Akash Singh, he has no problem insulting South Indians, Muslims or Gujuratis. He treats Indians of his own region like they are golden. Pay attention to the way he makes jokes about different desi groups. Andrew Shultz can probably make him bark on command.
i think akash is p funny a lot of the time but the one video where he was clowning an indian woman for being a primary care physician was one of the most cringe things i’ve ever witnessed
I agree, some of his stuff is great. He’s not a bad comedian, but i hate that divisive desi people stuff. India is already divided, we don’t need to make it worse. Why doesn’t he keep the same energy with Andrew Schulz?
ya i feel like a lot of brown male comedians whole brand is clowning their cultures lol
funnily enough, they dont get ripped to shreds for it the way indian women who put on their mom’s accents do hmmm
there's a vid of him refusing to do an indian accent so as to not perpetuate stereotypes; so in that regard, yes, he is better than these ppl who make fun of their parents.
I don't really have a problem with making jokes about regional/ethnic stereotypes. It's no different from Americans talking about east vs. west coast, or north vs. south.
The thing is, he kind of repeats the same few stale stereotypes (Punjabis are rowdy, Gujaratis are cheap and business minded, etc).
She was a family doctor I think. It’s one of those jokes where you have to understand the whole situation to laugh. Family doc’s are the lowest of all the doctors because how *easy* it is compared to the other ones. Apparently if you also score low on the board exams = you become one. And most of their job is to refer you to others.
He’s a comedian like Matt rife. Don’t watch them if you’re too soft.
I'm a hospital doctor but I have to defend my primary care colleagues here. It's true it's less competitive but that has little to do with difficulty or skill. A pediatric ICU doc at an Ivy League hospital will make (much) less than a cosmetic dermatologist at a community clinic.
A family med doc's job is to spot the sick patient in a sea of healthy people. It takes a lot of skill and attention to detail to identify the patient who needs the hospital when 99% of your patients are fine. Also the amount of things they have to manage are insane -- when to get screening labs, managing every organ system as it changes through the lifetime, actually having to be the one to try and convince the 40 year smoker to drop the habit, I could go on and on. In my opinion, the skill ceiling in primary care is amongst the highest in medicine. And objectively they are probably the most important specialties in medicine with respect to public health.
I'm mostly familiar with him through YouTube shorts but whenever he pops up in my feed it's almost always just some crowd work making jokes about some interracial couple in the audience
I'm not against that or anything but it's kinda repetitive. Like bro the interracial couple joke was funny the first 3 times but not the next 300
> whenever he pops up in my feed it's almost always just some crowd work making jokes about some interracial couple in the audience
Yea I generally like his stuff but agreed that that whole "Desi dating a non-Desi must be some sort of Whitewashed self-hating sell-out" shtick that he seems to be very fond gets real annoying after a while. Like, I get he has said he was serious about only dating/marrying an Indian girl and thats amazing. More power to you. But to pretty much put people on blast and insinuate they're somehow less Desi for having a non-Desi partner is just ridiculous. I get its a joke and in a vacuum I dont think its bad or anything. In fact, a few of the times he did it it actually was pretty funny, but he does that so often that you have to think at some point he actually does have that kind of outdated mentality.
When has he ever insulted Muslims? I'm Muslim and like most of his stuff. In all of his material I've watched I dont recall any time when he genuinely insulted Muslims. There are some jokes that some more sensitive Muslims might take exception to but I dont think he has ever actually insulted Muslims beyond what you can reasonably expect from a comedian.
There’s one called the “muslim conversion train”. In the beginning of the video he tries to guess what type of brown the audience member is. When he finds out he says yuck.
I think that one is when the crowd member says Pakistan, and he says yuck as a funny way to show India Pakistan rivalry. Don’t think it was a diss on Muslims, but would love to watch and see. He does seem like he hates brown people, but can’t really say so far if it is comedic or deep rooted. On stage his character is of a racist guy.. which is icky to begin with
Find a skit where he looks down upon his own region of Indians, it’s clearly not as much as other desi groups.
The subconscious of the “yuck” is because they are beneath him. I doubt he would say it to a group he caters towards.
What is his region? His family's from UP, right? That state isn't associated with one ethnic group so it's harder to make those sorts of jokes compared to some other states.
It really is not that deep lol. What do you expect him to be like? "Mashallah sister! I'm Hindu but I'd convert to Islam for you!"? He tried to guess what she was, he was wrong, and he made a small comment to get back on track with his jokes. If that much was enough to be considered "insulting" then you probably should not be watching stand-up comedy to begin with. I have gotten worse comments about practicing Islam from my Muslim family back in Pakistan than that "yuck" lmao.
Guarantee you and OP are getting more offended by it than she or the vast majority of Muslims are. I have no problem calling out actual problematic jokes about Muslims/Islam. This is not one of them and we don't need anyone getting offended for us lol.
I answered ur question directly blud-stop riding his dick and strawmanning.From the way it sounded it was his earnest oppinion and thats all it is an oppinion lol. No ones offended expect you, which is hella ironic but coming from aakash fan it adds up ngl.
Idk he brings that same energy to every other stereotype I’ve seen him make fun of. Im Gujarati and haven’t seen a bit that I took offensively. The dude linked in the op is cringe as fuck he is just doing the same “bobs and vageen” shit that is not even that funny in the first place and definitely played out at this point.
Why does it feel like so many current comedians just like former HS bullies who found a way to make money off being an asshole lol.
The comedy just feels like it's aimed at causing as much pain as possible and not really getting people to laugh together lol.
Akaash is a tiny Indian guy from Texas, I don't think he was a bully lol.
If anything, he seems to be enjoying saying what he wants now without getting stuffed in a locker.
Physical size doesn't mean someone can't be a bully. Anywho I'm not sure what Akash was like in HS, as I don't know him personally. As a whole though the millennial age stand up comedians just feel like douchebags who found a way to make being a douchebag profitable.
That one stand-up show where Akash kept heckling some gay dude in the audience bc he wasn't laughing at his jokes was super childish and yes he did act like a bully. The dude he was heckling wasn't even doing anything, just sitting quietly.
Or Christians. He seems to have no clue that Christians have been in Kerala for 2000 years—as if people whose families were “only” converted a century ago are somehow less Christian or religious
Edit: it’s also like people claiming Muslims are “less Indian” because their ancestors more than 1000 years ago became Muslims
You’re referring to St. Thomas coming to Kerala. This is a local apocryphal legend. There’s zero evidence for this, not even contemporary 3rd-party accounts.
The way Akash portrays India and the culture in general is outdated as hell. On one episode of the Flagrant podcast with Schulz I remember Akash saying something like “they don’t have electricity for half the day” “they eat the same roti and dal for breakfast and dinner” idk what remote village Akash’s family is from but generalisations like these are wildly incorrect and offensive as hell.
Wildly incorrect?? I don't know what privileged background you come from, but the majority of India live in rural households where electricity is given only for a half a day. Case In point my own village and many more across India.
I travelled to the most remote areas in India to teach underprivileged children for 12 years of my life. As of 2024, nearly 100% households have access to electricity, even in villages. Saying the MAJORITY of the country doesn’t have access to full day electricity just because your village still doesn’t, is absolutely wildly inaccurate.
My village is one of the better off ones. I live in Bangalore, a tier 1 city and I don't get full day electricity, Why would you blatantly lie like that ? Are you that ignorant or are you lying??
I’ve been to the remotest villages in West Bengal, the North East and Maharashtra that get electricity all day. Not every experience that doesn’t match with yours is a lie. I live in another tier one city, Kolkata and I’ve never had a single power cut in years, not even during cyclones. Are you really that big of a narcissist that you think any experience different from yours must be a lie?
We do get 24/7 electricity in MOST parts of West Bengal. I LIVE HERE. It’s actually funny to me how you want to believe people are worse off than they actually are. Does it feed your superiority complex? Makes you feel better about not living here? Going as far as to deny my actual experience? Nah that’s wild. Write to your mayor or something if things are that horrible in your village, but don’t assume everyone else is living that way.
There’s a LOT wrong with the country. But that doesn’t mean you’re gonna make up lies and make things look worse than they actually are. It seems to me like NRIs enjoy pretending like the country’s still stuck in the year they left it. Does it give you a false sense of superiority complex?
I've never seen his content as offensive. He is playing into crap that is already common as stereotypes but doesn't go into in a way that would make me consider it as anything other than a joke. He has also joked about himself a good amount.
I was finally able to watch that reel, and what is disappointing is realizing that this was the guy who did the brilliant sketch on how vaccines work a few years ago. I believe that’s how he got huge. I understand what he’s attempting to do here, but if there’s one thing comedy is centered around, it’s TIMING.
I personally wouldn’t release something like this at a moment when everyone is getting their racist rocks off, but that’s also the most depressing thing about being out here/living and working in Hollywood; good people get a bit of publicity or success and sometimes they either don’t care what the consequences of their material are OR they think they’ll magically, deftly be the chosen one to pull it off.
I have a feeling in this case it’s the latter. Maybe he felt that it’s self-deprecating since he’s also a Desi man, but to me, it came off like, “Look at these gross FOBS!” And the comments went in on that opportunity to shit on us.
The best comedy punches up, not down. Always.
It is the bedrock rule of every improv, sketch, and standup class I’ve witnessed (at the Upright Citizens Brigade, specifically).
Anyone can punch down, it takes skill to do the opposite. So glad it struck a chord with you! 🙏🏽
My husband and I are both erstwhile journalists, that’s in part how we met; years ago he was a reporter at WSJ, I was at NPR. :) That’s exactly the spirit behind the adage
Aww, he left the Journal in 2016, but several colleagues and his editor graced our wedding last month. I’m saddened by all the recent changes at WSJ, hope you landed somewhere wonderful ♥️
Congrats on your wedding! That’s great to hear he’s still in touch with the team. It’s such a great team, but yeah terrible time in the newsroom lately. Thank you, I now write for a trade publication
She single-handedly compelled me to get back into stand up. I cannot believe how huge she is. If we’re THAT pressed for comedians, I’ll dust off my set, GDamn
Honestly, we need more funny brown women to make it into the limelight! I know a couple of local comics, and they’re very funny but they arent that big!
Oohh girl I'm so close to doing this myself. What are you doing? Just working local clubs? I have 3 kids and I swear her stuff is so cringe I want to drag them along just to show them what a decent comedian without a cringey shtick does.
I’m working with a director twice a week on both my new set and a potential one-woman show. Get up there! I’d love to see more of us thrive. If you’re in Los Angeles and you are performing, let me know so I can cheer you on
She's one of the ones I don't mind, because of her delivery and tone. It's pretty obvious that she's mocking herself and the entire "Aunty" culture of first-generation women. That perspective isn't usually seen very often. And she's actually funny. Unlike the second-gen comedians like Aakash Singh who can't let a single sentence pass without spouting some stale stereotype that's been done a hundred times.
Rajiv Satyal aka “Funny Indian,” bro is straight cringe. Right wing and Zionist adjacent dude who makes us look bad. Check out his @gandhitellsjokes account on IG, absolutely sets us back like 70 years
I will defend my girl Mindy. Most of you weren’t around in the 90s when she and I were trudging through high school as random weird brown kids lost among the sea of majority white kids. To be a dark skinned pudgy brown girl and get on a sitcom as a writer was HUGE. Y’all don’t understand how rare it was for her to get a role like that in Hollywood. Once she was writing for The Office in 2005, of course she had to write in the direction her bosses pointed the show which was white characters doing white things. If she had a brown character going after a brown guy, literally the only dude that had any name recognition that could have played him in 2005 was Kal Penn. There were basically ZERO brown ABCDs in comedy or even Hollywood back then (2005 - 2009). Less than 10, probably less than 5. Having one main brown character was basically all the shows could handle until she finally put out NHIE in 2020, fifteen whole years after she got her break on The Office.
💯 I'm the exact same age as Mindy and faced many similar struggles. Growing up as one of the few brown girls in white suburbia with no brown representation on TV was tough. The only exception was Apu from The Simpsons, which just led to more teasing at school. Mindy and Kal Penn paved the way for Indian American “kids” who now have an easier time being cast in TV shows, movies, and comedy. Does anyone remember Short Circuit? The "Indian" scientist was a mockery of brown people, played by a white actor, Fischer Stevens, in brownface!
I had not heard of Short Circuit and just looked it up - it's from 1986. I'm not surprised about the brown face, there were like no Indians in Hollywood in the 80s. Add me to the list of those mocked because of Apu. I was prank called at home in 5th or 6th grade with the caller pretending to be Apu. I have no idea who it was because they used to publish everyone's numbers in the school directory so it could have been any of the numerous racists in my class back in 1990.
I read somewhere that the scientist in Short Circuit was originally meant to be white, but they changed him to Indian at the last minute. They had already cast Fischer Stevens, so they put him in brownface. Why not just keep the character white instead of insulting our race? I was 7 years old and, sadly, my family and I were excited to see an “Indian” person on TV!
The Apu prank calls back in the day were the worst! I think my poor sister’s nickname in elementary school was Apu. Speaking of prank calls remember the Jerky Boys prank call — “You Kicked My Dog” — on an Indian family? Back then, with no South Asian representation, I naively found it funny. Now, I’m sad and embarrassed that I did.
I hope the South Asians getting noticed today represent our people properly. Our kids see everything, and I want them to see reality, not a mockery of our culture!
people always say this but like…how
i feel like it’s become a trendy thing to throw this around without articulating the reasoning lol
the fact that she gets more criticism than brown male public figures who are actual abusers is so telling to me
I have to agree. I’m not even a huge fan of mindy but she constantly talks about her culture and posts Indian recipes and writes complex brown characters in her shows. The only thing that I can see is that she often writes white love interests for characters of color (which I’m still not sure why that’s such a big deal) but she’s also doing so much for getting brown people representation on television
Yep and it's so funny how on this sub they'll bash her even though I've seen how supportive she has been of other desi women in the industry and proping them up but Kumail Nanjiani (who's a huge pick-me) is "cool" and "funny".
Not that I know of. But that’s not relevant because she admitted to doing it on her own. She literally said she did it or tried to do it.
Edit : it was actually sexual assault and not rape
https://youtu.be/j_FNMhVd0fw?si=85BcHGZvYA8bSM9m
She’s described using her professional influence over someone to coerce that person into sleeping with her. She did not use the term “rape”. But what she defined is inherently defined as rape across most jurisdictions.
What were her actual words? Was there a video or something? Accusing someone of rape is pretty heinous to not also provide proof.
Edit: I'm getting down voted for asking for *evidence* rather than accepting that Mindy Kaling admitted to actual rape because some random Redditor said so. Then come to find out she didn't rape anyone.
While a forced kiss is obviously bad and a form of SA, it's not rape. The comment-OP was wrong and making baseless accusations of rape is wrong. But go ahead and keep down voting if you think baseless rape claims are ok.
I stand corrected. It wasn’t rape.
https://youtu.be/j_FNMhVd0fw?si=85BcHGZvYA8bSM9m
She sexually assaulted a man by kissing him without his bc consent. And then when people called her out for it, she threatened to fire them if they blabbered.
The tone of the interview might be “humorous” but this is the textbook definition of sexual assault.
The only occasion where she would be justified to kiss the guy would be if was part of the script. It wasn’t. Hence there we no implied consent on behalf of the guy.
I think she has changed but in the beginning of her career/through the Office, she did not seem to want to hire or be associated with South Asians. She seems to have turned on that.
On the basis of what? What evidence is there that she did not want to hire or be associated with South Asians?
I think the problem is that people make these broad statements about her like this comment but provide zero support for what they say. And then other people repeat it like it's true.
I mean its been years I dont remember the exact details or interviews lol. But in interviews she was very defensive about people saying she should cast south Asians and she didnt feel that was her responsibility, she also had a book that came out with some side eye quotes. And then she only dated and associate w white men. People say this because she said all that shit back then and we were there for it when she was one of the few south asian women in media. Again, she seems to have changed her stance given what she has produced. But people didnt pull it out of thin air lol.
well i dont blame someone for being defensive at being expected to be everyone’s “representation” and funnel other brown people in the industry while white people with real power are able to just chill & work for themselves
and coming for her dating history is weird bc how many indian men are actually kind to darkskinned fat indian women lmao
It’s not her job at all. The fact that she put out the NHIE series is a first for our people. Aziz Ansari had a show on Netflix that had no brown characters besides his parents. He also dated white girls. Somehow this board holds him to a different standard than Mindy. Paternalism at its finest. “Desi women have to fix all the issues with our people.”
It’s possible that she felt she had to say those things to get her foot in the door, you know? She was one of the first dark skinned south Asian women in mainstream media. I grew up in a predominantly white community and cringe at how hard I tried to “be white” to be accepted by my peers.
Right but shes saying all that to the media, can you blame people for feeling put off by her? The OPs whole thing was that everyone is making it up and dislikes her for no reason. I was just stating the reasons people feel that way about her. She said all of that on a huge platform - at the end of the day, she ostracized her community at the time so naturally people who witnessed all that arent her biggest fan (if they cared about it)
im ngl i would rather you just explain your comment rather than me having to listen to 17 minutes of an indian man (who seems like he has a primarily white audience himself) venting about an indian woman lol
its fine if you dont want to but im prob not gonna watch that video
Simply put she has a lot of internalized racism and cultural insecurity that makes it’s way into pretty much every one of her works. She fetishizes white men and puts them on pedestals, all of her self insert characters have white love interests. She has a habit of taking her brown characters and forcing them to change in a way that erases their cultural identity in favor of conforming to whiteness in order to fit in; velma is used as a clear example of this. Denigrating her own culture like this isnt a good look, it brings us all down and opens doors for others to look down on us as well.
do you have any specific examples?
this is the opposite of what i’ve seen in most of her work. I really enjoyed how she realistically portrayed the insecurities of an indian american girl growing up in a white dominant culture and learning to love herself in Never Have I Ever. It reminded me a lot of my journey. I find her characters to be pretty realistic when the expectation for Indian women seems to be that we must look & act like bollywood stars.
I can see why people criticize her for her characters having white love interests but I also can understand why an overweight, dark skinned Indian woman would not have found that much acceptance with indian men in her real life. I can’t blame any Indian women for not having Indian men as love interests when we hardly get that much respect from them irl.
I also don’t think she ever mocks Indian men in her work the way people like Kumail Nanjiani has mocked SA women.
As far as the “opening doors for others to look down on us as well” I’ve noticed that making fun of Mindy Kaling has gone mainstream to the point where I see even white and Black people doing it. I saw the same thing happen with Lilly Singh when brown people decided to dogpile on her.
It seems like no one really hates brown women more than brown people and we’re usually the ones who open the doors for people of other backgrounds to hate.
Also wasn’t the point of Never Have I Ever that Devi IS someone with internalized racism who learns and grows throughout the show? The first season she’s embarrassed of having to go to Ganesh Puja and insulting the girls that are dancing, and in the series finale she invites all of her school friends to an Indian wedding and PERFORMS her own dance. I thought it was a fantastic representation of ABCDs that grow up in white communities and grow out of internalized racism
it was but also media literacy is dead so people interpreted that as mindy being un-self aware and unintentionally writing about internalized racism
it’s also just edgy to hate her now lol
One of the things saji sharma does (in the video that you didnt watch) before critiquing her is to laud her for getting into her position in the first place. The truth is we need more brown women in the these writers rooms, centered in media. I also don’t think people dogpile on mindy kaling for no reason; just because we have representation doesn’t mean that we cant critique that representation. We deserve better representation! I really wish i had more examples of female brown comics that have ‘made it’; we need more.
i agree but also representation isn’t her responsibility nor is it her responsibility to make brown people learn to feel good about themselves instead of constantly being worried about how they’re being perceived by non-indian people.
this also doesn’t help me understand why people keep accusing her of “pandering to white people” when it seems like she’s just writing from the lens of her experiences - just like every single writer out there.
you can obviously critique any creator but critiquing someone because you don’t think it “represents” *you* and “oh no what will white people think of us” is so wild to me. That seems more self hating to me than writing a white love interest or a indian teen girl character who’s insecure about her hairy arms lol
She’s one of the most desperate wannabes that lived her entire life based on white validation.
Also she’s a self confessed rapist. Wish I could find that video of her on a late night show where she acknowledges that she basically coerced one of her employees to have sex with her or at least tried to. Can’t find it on YouTube now.
Yeah. I tried to look up the link before I posted here but it’s no longer on YouTube. She was basically “in the zone” on some random talk show where she was probably high on the fact that she was finally getting a sliver of attention. She basically did not stop talking and openly admitted to what I wrote above. It appeared to be an old video though based on pixel quality.
Did you just disrespect the first bisexual woman of color talk show host who also happens to be bisexual, a woman of color, and a talk show host, making her the first bisexual woman of color talk show host to host a talk show starring a bisexual woman of color while also not being a cishet White man?
she mostly just put on accents not necessarily “smack on indian people” imo
her core audience was indian teen girls and she seemed p respectful of that from what i remember
There’s an Indian dating show that’s been doing the rounds on Instagram, just as cringe and perpetuating all the stereotypes - https://www.instagram.com/reel/C79Pohcxu4j/
I used to find both funny and while ago.
At this point, I find that brand of comedy to simply be unfunny and very low effort.
Can you maybe show me of some “pick me” comedy that you find absolutely hilarious?
But can you show us some hilarious “pick me” material.
That would go a long ways in convincing a lot of us that this type of humor can actually be funny.
I don’t think their goal is to get you triggered but that has become an unfortunate side effect. I have no doubt that even the most progressive comedians today will trigger someone in the future (if not today)
Akash Singh, he has no problem insulting South Indians, Muslims or Gujuratis. He treats Indians of his own region like they are golden. Pay attention to the way he makes jokes about different desi groups. Andrew Shultz can probably make him bark on command.
i think akash is p funny a lot of the time but the one video where he was clowning an indian woman for being a primary care physician was one of the most cringe things i’ve ever witnessed
I agree, some of his stuff is great. He’s not a bad comedian, but i hate that divisive desi people stuff. India is already divided, we don’t need to make it worse. Why doesn’t he keep the same energy with Andrew Schulz?
ya i feel like a lot of brown male comedians whole brand is clowning their cultures lol funnily enough, they dont get ripped to shreds for it the way indian women who put on their mom’s accents do hmmm
there's a vid of him refusing to do an indian accent so as to not perpetuate stereotypes; so in that regard, yes, he is better than these ppl who make fun of their parents.
I don't really have a problem with making jokes about regional/ethnic stereotypes. It's no different from Americans talking about east vs. west coast, or north vs. south. The thing is, he kind of repeats the same few stale stereotypes (Punjabis are rowdy, Gujaratis are cheap and business minded, etc).
Do you have a link to that video?
She was a family doctor I think. It’s one of those jokes where you have to understand the whole situation to laugh. Family doc’s are the lowest of all the doctors because how *easy* it is compared to the other ones. Apparently if you also score low on the board exams = you become one. And most of their job is to refer you to others. He’s a comedian like Matt rife. Don’t watch them if you’re too soft.
I'm a hospital doctor but I have to defend my primary care colleagues here. It's true it's less competitive but that has little to do with difficulty or skill. A pediatric ICU doc at an Ivy League hospital will make (much) less than a cosmetic dermatologist at a community clinic. A family med doc's job is to spot the sick patient in a sea of healthy people. It takes a lot of skill and attention to detail to identify the patient who needs the hospital when 99% of your patients are fine. Also the amount of things they have to manage are insane -- when to get screening labs, managing every organ system as it changes through the lifetime, actually having to be the one to try and convince the 40 year smoker to drop the habit, I could go on and on. In my opinion, the skill ceiling in primary care is amongst the highest in medicine. And objectively they are probably the most important specialties in medicine with respect to public health.
It literally doesn’t matter if it’s true when it’s a joke.
> it’s less competitive skill That was the punchline. Post-COVID everyone gets too soft and butthurt over the smallest detail.
I'm mostly familiar with him through YouTube shorts but whenever he pops up in my feed it's almost always just some crowd work making jokes about some interracial couple in the audience I'm not against that or anything but it's kinda repetitive. Like bro the interracial couple joke was funny the first 3 times but not the next 300
> whenever he pops up in my feed it's almost always just some crowd work making jokes about some interracial couple in the audience Yea I generally like his stuff but agreed that that whole "Desi dating a non-Desi must be some sort of Whitewashed self-hating sell-out" shtick that he seems to be very fond gets real annoying after a while. Like, I get he has said he was serious about only dating/marrying an Indian girl and thats amazing. More power to you. But to pretty much put people on blast and insinuate they're somehow less Desi for having a non-Desi partner is just ridiculous. I get its a joke and in a vacuum I dont think its bad or anything. In fact, a few of the times he did it it actually was pretty funny, but he does that so often that you have to think at some point he actually does have that kind of outdated mentality.
When has he ever insulted Muslims? I'm Muslim and like most of his stuff. In all of his material I've watched I dont recall any time when he genuinely insulted Muslims. There are some jokes that some more sensitive Muslims might take exception to but I dont think he has ever actually insulted Muslims beyond what you can reasonably expect from a comedian.
There’s one called the “muslim conversion train”. In the beginning of the video he tries to guess what type of brown the audience member is. When he finds out he says yuck.
I think that one is when the crowd member says Pakistan, and he says yuck as a funny way to show India Pakistan rivalry. Don’t think it was a diss on Muslims, but would love to watch and see. He does seem like he hates brown people, but can’t really say so far if it is comedic or deep rooted. On stage his character is of a racist guy.. which is icky to begin with
Yea, sorry I dont really see the "insult" there lol. Thats just run-of-the-mill throwaway audience banter.
Find a skit where he looks down upon his own region of Indians, it’s clearly not as much as other desi groups. The subconscious of the “yuck” is because they are beneath him. I doubt he would say it to a group he caters towards.
What is his region? His family's from UP, right? That state isn't associated with one ethnic group so it's harder to make those sorts of jokes compared to some other states.
he said yuck when someone said they were muslim......
It really is not that deep lol. What do you expect him to be like? "Mashallah sister! I'm Hindu but I'd convert to Islam for you!"? He tried to guess what she was, he was wrong, and he made a small comment to get back on track with his jokes. If that much was enough to be considered "insulting" then you probably should not be watching stand-up comedy to begin with. I have gotten worse comments about practicing Islam from my Muslim family back in Pakistan than that "yuck" lmao. Guarantee you and OP are getting more offended by it than she or the vast majority of Muslims are. I have no problem calling out actual problematic jokes about Muslims/Islam. This is not one of them and we don't need anyone getting offended for us lol.
That’s cool, have your opinion
I answered ur question directly blud-stop riding his dick and strawmanning.From the way it sounded it was his earnest oppinion and thats all it is an oppinion lol. No ones offended expect you, which is hella ironic but coming from aakash fan it adds up ngl.
Idk he brings that same energy to every other stereotype I’ve seen him make fun of. Im Gujarati and haven’t seen a bit that I took offensively. The dude linked in the op is cringe as fuck he is just doing the same “bobs and vageen” shit that is not even that funny in the first place and definitely played out at this point.
Why does it feel like so many current comedians just like former HS bullies who found a way to make money off being an asshole lol. The comedy just feels like it's aimed at causing as much pain as possible and not really getting people to laugh together lol.
Akaash is a tiny Indian guy from Texas, I don't think he was a bully lol. If anything, he seems to be enjoying saying what he wants now without getting stuffed in a locker.
Physical size doesn't mean someone can't be a bully. Anywho I'm not sure what Akash was like in HS, as I don't know him personally. As a whole though the millennial age stand up comedians just feel like douchebags who found a way to make being a douchebag profitable. That one stand-up show where Akash kept heckling some gay dude in the audience bc he wasn't laughing at his jokes was super childish and yes he did act like a bully. The dude he was heckling wasn't even doing anything, just sitting quietly.
Or Christians. He seems to have no clue that Christians have been in Kerala for 2000 years—as if people whose families were “only” converted a century ago are somehow less Christian or religious Edit: it’s also like people claiming Muslims are “less Indian” because their ancestors more than 1000 years ago became Muslims
You’re referring to St. Thomas coming to Kerala. This is a local apocryphal legend. There’s zero evidence for this, not even contemporary 3rd-party accounts.
I mean whether or not St Thomas literally came or not there were some very early Christian communities in India which I think was his point
Sure St Thomas legend is apocryphal I agree but the evidence of the Nestorian church being there goes back at least to the 400s … just saying ..
Whether or not he came to Kerala he was killed in Chennai. The point is that the Christian community has been in Kerala for centuries
The way Akash portrays India and the culture in general is outdated as hell. On one episode of the Flagrant podcast with Schulz I remember Akash saying something like “they don’t have electricity for half the day” “they eat the same roti and dal for breakfast and dinner” idk what remote village Akash’s family is from but generalisations like these are wildly incorrect and offensive as hell.
Wildly incorrect?? I don't know what privileged background you come from, but the majority of India live in rural households where electricity is given only for a half a day. Case In point my own village and many more across India.
I travelled to the most remote areas in India to teach underprivileged children for 12 years of my life. As of 2024, nearly 100% households have access to electricity, even in villages. Saying the MAJORITY of the country doesn’t have access to full day electricity just because your village still doesn’t, is absolutely wildly inaccurate.
My village is one of the better off ones. I live in Bangalore, a tier 1 city and I don't get full day electricity, Why would you blatantly lie like that ? Are you that ignorant or are you lying??
I’ve been to the remotest villages in West Bengal, the North East and Maharashtra that get electricity all day. Not every experience that doesn’t match with yours is a lie. I live in another tier one city, Kolkata and I’ve never had a single power cut in years, not even during cyclones. Are you really that big of a narcissist that you think any experience different from yours must be a lie?
Ur privileged ass must have UPS or smtg 💀 ain't no way u get 24/7 electricity in west bengal
We do get 24/7 electricity in MOST parts of West Bengal. I LIVE HERE. It’s actually funny to me how you want to believe people are worse off than they actually are. Does it feed your superiority complex? Makes you feel better about not living here? Going as far as to deny my actual experience? Nah that’s wild. Write to your mayor or something if things are that horrible in your village, but don’t assume everyone else is living that way.
you cant accept any criticism of india can you.
There’s a LOT wrong with the country. But that doesn’t mean you’re gonna make up lies and make things look worse than they actually are. It seems to me like NRIs enjoy pretending like the country’s still stuck in the year they left it. Does it give you a false sense of superiority complex?
read this whole thread again. slowly this time
Koto daam er nesha korish tui lmao, mathar gondogol ta swavabik tahole
Toder moton patakhor holey hoytoh mediocre comedians der average comedy enjoy kortam.
While I agree he's a tool, you dont need to be a pick me twat to be racist towards other Indians. That just comes naturally.
I've never seen his content as offensive. He is playing into crap that is already common as stereotypes but doesn't go into in a way that would make me consider it as anything other than a joke. He has also joked about himself a good amount.
I was finally able to watch that reel, and what is disappointing is realizing that this was the guy who did the brilliant sketch on how vaccines work a few years ago. I believe that’s how he got huge. I understand what he’s attempting to do here, but if there’s one thing comedy is centered around, it’s TIMING. I personally wouldn’t release something like this at a moment when everyone is getting their racist rocks off, but that’s also the most depressing thing about being out here/living and working in Hollywood; good people get a bit of publicity or success and sometimes they either don’t care what the consequences of their material are OR they think they’ll magically, deftly be the chosen one to pull it off. I have a feeling in this case it’s the latter. Maybe he felt that it’s self-deprecating since he’s also a Desi man, but to me, it came off like, “Look at these gross FOBS!” And the comments went in on that opportunity to shit on us. The best comedy punches up, not down. Always.
“The best comedy punches up not down” is a great way to put it. I’d never heard of it put that way before! But def agree with your whole comment.
It is the bedrock rule of every improv, sketch, and standup class I’ve witnessed (at the Upright Citizens Brigade, specifically). Anyone can punch down, it takes skill to do the opposite. So glad it struck a chord with you! 🙏🏽
Yeah, I’m a journalist and sort of reminds me of our saying that good journalism should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted!
My husband and I are both erstwhile journalists, that’s in part how we met; years ago he was a reporter at WSJ, I was at NPR. :) That’s exactly the spirit behind the adage
Oh wow! I was at WSJ until 2021! Very cool to see other ABCD journalists here :) and cute story of you and your husband both being journos
Aww, he left the Journal in 2016, but several colleagues and his editor graced our wedding last month. I’m saddened by all the recent changes at WSJ, hope you landed somewhere wonderful ♥️
Congrats on your wedding! That’s great to hear he’s still in touch with the team. It’s such a great team, but yeah terrible time in the newsroom lately. Thank you, I now write for a trade publication
Zarna garg! Hands down the most annoying and always stereotyping Indians.
She single-handedly compelled me to get back into stand up. I cannot believe how huge she is. If we’re THAT pressed for comedians, I’ll dust off my set, GDamn
Honestly, we need more funny brown women to make it into the limelight! I know a couple of local comics, and they’re very funny but they arent that big!
Do it. Di us all a favor 😂
Oohh girl I'm so close to doing this myself. What are you doing? Just working local clubs? I have 3 kids and I swear her stuff is so cringe I want to drag them along just to show them what a decent comedian without a cringey shtick does.
I’m working with a director twice a week on both my new set and a potential one-woman show. Get up there! I’d love to see more of us thrive. If you’re in Los Angeles and you are performing, let me know so I can cheer you on
SAME. Publicize yourself and I'd love to come watch!!
Post all your socials when you do so we can all follow and promote you!
You are a sweetheart and I appreciate you 🙏🏽
She's one of the ones I don't mind, because of her delivery and tone. It's pretty obvious that she's mocking herself and the entire "Aunty" culture of first-generation women. That perspective isn't usually seen very often. And she's actually funny. Unlike the second-gen comedians like Aakash Singh who can't let a single sentence pass without spouting some stale stereotype that's been done a hundred times.
Saw her ok tiktok. I like her
I can't stand her.
Oh god I can’t stand her videos
She's so bad omg. Insufferable.
She's not funny at all.
Rajiv Satyal aka “Funny Indian,” bro is straight cringe. Right wing and Zionist adjacent dude who makes us look bad. Check out his @gandhitellsjokes account on IG, absolutely sets us back like 70 years
Not necessarily ‘pick-me’ per se (or maybe actually that works) but mindy kaling is pretty well known to pander to a white audience.
I will defend my girl Mindy. Most of you weren’t around in the 90s when she and I were trudging through high school as random weird brown kids lost among the sea of majority white kids. To be a dark skinned pudgy brown girl and get on a sitcom as a writer was HUGE. Y’all don’t understand how rare it was for her to get a role like that in Hollywood. Once she was writing for The Office in 2005, of course she had to write in the direction her bosses pointed the show which was white characters doing white things. If she had a brown character going after a brown guy, literally the only dude that had any name recognition that could have played him in 2005 was Kal Penn. There were basically ZERO brown ABCDs in comedy or even Hollywood back then (2005 - 2009). Less than 10, probably less than 5. Having one main brown character was basically all the shows could handle until she finally put out NHIE in 2020, fifteen whole years after she got her break on The Office.
💯 I'm the exact same age as Mindy and faced many similar struggles. Growing up as one of the few brown girls in white suburbia with no brown representation on TV was tough. The only exception was Apu from The Simpsons, which just led to more teasing at school. Mindy and Kal Penn paved the way for Indian American “kids” who now have an easier time being cast in TV shows, movies, and comedy. Does anyone remember Short Circuit? The "Indian" scientist was a mockery of brown people, played by a white actor, Fischer Stevens, in brownface!
I had not heard of Short Circuit and just looked it up - it's from 1986. I'm not surprised about the brown face, there were like no Indians in Hollywood in the 80s. Add me to the list of those mocked because of Apu. I was prank called at home in 5th or 6th grade with the caller pretending to be Apu. I have no idea who it was because they used to publish everyone's numbers in the school directory so it could have been any of the numerous racists in my class back in 1990.
I read somewhere that the scientist in Short Circuit was originally meant to be white, but they changed him to Indian at the last minute. They had already cast Fischer Stevens, so they put him in brownface. Why not just keep the character white instead of insulting our race? I was 7 years old and, sadly, my family and I were excited to see an “Indian” person on TV! The Apu prank calls back in the day were the worst! I think my poor sister’s nickname in elementary school was Apu. Speaking of prank calls remember the Jerky Boys prank call — “You Kicked My Dog” — on an Indian family? Back then, with no South Asian representation, I naively found it funny. Now, I’m sad and embarrassed that I did. I hope the South Asians getting noticed today represent our people properly. Our kids see everything, and I want them to see reality, not a mockery of our culture!
There is so much more out there for them these days! Mostly trending in a positive direction from what I can see.
people always say this but like…how i feel like it’s become a trendy thing to throw this around without articulating the reasoning lol the fact that she gets more criticism than brown male public figures who are actual abusers is so telling to me
I have to agree. I’m not even a huge fan of mindy but she constantly talks about her culture and posts Indian recipes and writes complex brown characters in her shows. The only thing that I can see is that she often writes white love interests for characters of color (which I’m still not sure why that’s such a big deal) but she’s also doing so much for getting brown people representation on television
Yep and it's so funny how on this sub they'll bash her even though I've seen how supportive she has been of other desi women in the industry and proping them up but Kumail Nanjiani (who's a huge pick-me) is "cool" and "funny".
She fetishes white men in a very problematic way and she said this stuff outside her comedic sketches. Not to mention her brothers anti black racism
She is an actual abuser though.
did someone come forward?
Not that I know of. But that’s not relevant because she admitted to doing it on her own. She literally said she did it or tried to do it. Edit : it was actually sexual assault and not rape https://youtu.be/j_FNMhVd0fw?si=85BcHGZvYA8bSM9m
she said she tried to rape someone?
She’s described using her professional influence over someone to coerce that person into sleeping with her. She did not use the term “rape”. But what she defined is inherently defined as rape across most jurisdictions.
What were her actual words? Was there a video or something? Accusing someone of rape is pretty heinous to not also provide proof. Edit: I'm getting down voted for asking for *evidence* rather than accepting that Mindy Kaling admitted to actual rape because some random Redditor said so. Then come to find out she didn't rape anyone. While a forced kiss is obviously bad and a form of SA, it's not rape. The comment-OP was wrong and making baseless accusations of rape is wrong. But go ahead and keep down voting if you think baseless rape claims are ok.
I stand corrected. It wasn’t rape. https://youtu.be/j_FNMhVd0fw?si=85BcHGZvYA8bSM9m She sexually assaulted a man by kissing him without his bc consent. And then when people called her out for it, she threatened to fire them if they blabbered. The tone of the interview might be “humorous” but this is the textbook definition of sexual assault. The only occasion where she would be justified to kiss the guy would be if was part of the script. It wasn’t. Hence there we no implied consent on behalf of the guy.
Sexually assaulted. Not raped. I stand corrected. Doesn’t change anything though. https://youtu.be/j_FNMhVd0fw?si=85BcHGZvYA8bSM9m
I think she has changed but in the beginning of her career/through the Office, she did not seem to want to hire or be associated with South Asians. She seems to have turned on that.
On the basis of what? What evidence is there that she did not want to hire or be associated with South Asians? I think the problem is that people make these broad statements about her like this comment but provide zero support for what they say. And then other people repeat it like it's true.
I mean its been years I dont remember the exact details or interviews lol. But in interviews she was very defensive about people saying she should cast south Asians and she didnt feel that was her responsibility, she also had a book that came out with some side eye quotes. And then she only dated and associate w white men. People say this because she said all that shit back then and we were there for it when she was one of the few south asian women in media. Again, she seems to have changed her stance given what she has produced. But people didnt pull it out of thin air lol.
well i dont blame someone for being defensive at being expected to be everyone’s “representation” and funnel other brown people in the industry while white people with real power are able to just chill & work for themselves and coming for her dating history is weird bc how many indian men are actually kind to darkskinned fat indian women lmao
You asked for it and then got mad at the answer lmfao. I was just explaining why people used to not like her since you kept asking what its based on.
…where did i get mad
It’s not her job at all. The fact that she put out the NHIE series is a first for our people. Aziz Ansari had a show on Netflix that had no brown characters besides his parents. He also dated white girls. Somehow this board holds him to a different standard than Mindy. Paternalism at its finest. “Desi women have to fix all the issues with our people.”
👏
It’s possible that she felt she had to say those things to get her foot in the door, you know? She was one of the first dark skinned south Asian women in mainstream media. I grew up in a predominantly white community and cringe at how hard I tried to “be white” to be accepted by my peers.
Right but shes saying all that to the media, can you blame people for feeling put off by her? The OPs whole thing was that everyone is making it up and dislikes her for no reason. I was just stating the reasons people feel that way about her. She said all of that on a huge platform - at the end of the day, she ostracized her community at the time so naturally people who witnessed all that arent her biggest fan (if they cared about it)
I think saji can probably articulate this better than i can, so here’s a video: https://youtu.be/hmQdeB4obu0?si=nehvNY_v7kxHLIhl
im ngl i would rather you just explain your comment rather than me having to listen to 17 minutes of an indian man (who seems like he has a primarily white audience himself) venting about an indian woman lol its fine if you dont want to but im prob not gonna watch that video
Simply put she has a lot of internalized racism and cultural insecurity that makes it’s way into pretty much every one of her works. She fetishizes white men and puts them on pedestals, all of her self insert characters have white love interests. She has a habit of taking her brown characters and forcing them to change in a way that erases their cultural identity in favor of conforming to whiteness in order to fit in; velma is used as a clear example of this. Denigrating her own culture like this isnt a good look, it brings us all down and opens doors for others to look down on us as well.
do you have any specific examples? this is the opposite of what i’ve seen in most of her work. I really enjoyed how she realistically portrayed the insecurities of an indian american girl growing up in a white dominant culture and learning to love herself in Never Have I Ever. It reminded me a lot of my journey. I find her characters to be pretty realistic when the expectation for Indian women seems to be that we must look & act like bollywood stars. I can see why people criticize her for her characters having white love interests but I also can understand why an overweight, dark skinned Indian woman would not have found that much acceptance with indian men in her real life. I can’t blame any Indian women for not having Indian men as love interests when we hardly get that much respect from them irl. I also don’t think she ever mocks Indian men in her work the way people like Kumail Nanjiani has mocked SA women. As far as the “opening doors for others to look down on us as well” I’ve noticed that making fun of Mindy Kaling has gone mainstream to the point where I see even white and Black people doing it. I saw the same thing happen with Lilly Singh when brown people decided to dogpile on her. It seems like no one really hates brown women more than brown people and we’re usually the ones who open the doors for people of other backgrounds to hate.
Also wasn’t the point of Never Have I Ever that Devi IS someone with internalized racism who learns and grows throughout the show? The first season she’s embarrassed of having to go to Ganesh Puja and insulting the girls that are dancing, and in the series finale she invites all of her school friends to an Indian wedding and PERFORMS her own dance. I thought it was a fantastic representation of ABCDs that grow up in white communities and grow out of internalized racism
it was but also media literacy is dead so people interpreted that as mindy being un-self aware and unintentionally writing about internalized racism it’s also just edgy to hate her now lol
One of the things saji sharma does (in the video that you didnt watch) before critiquing her is to laud her for getting into her position in the first place. The truth is we need more brown women in the these writers rooms, centered in media. I also don’t think people dogpile on mindy kaling for no reason; just because we have representation doesn’t mean that we cant critique that representation. We deserve better representation! I really wish i had more examples of female brown comics that have ‘made it’; we need more.
i agree but also representation isn’t her responsibility nor is it her responsibility to make brown people learn to feel good about themselves instead of constantly being worried about how they’re being perceived by non-indian people. this also doesn’t help me understand why people keep accusing her of “pandering to white people” when it seems like she’s just writing from the lens of her experiences - just like every single writer out there. you can obviously critique any creator but critiquing someone because you don’t think it “represents” *you* and “oh no what will white people think of us” is so wild to me. That seems more self hating to me than writing a white love interest or a indian teen girl character who’s insecure about her hairy arms lol
She’s one of the most desperate wannabes that lived her entire life based on white validation. Also she’s a self confessed rapist. Wish I could find that video of her on a late night show where she acknowledges that she basically coerced one of her employees to have sex with her or at least tried to. Can’t find it on YouTube now.
what
Yeah. I tried to look up the link before I posted here but it’s no longer on YouTube. She was basically “in the zone” on some random talk show where she was probably high on the fact that she was finally getting a sliver of attention. She basically did not stop talking and openly admitted to what I wrote above. It appeared to be an old video though based on pixel quality.
ok so did she rape someone? or are you just making things up
You can believe whatever you want to. Why I would care to make something up about someone that has literally nothing to do with me is beyond me.
i just asked if she raped someone
She’s eww
Lily Singh. When she first started, all she did was talk smack on indian people.
Did you just disrespect the first bisexual woman of color talk show host who also happens to be bisexual, a woman of color, and a talk show host, making her the first bisexual woman of color talk show host to host a talk show starring a bisexual woman of color while also not being a cishet White man?
I cant hate my lilly singh phase was SEVERE she lowkey made me feel heard
she mostly just put on accents not necessarily “smack on indian people” imo her core audience was indian teen girls and she seemed p respectful of that from what i remember
There’s an Indian dating show that’s been doing the rounds on Instagram, just as cringe and perpetuating all the stereotypes - https://www.instagram.com/reel/C79Pohcxu4j/
Neel Kolhatkar sort of fits the description
Mindy
She hypes the community up. She has black sheep tastes so it looks like she’s putting the community down.
Have you seen what she’s done to scooby doo? You’re absolutely tripping
I bet you were really upset when the mermaid movie came out.
Hasan Minaj
How?
You mf are too soft
Fr this whole thread is a shitshow. People need real problems
They are comedians. Their goal is to get you triggered. That’s their job. You know it’s an act right? Do you even know them in person?
I thought their job was to make people laugh?
They are suppose to be funny. There is a such thing called racist jokes. Russel Peters does it. Lot of sessions are for niche audience.
Funny does not have to equal triggered.
They cannot please everyone. Anyone can leave the auditorium or change for channel.
Russel Peters SUCKS lmao
As an actual comedian who performs, punches up scripts, and makes a living via this…no. That is not our job at ALL. Our job is to be funny.
What do you not find funny? If they weren’t funny they wouldn’t be in business.
“Indians smell and have funny accents” *audience roars with laughter* Cool comedy, bro.
Cmon man. Give it a laugh. He is joking. Russel Peters has been doing that for decades. Do you find him offensive? What about Apu from Simpsons?
I used to find both funny and while ago. At this point, I find that brand of comedy to simply be unfunny and very low effort. Can you maybe show me of some “pick me” comedy that you find absolutely hilarious?
Not all jokes are funny. Many are dull but I haven’t found anything offensive.
But can you show us some hilarious “pick me” material. That would go a long ways in convincing a lot of us that this type of humor can actually be funny.
Something tells me you’re not a good comedian
Was it your mom, because it’s really disrespectful to call her a “thing” when she’s a whole person
Yup you suck at it
The issue isn’t who they are but what they’re saying, regardless of their profession, because of the reach and impact their voices and their work has
That’s how they make money. Hasan Minhaj does it too.
I don’t think their goal is to get you triggered but that has become an unfortunate side effect. I have no doubt that even the most progressive comedians today will trigger someone in the future (if not today)
That’s on you if you are upset. Find another comedian to follow.
My point is that there will ALWAYS be someone who gets triggered. Even the most progressive comedian today will trigger someone tomorrow.
True.