"Outsourced": The Reviews Are In, and They are Sweary!
Last night, NBC premiered "Outsourced," the show that I am not going to watch about call centers and labor inequity and how weird Indians are, the latter two things definitely being stuff I'm not up to being amused about. Sorry, humorless! Also, what, they couldn't find a role for my high school buddy Ajay Naidu? Hell no then. But others watched!
• "I defer to African-Americans on issues of minstrel in this country and whether it's worth it or not. Oh, nah? It's not. Okay. What the fuck!!!"
• "But, if I may add my two cents? FUCK THIS SHOW IN THE FACE UNTIL IT DIES."
Related: you know what's really annoying? I strolled through Google News results for "Outsourced" to see what people were saying and you know what's there? Every newspaper in the country with a mild, meaningless review and then a reader-grabbing question: "What about you? Did you watch it? What did you think?" When did our nation's entertainment writers become their own commenter's whores, eh?
I think our nation's entertainment writers became their own commenters' whores about three years ago! What does everyone else think though?
I love you.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?
Nielsen reports viewership has been outsourced to Mumbai.
I thought it poked more fun at the ugly, clueless Americans, but not being Indian, I've got no official vote on the minstrelosity of it.
The first hyperlink is to Himanshu Suri's review, which provides a good analysis of that. Also, he includes a clip from Goodness Gracious Me so, you know, bonus!
The definitive takedown of the "What do you think?" newsmedia is by Mitchell and Webb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-rkzJ6yZw
"So a massive and unstoppable alien attack threatens the earth. What's your reaction? Are you affected by the end of civilization as we know it? What's your perspective? Maybe you live on earth — or know someone who does."
Seriously, watch it, it's hilarious (and even better in the context of the whole episode, because it's a Monty Python-style running gag woven throughout).
Genius. The Washington Post runs up to a dozen rhetorical questions on their homepage every day.
Jeff Zucker's "fuck you I'm out of here" to America.
Let's go to the man on the street.
This show was not good, and I don't think I'll be watching it in the future. That's saying a lot; I watched every episode of Cavemen!
I will defend Cavemen until I take my last breath!
So I was an extra one time on this show Mercy that got canceled a while back, and in it there was a scene with a Middle Eastern convenience store owner who has a brief interaction with the characters. So in between takes where he's yelling at the people in heavily accented broken English like "You pay for that!" "Get out store!" etc, he's talking to me totally without accent about how despite his Masters degree in theater from Juilliard his only roles are terrorists, cab drivers, and convenience store owners.
That sounds, alas, lihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Shuffleke a latter-day version of this:
Let's try that again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Shuffle
Kal Penn (whom I adore) has spoken about his internal conflict on taking the role as a terrorist on 24, and even though I'm evidently too lazy to Google anything up for you right now, if you can find it it's worth reading what he has to say.
Oh Choire, everyone knows Rohin Guha wrote this post.
oh my god, you win.
I turned it off halfway through. Though my soul had already become deadened by the awfulness that was The Office last night, so.
Thank you, come again!
I couldn't believe how quickly they resorted to the "there are cows roaming the streets!" joke.
NBC aired a promo for this show last night featuring Michael Scott saying "Who wants some man meat?" — definitely one of the stupidest jokes ever to air on The Office, and even there it had a context — followed by a clip revealing that Outsourced has a character whose NAME is "Manmeet." If you liked this joke once, you'll love a whole show built around repeating it! I decided that said everything I need to know about Outsourced.
That's worse than Jamshed, and nowhere near as good as Dikshit.
I'm reserving comment until I hear what Neel Shah thinks.
Now to Wait for a Bitch about Whites
I think I'm depressed that this horror show pulled better ratings than Community. It seems every show I like is destined for an early grave. Yet dreck like Two and a Half Men linger.
It pulled in better ratings than Community????
There is no God.
Hey, but they all got beaten by William Shatner's Latest Chance To Mug — This Time It's Internetty!!
I'm going to hell for this but oh well "I don't appreciate how they make light of a dark situation."
Oh god I hate myself.
That makes me so sari.
This comment made me sikh to my stomach.
I vishnu had a better sense of humor. I was just trying to curry the group's favor.
You two Kali me.
I'm Indian, so I felt obligated to watch, and all I got was mild annoyance at dated stereotypes and a strange attraction to the white guy. Which I kind of hate myself for, but that is my issue entirely.
yeah it was pretty fucking lame, but i'm more surprised at the time they decide to put this kind of show out.
Y'all are too dumb to tell if something is offensive or not. Now, if that offended you then you can have my apology. Better yet, I'm just going to leave it here on the table, so that if you you think you need it, you can pick it up on your way out. We've discussed this matter enough, time to move on.
Really surprised that Kumail Najiani (almost certainly misspelled, but who cares about some Pakistani guy's name, AMIRITE????) is attached to this show. I recall listening to him on Marc Maron's podcast and being floored when he revealed that he would be on this show, especially since he had just been talking, in great depth, about the stereotypes that he encounters as a brown man in America (but omg, how much do you love this: He said that his wife's Southern family refer to him as Borat. Right? You kinda love that)