The representations of Asian Americans in standup comedy by Asian Americans = Hình ảnh người Mỹ gốc Á trong tiết mục hài độc thoại bởi người Mỹ gốc Á

• Main Author: Phạm, Kiều Ngân
• Other Authors: Mai, Thị Quỳnh Lan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Tiếng Anh; Văn hóa > Mỹ; Người Mỹ gốc Á
• Online Access: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/100828
• Institution: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

In the 21st century, while Asian American is still underrepresented in American popular media, the representations of Asian American in standup comedy is a particularly interesting phenomenon. Because of its format, standup comedy is a unique platform where Asian Americans could break into entertainment and speak for themselves without being type casted into stereotypical roles in Hollywood movies. Intrigued by the interesting representations of Asians in popular culture and the big gaps in research of ethnic comedy on Asian American, I look for critical analyses of the representations of Asian American in ethnic standup comedies by Asian Americans to answer 2 questions: 1) How are Asian American represented in ethnic standup comedies performed by Asian American comedians? 2) What are the social interpretations of Asian Americans towards these representations of young Asian Americans? From investigating 18 ethnic comedies from 2 top Asian comedians, the study found there are patterns in the way comedians portray Asians: Asian stereotypes are juxtaposed with the normal actual version of reality and humor comes from the absurdity of these stereotypes. However, there are jokes where the portrayals are accurate yet similar to stereotypical images of Asian and humor comes from the status of being different or weird compared to what considered normal. From close interviews with 4 Asian Americans, the research finds that there is correlation between these representations and how Asian audiences perceive ethnic jokes. While in general all of them consider ethnic comedies funny and inoffensive, the second type of joke could be offensive to few audiences. The researcher suggests ethnic comedies are beneficial to the representations of Asian American in media as well as in subverting social stereotypes. However, to fully understand the nuances of ethnic jokes and avoid stereotype reinforcement, it requires audience of certain level of cultural awareness.