Margaret Cho: Comedy by and for Asian Americans

 Margaret Cho on Caitlyn Jenner, Outrage Culture, Amy Schumer | Time

Margaret Cho's comedy special, PsyCHO, offered insight into how comedy affects the Asian American experience. Although some of Cho's jokes are uncomfortable or even offensive, most of this act gave insight into the life of Margaret Cho. Some of the jokes are rude or disgusting, but a lot of the jokes are relatable and hilarious. 

When the majority of people in class said that they didn't like the special, I was kind of shocked. I do think that Cho did cross a line a few times, but I also was impressed with Cho's ability to laugh at the trauma of being a minority. I'm not sure if laughing at trauma is an Asian American thing or a queer thing, but I didn't feel as though the special was any worse that other comedy specials. 

Obviously, I wasn't the target audience for certain jokes, and I am very aware of that, but I don't think the special was bad in any capacity. The queer jokes are what stuck out to me the most because I could relate to them, but there were also parts that I couldn't relate to, but that does not mean that the jokes that I was uncomfortable with did not relate to someone else. 

Comments

  1. AmyMarch 21, 2021 at 10:23 PM

    You raise an interesting question about what the role of discomfort in comedy is. Most of Cho's humor rotates around discomfort so I think that its impossible to enjoy it if you are not comfortable with being uncomfortable.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AKA Don Bonus

Image
  Today, with social media that is used to document every aspect of our lives, individuals have the ability to tell their own stories with ease. Despite the easy access we have to documenting our daily lives, it is difficult to find stories that are as open to the idea of documenting the life of the individual in its rawest form.  In aka Don Bonus , the filmmaker is not afraid of discussing his own emotions of loneliness, grief, frustration, and fear. He describes his feelings to us, while explaining where those feelings are stemming from. He does this openly and without judgement, but the audience understands that he may not share these feelings and emotions to the people that he interacts with in his daily life. It is a venting piece, a piece of documentation as well as a work of art.  Despite our technological connections to other people, there is always the question of an online persona. Even though people want to share their lives with others, there is a disconnect t...
Read more