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Horrors

Kal Penn has highlighted racial stereotypes prevalent in Hollywood by sharing “awful” audition scripts he was given in the early years of his career.

Simple visual art form uses stereotypes. Film at 11

25 thoughts on “Horrors”

  1. So Much For Subtlety

    He doesn’t like it, he is free to write his own. Which is pretty much what Jewish Americans did.

    Still, why are Democratic dominated institutions such hot beds of racism?

  2. So Much For Subtlety

    We should give a sh!t. We would not even hear about the Muslim world – or much of South Asia – if it wasn’t for terrorism and corner shops. The reason why South Asian actors get asked to play terrorists or computer geeks is that those two are pretty much all they are. And some doctors. Plus motel owners in the US.

    Karl Pen is mildly famous for walking out of House in order to work for the Obama Administration. It must have rankled because they killed his character. Now he is sh!tting on everyone who has ever given him an audition? I may not be Nostrodamus but I predict he will never work again. Who would give him another chance?

  3. Apart from the “racism” (boo) angle, how is this any different from the standard crap you see in any celebrity rag?

  4. The actual lines he highlights are actually pretty stupid, to be honest. And there’s no doubt that American tv is pretty keen on Babu English, often to disguise poor writing.

  5. Granted the Graun will take everything too seriously, what else should we do about it except talk about it and try to stop doing it? It’s hardly the most serious issue in the world, but it’s a small matter of thoughtlessness that offends people and has no actual benefits.

  6. The Inimitable Steve

    Stereotypes are a labour saving device though.

    Member when everyone’s favourite dead-badger-poker George Monbiot fell afoul of gentlemen of the Irish traveller persuasion? Could’ve easily been avoided if he’d simply put up a sign saying “NO DAGS”.

  7. Asking for a Ghandi look-alike offends? So –presumably–would asking for a Winston Churchill lookalike. Except no one would be offended other than race-baiting CM scum.

    No opportunity to hit back at them by pointing out the evil and hypocritical nature of their “offense” bullshit should be missed.

  8. So Much For Subtlety

    Hallowed Be – “Its a form of humblebrag to his colleagues.. look i don’t have to do the accent no more.”

    No it isn’t. It is the mark of the end of his career. Bitterness rather than arrogance. Since he quit House to join Obama what has he done?

    Penn was recurring on How I Met Your Mother for the seventh season of the show,[18] in which he played Kevin, a therapist and later boyfriend of Robin Scherbatsky. Starting May 1, 2013, Penn hosts Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius on the Discovery Channel.[19] On May 10, 2013, it was announced that Penn would join the cast of We Are Men.

    So he lasted one season on HIMYM. We are Men ran from September 30 to October 9 2013. Not even a month. Not even a fortnight.

    In 2014, he was cast in Ravi Kumar’s film Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, a film about the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered by many to be the world’s worst industrial disaster. Penn played Detective Fontanelle White [21] on the CBS Comedy-Drama Battle Creek, which was cancelled during its first season.

    Another show that did not last a season.

    In October 2016, Penn began a regular role in the ABC drama series Designated Survivor as Seth, a White House speech writer who originally worked under the previous president’s administration.[7] Penn also serves as a political consultant for the series.

    A show about left-behind losers from the Trump election? Oh still my beating heart! At this stage he is a three time loser.

    Dave – “Granted the Graun will take everything too seriously, what else should we do about it except talk about it and try to stop doing it?”

    Why should we stop doing it? Whatever it is. Either it is irrelevant and we should not care, or it is an organised attempt by the professionally offended to bully the rest of us into politically correct censorship. What is wrong with Indian characters reflecting reality? In the way that Blacks on TV do not. How does lying help any?

  9. Bloke in Wiltshire

    Have Mark Strong, Brian Cox and Jason Isaacs done an extended whine about how they keep getting asked to play villains because of their British accents, or are they just glad to be putting food on the table?

  10. Bloke in Wiltshire

    BIS

    “Stereotypes are a labour saving device though.”

    Especially with TV. And as SMFS says, Indians are nerds. Look at who wins the spelling bees in the USA every years. Not many kids called Randy or Cleetus win it.

  11. So Much For Subtlety

    Bloke in Wiltshire – “And as SMFS says, Indians are nerds.”

    Actually I am not sure I am saying that. I am saying that America has a saner immigration policy than Britain and so the South Asians people know are vastly more likely to be nerds.

    America does not trawl rural Bangladesh looking for rapists.

  12. SMFS: “A show about left-behind losers from the Trump election?”

    It’s actually quite good – no ‘West Wing’, but then, what is?

  13. I’m not a fan of the Big Bang Theory, but at least they make proper use of stereotypes. There’s a girly bimbo who dates bullies and wants to be an actress, a neurotic Jew who lives with his mother, an Indian trying desperately to fit in, the autistic one, etc. I haven’t noticed the usual SJWs complain about it.

  14. BiW,

    Ed Skrein, too – named in the joke credits opening “Deadpool” as “A British villain”.

  15. Also, this harks back to Timmy’s theory (or was it someone else’s?) that all writing is just the author demanding that the status of people like them be raised.

  16. Bloke in Wiltshire

    SMFS,

    “Actually I am not sure I am saying that. I am saying that America has a saner immigration policy than Britain and so the South Asians people know are vastly more likely to be nerds.”

    Yes, that’s a fair point.

  17. Then why can’t Gwyneth Paltro play Martin Luther King, Jr., in a movie? We don’t want no stinkin’ stereotyping!

    Thx Charlie Suet for “Babu English.” I had never heard the term before, but I had needed one for many years.

  18. Sorry, if you’re complaining about having to read awful audition scripts but consent to act in Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle, well, you really don’t having anything to complain about…

    In any event, Penn’s acting career doesn’t really stretch much further than the movie/TV equivalent of playing the second grave digger in Hamlet.

    What this probably says, more than anything, is that Penn has tested the waters in Hollywood and found that no one is interested in casting him for anything.

  19. SMFS, they don’t have to, because they have Mexicans. Ever see ‘Breaking Bad’? (Should have been ‘Breaking Badly’, eh? Then it could have been set in a Comp with a Labour-voting teacher … Oh, hang on, with the NHS, it wouldn’t have got past the first series! )

  20. The Inimitable Steve

    Witchie – BREAKING BAD UK, EPISODE 1:

    INT. NHS HOSPITAL, BRITAINSHIRE

    DOCTOR: So the bad news is, you have cancer.

    WALTER WHITE: Blimey.

    DOCTOR: Quite. Anyway, we’ll schedule surgery for… how does next year sound?

    WALTER WHITE: Eh, shouldn’t I have it sooner?

    DOCTOR: Probably. Anyway, you’ll get a letter within the next six months. Unless they forget, or lose your paperwork. Here’s a number to ring if you have any questions. It goes straight to voicemail.

    WALTER WHITE: *cough* *cough* Ummm… thanks?

    SIX MONTHS LATER…

    WALTER WHITE: Well, I suppose I’m about to die now. Cheerio.

    THE END

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