To Woke, or not to Woke. Mr. Apu on the Simpsons.

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I'm not disputing that. But in popular media there's no attempt to "caricature" or "stereotype" white folk in the same way. The Simpson's Apu had it's day. It drew a few giggles. Now....the whole venture of having a white actor cosplay foreign accents is kind of coming to an end. So let's embrace this end of an era.

Borat still lurks as another somewhat funny but poorly thought off attempt to make money out of caricaturing and stereotyping this time a central Asian people. I doubt the Kazakh people are exposed to Borat anymore than people living in India are exposed to the Simpsons. Neither groups have made a big issue over the characters.

Apu still remains a piece of history in the world of animated fiction. I'm sure that will provide you some solace in case you have nightmares about woketivists

If the filmmakers of Borat had cast a South Asian in the role, would that have made it a better movie then? I mean I think the idea of the movie, was for a guy to go around fooling people into thinking he was a made up character. So if the goal is to fool people, does the character need to be cast so accurately therefore?

A rags to riches story is always popular regardless of where you are in the world.

I've never actually noticed a stereotype of minorities having to work harder to achieve the same. I know a lot minorities work harder, but I associate it with actually achieving more like a pushy Indian parent forcing their son to do a PhD or a South Korean ending up in a high flying job.

Asians in particular have been stereotyped as actually being more intelligent than their Caucasian counterparts and a group of people to be nervous about if locked in a battle of capitalism.

Part of the reason I haven't bought a shop myself is because people like Apu have already undercut me before I even start.

What about a character like Khan from show the King of the Hill... In those show, the joke is is that Khan is smarter than all the white characters he lives among, so people say the show makes Asians look bad, if the Asian is smarter than all the white characters?

Khan probably is smarter. Apu is also very intelligent. I remember one episode where Apu said he graduated from a university top of his class (which he stated was a class of something stupid, like 3 million).

Bart then went on to pull a single card out of Apu's final end of university project piece and ruined it, a clear sign of how complex it was, forcing Apu to throw the entire project in the bin over that single misplaced card.

Apu isn't actually portrayed in a bad light. He has some good and the occasional bad in him like most character on that show. He's considerably more competent and thoughtful than most characters on the show.

Borat is brilliant just the way it is. It's pure satire and Kazakhstan was picked because nobody really knows much about it so couldn't pick apart the character Sacha made.

Glad we are on the same page

hmmm that's a valid point. Probably not. The funny aspect is the awkwardness he creates.

I guess that's a positive portrayal. Back on the topic I think the character of Raj in Big Bang theory is on one hand positive in that he's really smart/educated and get's the girls...but if you go on reddit his character is really hated by the Indian community in the US. Perhaps jealousy

He doesn’t “get the girls.” He is almost mute around girls unless he’s drunk—at least until recently.

Indians might object to him because he’s “too Americanized,” and goes against his more traditional parents.

Thats part of the joke. India is such a crowded high population country that they had his graduating class have three million people.

That's pretty funny. I don't understand why humor cannot involve things like what can happen in an extremely populated country or something like that.

There seems to be this obsession now that actors have to accurately reflect who they are playing. For example, I am trying to break into the filmmaking industry and I have tried acting in a few productions in order to learn more about directing.

I am autistic and some people might say, hey give this autistic actor some autistic characters to play, since that seems to be the narrative right now. But I have played parts of NT characters so far. Should I be cancelled because I played characters that were not autistic?

But also, there was a movie production, I was on, where in the script, there was a character who's sexual orientation was not specified because it was not a major character and the character's sexual orientation had no revelance to the plot at all, and the character's only function was drive some plot points forward. However, after they cast an actor in the role who turned out to be gay, they decided to give the character a gay boyfriend, but I found this to be a strangely unnecessary move to the plot and feels like they only did it just because the actor was gay in real life.

But it just seems trivial and kind of dumb to me how there is this movement that actors have to play characters that are accurate to themselves in real life.

The notion is that characters who belong to disadvantaged minorities (like Blacks, autistics, gays) should be played by actors who are also of that minority if for no other reason than to give actors of that minority jobs. Which is ok with me. But I dont fanatically demand it of Hollywood. And its probably hard to find qualified actors who really belong to as tiny a group as autistics (1.5 percent of the general population) at the drop of a hat anyway.

The opposite is not worried about (autistics playing NTs, or gays playing straights, and no one casts Blacks to play Whites nor the opposite).

In the old Hollywood of the 1930s you would see nonwhite characters being played by White actors. Detective Charlie Chan would be assisted by his two grown sons who were both actually played by Asian American actors, but Charlie Chan himself was always played by a White guy.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 05 Sep 2022, 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oh okay. Well it's just that I, an austistic person have gotten acting parts playing NT characters so far. So therefore, I feel it would be hypocritical of me to criticize say an NT actor for playing an autistic character, when I myself, have done just the opposite, and just feel it would be hypocritical of me therefore.

My point is that it "doesnt work that way". it doesnt have that kind of symmetry.

Handicapped folks presumably lack opportunities and get less employment than do the able bodies. So some folks argue that its wrong for an able bodied actor to be used to play handicapped characters when real handicapped folks are presumably available for the roles.

Autistics presumably get fewer jobs,and have fewer opportunities than do NTs. So why give the job of playing an autistic to a NT actor? It seems more unfair than doing the opposite casting. And also autistics are forced to conform to the NT world, but NTs typically dont even know we autistics even exist. So they dont know the "autistic experience" as well as an autistic would.

Thats the thinking anyway. Not saying if I agree nor disagree.

Jim parsons is a NT gay guy. But he plays an autistic straight guy on the BBT sitcom. Darryl Hannah is the rare celeb who is open about being officially dxd with aspergers, but she has a long career of playing NT characters. There was a normal IQ actor on LA Law who was great as a ret*d character. And so on.

I understand that the symmetry is different technically, it's just that I feel that I cannot approve of the double standard, because even if people try to say there is a different symmetry, it still feels hypocritical of me, to disapprove of NT people having autistic roles, when I myself, have had the opportunity of being granted NT roles. I get that there may be a distinction but I feel I have to be a 100 percent, non- double standardish on this, because of my blessings, if that makes sense?

Another thing for me to consider is, there was a movie production that I auditioned for where I auditioned to play an autistic character. I thought I would be good for it since I am autistic as well. I did also mention this to the producers when auditioning. But I didn't get that part. Yet I have gotten these other NT parts. So I guess my attitude is fine, if you would rather cast me for NT parts, then I will take them. So I can't get mad therefore, if they cast NT actors in autistic parts, since they wouldn't cast me for an autistic part but will cast me for NT parts. But I guess that is the attitude I developed based on my experience if that makes sense.