How to fake Asian languages (Korean comic Joe Jo)

[nuwildcats]

I'm reloading my Favorites into my new computer and this YouTube video was one of them. I'm no fan of ethnic humor but I found this vid when trying to locate Korean lessons on YouTube. This comic Joe Jo was trying to correct Western ignorance while being entertaining at the same time. With 361,125 Hits -- 10,160 Likes -- 148 Dislikes -- 3,130 Comments, I guess he's been successful!

Since he uploaded this in August, there've been better mimics of Asian languages. While the vid is funny, the humor sophomoric, it's the commentaries from fellow Asians that are interesting. Months back I asked here if Korean came out of the Japanese language because of some similarities. Well, there's a thread in the vid's comments about Korean being an agglutinative language, originally deriving from the Altaic language. There's another thread discussing Chinese languages. Agreements or disagreements abound (esp on the origins of Korean and Chinese and their language families: Korean, Japanese and Mongolian or Tibetan, then again, Korean parting from their Chinese language affiliation is now an isolated language--whew!), Joe Jo approximating the language, cadence, inflection, or how he got it wrong. But, commenters find the vid funny and the tone of the comments is overall good-natured. Worthwhile reading them, or so I told myself as I saved the vid link to my Favorites.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ero4QwW9-Q

[TheBo]

OMG. That's really very cute and from what I can tell, fairly, well not ACCURATE but sorta-soundy-like-that.

[nuwildcats]

So true, Bo. I was rewarding myself with down time at Starbucks when I played this vid for the first time. I laughed so hard I had to leave until I got myself under control. I was surprised when Asians commented that the most absurd of these - Cantonese and Vietnamese - was "spot on." Natives viewing the vid seem to be just tickled by it when I thought it might be offensive. But it didn't have a lot of thumbs-down for the total number of viewings. On the other hand, a comedian, Russell Peters, (listed on YouTube next to Joe Jo) does really insulting Asian and other ethnic comedy. I just don't get how Asians are so enthralled with his brand of comedy.

[TheBo]

I don't know Russell Peters, so I've got his 1.5 hour tour show up on my browser to watch at my leisure. Then we can compare our impressions. LOL...srsly, I feel I should at least give him a chance more than the 2 minutes in the first vid I saw.

[ginnycat5]

Wow, that was fun! I wonder how he did that, with a script? Presumably it's all fake, and none of it means anything. Was the Hmong done the same as the rest? It sounded different, more like lip-sync, to me. I have to make dinner now, or I'd play it again.

[nuwildcats]

Joe Jo's online group, 'Just Kidding Films', caters to a 21 and younger crowd. His deftness comes from producing numerous online comedy routines. What separates this vid from others is it isn't lazy humor, going for the lowest-hanging fruit (like Margaret Cho's comedy staple, "my Korean mother talks like this"). Joe Jo showed some discipline in stepping back to observe 9 different Asian languages and use what rose to the top for him.

What's tickled his viewers are his winks with inside humor. While his Mandarin is nothing more than, "you say, I say, he/she says," his Japanese included, "totoro," a repeated mispronunciation of 'tororo' (troll) from a popular anime, "My Neighbor Totoro," and thus, a double wink. His "pikachu" is a Pokemon character, literally meaning, 'sparkle mouse noise.' Hmong comes from a Hmong radio station recording. And "jollibee" is a nod to the California restaurant well-known to Filipinos, and so their delight int its inclusion.

Many of the posted raves come from Hmong viewers (a near-invisible population compared to other Asian countries) and Filipinos ("minor", "senator", "jollibee"). Rather clever and flattering use of comedy material.

ginnycat5: go back and re-listen when you have a chance. I myself didn't pick up the lipsynching of a Hmong recording the first time I viewed it...too much stuff to attend to the first time around. ;D