Question
Dear minions,
What exactly is funny about Stuff white people like ? Now don't tell me joke is in stereotyping, I get stereotyping humour, problem is for it to work there must be some distinctive identity to stereotype. In most of the cases it is either ethnic (Jewish, Asian etc) or professional (Doctor, Lawyer). Now there is no distinctive "white" identity, Irish yes, Italian sure, even redneck/cracker but white, no way.
Now one may plead metaness, that this is a satire on propensity to stereotype ethnicities mostly in a negative way, which is all well and good for one or two times in a Onion way, but for so long! Seriously Joke has overstayed its welcome laddies, time to move on.
Update : One of my loyal minions is confounded. No white people != WASP. WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) can be more accurately applied at North-East US, that is New England, some features, puritan heritage, urban, intellectually active, liberal. Also known as Yanks. In contrast those in southern US, although white are termed as redneck/cracker (both terms highly derogatory).
1 comments:
Dear Dic(tator) :-),
The thing is, the author is writing about white americans. You can call them WASPs if you please (White Alglo-Saxon Protestant), that is what most of them are. And most of the things written about them are so true and stereotypical, I just could not stop smiling!
Here's some more stereotyping for you: Stuff "Bhaiyyas like" (I know, when a non-Bhaiyya uses this term, it may invoke racist/castiest connotations. Far from it, my intention is to create humor)
1. Politics
2. Litti / Chura / Ghujiya
3. Regional language (Bhojpuri/Magadhi etc. instead of Hindi)
4. Something else
I think you can write similar stuff about the ghatis, since you have been living in Pune for sometime
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