I’ve not heard these jokes. I love my Indian food. Taco Bell jokes are 10x more prevalent. What are your sources for Indian food hate?
As a Mexican, I don’t take Taco Bell jokes to be offensive. Or even Mexican food jokes to be offensive, for that matter. I mean, i know my people’s food will sometimes make me shit my pants, but fuck it’s delicious. But back to the point, Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.
Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.
You’re right, Taco Bell is way better.
(just kidding pls no hate)
laughs in Mexican
Jajaja
Everyone knows it’s a shitty photocopy of Tex-Mex. We eat it anyway because it’s greasy, cheap food with a strong but not offensive flavour of some kind.
There are some things you don’t joke about, taco bell actually being Mexican food is one of them. It might be a war crime to even joke it’s better than Mexican food.
Yeah, the joke isn’t just that Mexican food gave them the shits, it’s that we still eat knowing that is the case because its so fucking good.
Do Mexicans even know how to be offended, or is it a foreign concept completely? You guys like Speedy Gonzales.
I think a very interesting part of Mexican culture is to learn how to not take ourselves too seriously. I had to learn to deal with being made fun of for the stupidest things. It was always “el que se enoja, pierde (he who gets mad, loses).” So you had to learn how to take it and dish it back. And the idea was to keep it as a battle of wits, without becoming irate and physical. I have to admit, I lost more times than I’d like to own up…
That’s neat (the cultural part, sorry you got teased so much). I guess America creates enough butthurt for the whole continent, amiright? :P
Someone’s gotta balance the scales
You guys like Speedy Gonzales.
They (a good amount of Mexican immigrants at the time) like Speedy because it was pretty much the only remotely positive representation of Mexicans in American television back then…
What’s weirder is they also thought his cousin slowpoke was funny. Even tho Slowpoke was a common stereotype of Mexicans, having him on the same show as Speedy made it less bad, because a lazy relative was something everyone of all cultures can relate with.
If they showed all of Speedy’s family as the same as Slowpoke it would have been more problematic.
But especially back then, minorities were pretty pumped to get any positive representation
Without getting too deep into it, I think the simplest explanation is that speedy Gonzalez was just funny and entertaining. I don’t think many people at the time stopped to think too much about it being representative of our culture or even a stereotype. Looking back, sure, it is a stereotype, but one that even by then was so outdated that no one thought twice about it perhaps being offensive.
I don’t think you realize the character is 70 years old… In 1953 name any other positive depiction on American TV. Hell, let’s split the difference. What was the best one as recent as 1988?
And Speedy wasn’t the stereotype, Slowpoke was.
Did you start talking about him halfway thru?
And this isn’t just like, my opinion man.
More than a few people have asked over the last 70 years, there’s been surveys and I think even a legit sociological study. It’s not a random question that no one’s ever though of before.
The answer is pretty much always the same, except maybe very recently because reparations has improved a lot just in the last decade.
lol ok. Im sure a bunch of white people got offended on behalf of us.
Yeah…
That’s literally why Speedy was “canceled” and need an international movement by Hispanic people for him to come back
I literally just said that
And let’s face it, SG is a straight up badass. I love that dude.
I’m American and I can’t think of a comedy show that makes fun of Indian food. Can you name one of them so I can check it out?
I’d say most medium to large sized cities in the US have Indian restaurants, so it’s not so unusual.
Big bang theory.
Rag “you’re talking about a subcontinent that hasn’t had a solid bowl movement…”
Is that a comedy show?
Technically yes
Enough of your wild theories, we are trying to answer this question need in reality
Where Sheldon tells an Indian woman how to cook curry ? Ok.
Friends did, Big Bang Theory does all the time, but yeah pretty much every yank comedy contains some negativity towards Indian food. I don’t watch much comedy, but it seems to be a meme in their shows.
Indian food is very popular in the US and I have never heard anybody rag on it ever. Don’t know what kind of media you must be consuming.
Do they? I rarely see jokes about it and if I do see jokes they are spicy diarrhea related which I will admit is odd because Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen jokes about Indian food, but if you’re right I would guess it’s for the same reasons Taco Bell gets the same jokes - it’s still spicy by “mayonnaise is spicy” standards and (at least my orders) are usually bean heavy and that’s a lot of fiber by average American diet standards. The joke is really on us, not the Indian food.
exactly the spicey diarrhea jokes, as well as direct comparisons to vomit. American Dad and Family Guy writers spring to mind.
That’s the kind of jokes those shows make; cheap shots and poop jokes.
The spice jokes happen in any nation that culturally lacks a pepper based heat as a common seasoning, towards any food with said spice. Southern states, who share food inspiration with mexico, do not have these jokes. They eat the hottest nonsense sauces, theyre used to the effect.
When you say southern states, do you mean southwestern? Because I’ve lived in the southeast, and the food is not spicy.
It’s also a joke because if you don’t often have spicy food you are going to get the shits when you do have it.
Right, but specifically that joke cannot be made successfully in regions where pepper based spice is common cuisine. Because those people dont have that reaction.
And a large portion of the US makes that spice a common part of normal meals, thanks to proximity to mexico, or international ports.
Basically, this is only funny to people in very isolated communities and the central northern states. Both coasts and the south have plenty of spicy influence.
Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all
Disagree. This is entirely dependent on the particular restaurant. None of them put Scoville ratings on things, so “hot” can mean “barely mild” at one restaurant and “this will absolutely wreck your colon” at another. This has been my experience, at least.
Agreed, seems like a weird comment. It’s easy to get incredibly mild Indian food here but plenty of places go up to inferno hot too if you want it.
Casual xenophobia/racism. Much like the whole MSG thing here.
Do they?
It gets the same jokes as Mexican food usually here. Really, some people’s guts just can’t handle any amount of spice, and poo jokes are always a hit.
Do they? I don’t watch much TV and nobody I know makes fun of Indian food, it’s awesome.
I haven’t seen too many shows make fun of Indian food, but to be fair my taste in TV often isn’t very mainstream and doesn’t tend to include a lot of comedy, so I may not be the right one to answer this.
When I do see it, usually I see them joking about the smell, and I can kind of get that. Don’t get me wrong, I love Indian food, I love the flavors and smells and all that goes with it. But all of those wonderful spices can create a powerful smell, it can kind of cling to clothing and such, if you live in an apartment it’s very likely you’ll smell when your neighbors are cooking Indian food, etc. and I can get how that can be annoying or unpleasant for some people. Honestly, if I was constantly smelling Indian food wafting into my apartment through a shared vent or something, I’d probably get sick of it too.
There’s also the fact that a lot of Americans just have a very bland palate, and all of the spices, not to mention heat, can be very overwhelming to people who aren’t accustomed to it. Personally when I see these jokes, and again, my experience may not be typical, it tends to be more at the expense of the American having boring taste in food than actually making fun of Indian food itself.
And since I mentioned that people may not be accustomed to it, let’s not forget that America is a big, diverse country, and not every part of America has a big Indian population, which means a lot of the country doesn’t necessarily have a lot of exposure to indian food. I do happen to live in an area with a lot of Indian families, but you only need to drive maybe about an hour away for your options to dry up pretty quickly. I have friends who genuinely do not have any Indian restaurants anywhere near them, and their grocery options are sometimes kind of limited which may get in the way of making it at home if they wanted to (and not everyone is a great cook or willing to risk messing up dinner with unfamiliar recipes) And that much spice and flavor when you’re not used to it can be a bit off-putting. I’m a fairly adventurous eater, but I didn’t grow up eating Indian food (my mom is one of those kinds of people who thinks a McChicken is too spicy,) and I know the first time I had Indian I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, I didn’t dislike it, but I had to have it a couple times before I really came to appreciate it.
Personally, in my circles the people who don’t like Indian tend to be the odd ones out that get made fun of, but again I’m not necessarily representative of America in general, that’s just been my own experience. I even know some people who love indian food but can’t/shouldn’t eat it due to all of the spices and such not sitting well with their stomachs (and there may be a discussion to be had about many American’s bland, super-processed diets having negative effects on their gut microbiomes possibly making it harder for their systems to handle certain cuisines, but that’s well outside of my depth to really go into, I’m a foodie, not a nutritionist, so take my speculation with a heaping helping of some coarse finishing salt)
let’s not forget that America is a big, diverse country
We just did a 5 week trip in the US which was LA, drive to Vegas, fly to NYC, then drive 5000k to the middle of Texas, and man… I keep hearing about all this diversity but that joint is the same all over. Having some mountains in the background instead of a desert, and having a majority RAM 2500s instead of majority Teslas is not the “diversity” I’d been led to believe existed. It’s all just chain stores, tipping, and bad coffee anywhere you go.
Yeah I’d like to see some examples. Everyone I know loves Indian food. Hope you’re not some kind of troll. Give me that curry, man!
Aww I sure hope you aren’t basing your opinion off of one of the most purposefully offensive shows out there haha. Indian food is known for its potential heat and the corresponding affects… and more often than not the joke is about stupid americans who think they’re chads who go for the multiple star rating and pay the price. Peter from Family Guy is beloved because of his stupid decisions and we laugh at the consequences!
Also, Indian food is not the only example of this… Thai Food is my particular masochistic joy =) Give me that pain! It tastes so good!
Thai food is so much spicier than Indian food. I’ve yet to encounter the Indian food that was just too spicy for me to eat at all, but Thai food…
It’s funny because Tikka masala isn’t Indian, but a British dish and it isn’t even spicy.
A skit making fun of an American stereotype…
odd, never heard of comedy making fun of foreign food.
I personally enjoy a fair bit of Indian food, it’s quite varied.
What is the punchline you see in American media about Indian food?
The stereotype of Indian cuisine is that it sometimes has really strong flavor, sometimes a strong smell to match. Those are not bad things.
I don’t have any overall negative associations with Indian food. There are certainly dishes that don’t appeal to me, but if anyone wanted to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner, I would say “yes, please”.
Edit: I see some comments about “spicy diarrhea” jokes. I see those as a function of people not acclimated to spicy food, not that the spicy food itself is bad. I’m impressed by people who can eat full spicy level Indian food. I would be on a toilet for a day if I ate fully spicy level; that’s my problem, not the fault of Indian cuisine overall.
No amount of acclimation will stop an ulcer from reacting badly to spicy food. There are plenty of people who love spicy hot food but physically can’t eat it, unfortunately.
bland shows catering to bland tastes, maybe?
Maybe it’s that I don’t watch much comedy, but I’ve literally never seen anything dump on Indian. There is nothing more delicious than Indian. Nothing. Not even Mexican food. I do not say that lightly.
Eh, however on the Mexican side, it became kind of tradition to associate Taco Bell with uncontrollable, debilitating, liquid diarrhea
Taco Bell is about as Mexican as Mac & Cheese. When I talk about Mexican food, I am talking about Mexican food.
Taco Bell isn’t “mexican food,” it’s fast food, and there was a time when it was even worse then it is now.
What? I’ve never seen anyone rag on Indian food.
At worst, the way they eat it, but never the food.
