On January 10th, at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, things got a bit hairy and awkward at the Q&A panel for CBS’ new comedy “2 Broke Girls” when critics asked the show creator, Michael Patrick King, of the lazy stereotypical humor, especially in regards to the Asian character Han. King then addresses the complaints that his show propagates ethnic stereotypes with what I can say is a hot mess of a meltdown. (For the full report, check out this thorough detailed article on it.)
However, the highlight of King’s responses in his defense for the show’s usage of stereotypical humor?
“You’re asking me if I was asked by Nina to change the show to make the characters more dimensional? No. The characters are dimensional, and they’re seen in segments of 21 minutes, which limits the amount of dimension you can see.”
So let me get this straight, with that line of thinking, it would take, what, 5 years for characters to become fully dimensional? Please, don’t make me laugh. I’ve seen shows and films that have sculpted fully dimensional characters in 30 seconds so to say that King can’t do that in 21 minutes is sheer lazy thinking. What’s even more priceless is that he defends the usage of ethnic stereotypes with even more stereotypes:
“I think our show is a big, ballsy comedy with a bigger heart than balls…I think that it’s broad and crass and very current. We’re equal opportunity offenders. I like to say that the ‘big story’ about race on our show is that so many are represented. We represent what New York used to be, and now what is currently alive in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Talking about stereotypes, every character when they’re born is a stereotype…this show started with two stereotypes; a blonde and a brunette. And they come with certain stigmas as well that we immediately tried to diffuse and grow.”
One can argue that every character in the show is in some way a stereotype and to that, I would definitely say there is some validity to that. But why does Han stand out the most? To that, I leave it up to you guys. Does he strike as offensive? Or is he funny? Tell me your thoughts in the comment section! Check out the clip down below and see for yourself what the hufflepuff is all about:
