Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture.
'Ching-Chong Ding-Dong'
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By Jason Lim
To briefly summarize for those who have been living under a rock, The Colbert Report did a skit mocking Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins, who recently announced the creation of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, founded “to provide meaningful and measurable resources that provide genuine opportunities for Tribal communities.”
This was a fairly transparent attempt by Snyder to build up enough public relations capital to stave off a growing call for him to change the name of his football team because it’s offensive to Native Americans. To do this, he used the same offensive racial epithet in naming his new charity that was supposed to benefit the community that was being offended.
Probably not a wise choice and a natural fodder for a liberal current affairs comedy commentary show like The Colbert Report, who promptly highlighted Snyder’s hypocrisy ― in an exaggerated, outlandish way that a satirical comedy show is wont to do ― by announcing his own “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."
Unfortunately, the following day, the official Twitter account of the show tweeted only the punch line without the context: “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”
This tweet triggered the ire of Suey Park, the hash tag activist known for her #NotYourAsianSidekick online conversation, who immediately started a Twitter campaign to call for the cancellation of The Colbert Report over the offending tweet, quickly driving it to become one of Twitter’s trending topics over the weekend. Admittedly, pretty impressive social media capital.
This soon led to a pretty crazy but predictable online frenzy that attracted equal parts trolls that tweeted violent, racists threats to Park and Asians in general and heated dialogue on race relations in America. It also led to a flood of thoughtful commentary from leading Asian American commentators that touched on everything from the untrustworthiness of white liberals and Asian American’s role in the diversity landscape in the U.S. to twitter bullying and efficacy of online activism in driving change.
Which is all well and good, but the central question still remains: was The Colbert Report funny or offensive?
It depends. The skit was funny; the tweet was offensive. Or, more accurately, I found the skit funny but the tweet offensive.
Others might have found both the skit and tweet funny, or found them both unfunny and offensive. An Asian American could have found one or the other funny when viewing with white friends while offensive when reviewing it with his family. A white liberal could have found both funny, but only in the comfort of his own home. A black liberal could have found the jokes funny privately but be compelled to condemn it publicly.
It all depends on who you are at any one time and place.
Humor is contextual. Not just in the setup of the jokes but in how, when, where, and with whom we first encounter the humor. Most importantly, who we are when we hear the joke.
The best known Asian pop-cultural character in the 1980’s was Long Duk Dong ― the “Donger” ― in Sixteen Candles. Thanks to the hugely popular movie, I went through the rest of high school as the “Wanger” and had random classmates run up and yell, “What’s happening, hot stuff?” to my face.
Was I offended? That depends. We all had nicknames, and the “The Wanger” was mine. Perhaps our social consciousness was not as mature as it would be later in our lives. But, in the context of my relationship with my friends, I wasn’t personally offended because I know that the nickname they gave me wasn’t intended to offend me. It was supposed to be both funny and affectionate. And that was how I took it.
Someone more socially enlightened at the time might not have agreed with me. If he saw me being called, “The Wanger,” by my white Jewish friends on New York City streets, he might feel offended for me. He might even think that I should be offended, although I wasn’t. Or, he might be offended that I wasn’t offended.
Long Duk Dong wouldn’t be funny today. I wouldn’t want my son to be nicknamed “The Wanger” today by his best friends. But that doesn’t mean Long Duk Dong wasn’t funny in 1984 or that I should be retroactively offended by my friends.
So, Park has every right to be offended. And she has the right to voice her displeasure through whatever channels she has available, whether that’s over lunch with her classmates or to her Twitter followers. Further, she has a right to change her mind and found the joke funny at some point in the future and start a #CobertIsHonoraryAsian campaign.
The only thing somewhat troubling in this whole debate was that there was a tendency to define what one should find funny or offensive depending on our ethnocultural membership. Now, that would be racist. Even as an Asian American, I have every right to find “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong” funny and chuckle at my yearbook photo with a subtitle that says, “The Wanger.”
Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. He can be reached at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook.com/jasonlimkoreatimes and @jasonlim2012.