posts)Seriously though, have to learn not to take oneself too seriously.
Life is too short, laugh at everything.