Saturday Night Live‘s mock screen tests of Hollywood actors interpreting a film adaptation of 50 Shades of Gray seemed promising:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/542157
Then this happened:
Yup, that’s comedienne Nasim Pedrad in drag (yay!) and brownface (boo!) dressed up as Aziz Ansari; to her credit, she pulls off a remarkable impersonation of Ansari. But again, brownface? This comes in a season where SNL has added six new cast members — all white. It also comes at an auspicious time for South Asians in entertainment: The Mindy Project remains one of the crowning jewels of FOX’s Tuesday night line-up; Ansari himself continues to amuse as Tom Haverford on Parks & Recreation; Naveen Andrews is set to return to the small screen in ABC’s Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (albeit, in a problematic role that we can discuss at another time!) — and a stable of newer faces are finding fans, too, such as Royal Pains‘ Reshma Shetty and even Summer Bishil, of ABC’s now-canceled Lucky 7. If SNL is really that hard-pressed to find some amazing South Asian talent, we recommend they give Lilly Singh a call.
But, to blame Pedrad would be unfair; after all, fellow SNL cast member Fred Armisen helped develop the SNL reputation for putting on brownface for a few laughs. And Pedrad as Ansari isn’t as gauche as, say, Peter Sellers donning brownface to portray a bungling, ignorant-of-the-world Indian actor in the 1968 film The Party.
http://youtu.be/PfWvWRqrAig
It’s hardly the first time in American films that a white actor used brownface for cheap chuckles, but the point remains. For SNL to draw comparisons with a Peter Sellers flick from the ’60s nearly half a century later is troubling. This is just mediocre and anachronistic at best.
Rohin Guha is a contributing editor at The Aerogram. Follow him on Twitter @ohrohin. Find The Aerogram on Twitter @theaerogram.
Um, she’s not white. She’s of Persian descent.
And this isn’t a parody of all South Asian people. It’s a very particular, one person that they are imitating. To even compare it to Peter Sellers makes no sense.
i wasn’t too offended by it personally, though i think the double-standard here is useful to point out. that being said, many persians would be offended to be told they are brown 🙂
Persians are kebab. REMOVE KEBAB remove kebab blalallblsblsb dfgl;s………….
Calling an Iranian “white” is about as stupid as calling an Indian “Asian”…That is simply not what people in America connect with those relative terms.
How does being Persian make it any different? When the gag involves painting your face to play a race/ethnicity you aren’t, just stop. There’s no good outcome to be had.
I thought it was hilarious. Besides Iranians and Indians…Close enough. Aziz can put on some skin lightener and play Nasim if he wants to. I doubt too many Middle Easterners will be whining racism like the South Asian crowd.
Um, I don’t know anyone who watches SNL anymore! But, I agree, that show is still pretty white.
I fall into this category. The last strong season was 2008, with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin & Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. They never really got a good Obama. BTW – Darrell Hammond was awesome as Jesse Jackson.
“I don’t watch it, but let me tell you about the last strong season.”
Key word was “anymore” you smart ass
That doesn’t really modify the criticism, as if you don’t watch it anymore you’re hardly qualified to judge its current quality.
Which is why I referred to a strong season back in 2008. The current cast is rather unremarkable given that no one talks about the show, unless it tries something like this. If you believe one must watch bad TV just to know how bad it really is, that is your choice.
Weirdly, yes, I do believe that you have to actually experience something to be able to offer criticism on it. Crazy how that works.
It is a curious way to value time to insist that you keep watching a show that has not had a memorable season in 5 years.
I don’t insist that you keep watching anything. I’m just pointing out that if you aren’t watching SNL, your opinion on whether or not it is good at the moment can hardly be taken without a rather significant portion of salt. Your argument is circular: you’re not watching it because it isn’t good; it isn’t good because you don’t deem it worthy of watching.
There’s no actual harm in “brownface” which I don’t think is actually a thing. They hire SNL cast members based on talent and probably a bit of a nepotism. The joke wasn’t regarding race or people of south asian decent. And having someone paint their face brown doesn’t negate the rest of the joke. That’s just what aziz looks like. I feel like you’re making a problem where there is none.
The early 1900’s called. They want their outrage back. I wish people would understand what context means. I get the history of blackface and why it was offensive. But this is not that. This is not a refusal to hire an actor based on their skin color. They are not portraying anybody as the bumbling idiot.
DANNY PUDI
So much fucking phony outrage.
Agreed. It’s pathetic.
Dumb, Dumb, Dummmm! Most ridiculous fake outrage ever! Grow up and stop seeing “offense” in everything. Guess what? Your pathetic outrage does nothing to address real racism. In fact, it just shows that there is no balance on any side, with any person. If you did not or do not like or appreciate, then stop watching. Get out of the world, because you are way too easily offended.
This article gets it.
A solid impression never needs the assistance of matching skin tones. It’s all in the mannerisms, cadence, and voice of the performer. Here’s an example on Totally Biased, where a woman does an incredible impression of Tracy Morgan:
Full disclosure: I’m white. But to compare this to blackface is outrageous. Not only does Mr. Guha’s article make him seem like he knows little about the history of that practice, but to say that Armisen “helped develop the SNL reputation” tells me that he doesn’t have much knowledge of the history of SNL (or entertainment in general) prior to 2008. Billy Crystal played a hilarious Sammy Davis, Jr.; Darrell Hammond played a hilarious Jesse Jackson. They (and more) were playing black characters, not black stereotypes. Plenty of the white cast members have played Asian characters, and Native Americans, Mexicans, and South Americans. And there have been black SNL performers in whiteface! Pedrad was not riffing on South Asian stereotypes. For crying out loud, Ansari is a little guy with a high voice. Makes sense to me to get a petite woman to portray him, even if they didn’t have a “brown” one to do it.
And lest we forget, Eddie Murphy did use greenface as Gumby.
Could not have said it better myself.
Stereotypes get you in trouble, character portrayals are usually accepted. Ashton Kutcher was playing a stereotype, Pedrad was playing a person.
What an incredibly lame article. Trying to attach “white guilt” to an Iranian-American actress doing an impression of an Indian-American comedian…I’m sure the Southern Poverty Law Center will get right on it.