By Andrew Cheng

By Andrew Cheng

By Andrew Cheng

Here is something a little different that David So did. Unlike most of his videos, this is when he talks more about himself than others. Here is when he talks about what most people has been or is going through now: having your first crush. And instead of one video, he has done a 4-part series of this topic. Each part - except the last one - has cliffhangers which causes some dramatic, but somewhat comedic effects. Check them all out!

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQYHx54vcc

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgfuNNuHBbc

By Andrew Cheng

Written by Kim Chu           

 So I’ll make this entry a little less formal like the previous ones. I guess this is acceptable because it’s tumblr. Recently, since it’s been for class, I’ve been watching a lot of Aziz Ansari’s stand up. I figured I wanted to write about him because, well for a couple reasons. One because I love stand-up comedy, it amusing and admirable to see people stand up and talk to a mass of people and try to make them laugh as a profession. It’s hard, because different people find different things as funny. Also, because Aziz is an Asian American stand-up comedian. That in itself isn’t very common because of the whole model minority thing, but because of that, I wanted to know, if he, as a brown guy would make a difference in the way people perceive Asians. I’m not a connoisseur in any sort of the sense, but I’ve seen comedy on both ends. For example, take Dat Phan; when I was in middle school and high school I didn’t know any better and for the most part because I identified with his experience, I thought that Asians making self-deprecating jokes as the majority of their act was funny. Sometimes it was funny would those experiences were so relatable. Nowadays, I’ve seen other *hilarious* acts like Aamer Rahman (and his piece “Reverse Racism”) where the act consists of cleverly done political commentary into comedy. I know that Aamer’s type of comedy is really hard to come by because the comments are tailored to a very particular audience who can appreciate race conscious, news conscious, social justice-y sort of comedy.

And then I tried comparing that to Aziz’s acts. Aziz’s comedy, from what I’ve noticed, is mainly not about being Asian like Dat, but also is definitely not PC like Aamer. Aziz tends to have a lot of silly mundane sort of jokes that are self-deprecating but have a really hilarious twist at the end. His comedy incorporates satire and he does display that he is race conscious (like with his James Franco roast) but he never goes beyond that level.

*another clip about racism* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsFjewV4QZc

I think that I appreciate his comedy because he is able to avoid pitting Asians and other people of color at the butt of his jokes for the most part and I can’t really blame him for not becoming more political. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, and I can understand. I find myself laughing more at his wit when he makes more imaginative remarks whether it be as insults (see the hippo part or mac and cheese part from “dangerously delicious”)

or just as quips from lived experiences as he talks with Jimmy Fallon here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiLaukbxQMs