Skip to main content

Margaret Cho: PsyCHO

 

👋    Hi, blog!


🎥     This week we watched Margaret Cho: PsyCHO. Margaret Cho is an Asian American standup comedian who had starred in the first Asian American television show titled All-American Girl. Although that show failed, Margaret isn't shy about mentioning its impact on her life. 


😅    In this film, we got to hear Margaret talk about many things including pills, rape, racism, sexuality, body weight, tattoos, and even about girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. Honestly, I didn't really find anything that funny. I didn't laugh much while watching this film because these topics sounded pretty sensitive. I wasn't used to this kind of humor, nor was it to my taste. I did appreciate the openness of it all, though.


🙌    I want to take a moment to praise Margaret Cho for showing her non "model minority" personality. She doesn't feed the issue of racial melancholia. She doesn't try to hide by mimicking the model minority stereotype. Instead, she uses her time in the spotlight to bring to light the fact that there are Asian Americans who have different personalities. I can see how she can be an inspiration for other Asian Americans to be true to themselves and not be ashamed if they don't fall under the model minority label. She even mentions her past failures to show how things can improve later in life, and that you can grow to be successful no matter who you are. 


👀    I would recommend this film if you enjoy watching standup comedians. You may enjoy hearing about topics that rarely discussed openly in public.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Comments

  1. Smay NicasioJanuary 31, 2021 at 11:55 AM

    Hi Luisa, I also really enjoyed how honest Cho was during the special. The moments where she owned up to the cancellation of the show and addiction issues were especially important because both anecdotes were concentrated in internal conflicts within Asian communities. It felt like Cho was bringing light to the pressure and differences that are hidden by the model-minority narrative of self-sufficiency and obedience.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hong LeJanuary 31, 2021 at 10:47 PM

    It was hard for me to understand American jokes too. And I also respect the way Cho shows that she does not follow the model minority.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AmyFebruary 1, 2021 at 12:45 PM

    Margaret Cho is certainly not for everyone. Her humor is vulgar and she specializes in showcasing things that people usually dont want to deal with let alone talk extensively about such as racism and sexual assault. Comedians like Ali Wong or Hari Kandombolu have alot of success as Asian American comedians who deal more with typical categories such as motherhood, work and dating. I think both kinds of comedy are valuable but whether you prefer one or the other has alot to do withhow you view social taboos.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

K-Pop

  👋     Hi, blog~! 🎥     This week we watched a few music videos by some of the most popular figures in the K-pop industry. We watched Psy's "Gangnam Style", BTS's "Boy with Luv", and Blackpink's "Ice Cream". In Korea, there are three main entertainment companies: YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. Psy used to be under YG, but he later moved on to create his own label called P Nation. Blackpink is still under YG and BTS is under a different company called BigHit Entertainment. BigHit is a growing company that I predict will officially take over a spot as a 'top-three' very soon due to the popularity of BTS as well as their successful marketing strategies which are used to promote their sensational groups. Psy became a popular figure after the release of "Gangnam Style" which broke a very important YouTube record: the first person to reach 1 billion views. I recall hearing this song being played at alm
1 comment
Read more

Bling Empire

  👋     What's up, blog! 🎥     This week I watched the first two episodes of Bling Empire. It is a reality tv show in which a group of wealthy Asian Americans' lives are filmed. This group of the one percent population lives in Los Angeles and they live glamorously without missing out on the crazy drama that most people love to watch and hear about. In order to make us (the general public) feel like a part of that fantastical world, the reality tv show had a focus on a guy who was not born into wealth like the rest of the people in that society. We are meant to relate to him the most and see him as the guy who stands out for being different. 🤩    In these first episodes, I got to get a glimpse into an unbelievable life which is the reality for only a lucky few. Our eyes get to devour a view of a Chinese New Year's festival-like event. We get to see many activities which attract our gaze. Along with that, we get to see all the important guests that attend the celebration.
3 comments
Read more

Asian Americans

  👋     Hey, blog! 🎥     This week we watched episodes one and two of "Asian Americans" (Renee Tajima-Pena, 2020). This five-episode series was a PBS documentary project in which they tried to describe the Asian American story. They included a few major historical events in the documentary and asked family members of some important figures to describe how everything affected them and their community. 😞    In the first episode, we saw how Asian immigrants became the first "undocumented immigrants" in America. Even though they were hard-working individuals who helped build up the USA (by working to make train tracks and shops), they were still depicted as evil in cartoons and didn't get any credit for the good stuff they did. They were basically rewarded with the fear of being kicked out if they had no documents which stated that they were allowed to stay in America. In the second episode, we saw how the question of loyalty affected families within the Asian Am
2 comments
Read more