'Mr. Patel' Cartoon: Racism is Hilarious!

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February 12, 2009

I recently came across the cartoon series Mr. Patel at hulu.com. The webisodes, created by UK company Zac Toons, features the adventures of a wacky middle-aged South Asian man, who predictably owns a QuickE Mart-ish corner shop. At only two minutes an episode, I watched the entire first season.

It's pretty lame, with the comic relief pandering to Mr. Patel's accent and ethnic idiosyncrasies. His favorite activities include lusting after busty white ladies and hawking reincarnated sausages. Oh -- and um, there's a gay elephant with a bowel movement problem. Some segments are actually really gross -- and not in that ha-ha John Watersian way -- just plain disgusting.

Each webisode also includes a tacky "Hindi" font, Bollywoodish music, and cringe-worthy titles like "Sausage Swami," "Korma Chameleon," and "Fists of Curry." Because contrived Asian references are an inexhaustible mine of comedy gold! I find this not only offensive, but so uninspired and played out. When Eddie Murphy created The PJs, the public (including Spike Lee and the NAACP) was quick to call out the racist undertones of the show. Mr. Patel is just another example, and also deserving of being called out by communities of color.

With its cliched stereotypes, Mr. Patel struck me as a cross between those vile Mr. Wong cartoons and Simpsons-style Apu jokes (yes, Mr. Patel also operates a slurpy machine).

Remember that Mr. Wong show on icebox.com? It starred a jaundiced, buck-toothed, heavily-accented Chinese houseboy (voiced by South Park writer Kyle McCulloch).

Debuting in 2000 and lasting 14 episodes, Mr. Wong caught flak from the Asian American community for its racist caricatures. While perhaps not as overtly and virulently racist, Mr. Patel definitely took me back there. Well, at least Mr. Patel's alter-ego is an ass-kicking pimp.

Uh-oh, I know I just threw the R-word around here. Readers: take a look at the episodes and let me know what you think. Maybe my militancy has trumped my sense of humor (although I will probably disagree with you).

Posted by Cynthia at February 12, 2009 7:38 AM

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3 Comments

rage said:

This bullshit sucks.

February 13, 2009 5:12 AM

Bang said:

There's a thin line between racism and comedy, and this definitely isn't comedy. I don't even think Russell Peters would make South Indian jokes like this, they're so f'n cliched! We really need to get a group of Asian folks together to make an episode of King of the Hill so white people see what the difference is between making fun of your own race (Mike Judge doing King of the Hill) vs making fun of ANOTHER race (Mr. Wong and Mr. Patel). Or we should start raising awareness among the Korean animators so they know what they're drawing!

February 13, 2009 11:03 PM

James said:

This isn't even funny. Doesn't compare to jokes utilized in Harold and Kumar and in Russell Peters' stand-up comedies. The jokes are overdone and would probably only appeal to dumbass white people who have no sense of culture.

April 7, 2009 2:23 PM