1.In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl” as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom”, the article states that Margaret Cho clearly vocalizes the complicated and contradictory nature of the show “All-American Girl” and demonstrate her own critiques about her whole experiences as an actor in the show in her memoir. Cassinelli argues that, the show focused on the ideas of ethnic authenticity, rather than a specific comedic form, and cause the failure of the show. Cassinellis also identifies problems within “All-American Girl” and appreciates Cho allows people to understand and analyze the misleading nature of televised, mediated presentations, and powerful authorities.
2.“In the pilot episode, the show features one scene where Mrs. Kim enters the kitchen and Margaret quips: What’s with the glasses, Mom? You look like Yoko Ono! While a certain level of obviousness may produce a stale affect, the reference that any Asian woman who wears large glasses resembles Yoko Ono is also stereotypical” [133]. This is an example of how racialized jokes are obvious in the show. The show unintentionally relies on prototypes and race, using stereotypes as the dominant source for the Kim family characterizations. Because there are not enough materials to explain the connection between the sitcom character and Yoko Ono, the American audiences may misunderstand this stereotypical scene. “Over the course of the season, Cho is pressured to lose a lot of weight through the unhealthy work of extreme exercise, starvation, and diet pills” [133]. “It’s made evident that show’s producers believe the American audience would prefer their entertainment devoid of racial specificity”[134]. This is another example demonstrates the show producers do not care about Cho’s self- loathing and masochism because of the extreme weight loss, attempting to create an authentic Asian body. This racial representation also shows that television and other medias are under control of powerful institutions and the fear of one Asian body with too much “fullness” carries the potential proliferation of many ethnic bodies.
3.A key term that the author introduces in the article is “authentic”. The show did not provide enough no-racial material to audience to create a relationship with the characters, attempting to create “ authentic Asianness”. Meanwhile, the show was also conflicted in terms of Amercianness. The show is mocking its Asian viewer and antagonizing its non-Asian audience by showing Margaret Kim and her mother’s generational conflicts of culture and assimilation. Margaret Kim is a rebellious daughter, and the idea that she could pass as a traditional Asian girl by using parody implies that Asianness is an act to be performed. All of those joke structures are severely lacking a punch line.
4.This article reminds me of a Chinese popular TV serial, the serial is talking about a ethnic minority called Hui in China, attracting a lot of attention. The TV serial of Hui have emerged in an endless stream. In order to increase the dramatic effect, it is inevitable that there are some plots ignore ethnic authenticity, creating stereotype characters. However, most Chinese audiences lack the knowledges of the minority’s culture. Therefore, the TV serial is often criticized for its suspicion of tamping history and reality.
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