“You mah-weed to owd man!” Kathi Lee Gifford mimicked laughingly, squinting her eyes on the Today show earlier this week. Gifford meant “You’re married to an old man.” She was supposedly imitating Al Roker who called her while she was in Beijing. Gifford said Roker was commenting on the age of her husband.
Roker is the same man who was so adamant about Don Imus’s dismissal last year. The same broadcaster who said publicly:
“I, for one, am really tired of the diatribes, the ‘humor’ at others’ expense, the cruelty that passes for ‘funny.’ Don Imus isn’t the only one doing this, but today he’s the one in the hot seat.”
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Link to Gifford’s video clip:
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Eyes Pulled Back, the Chinese Look Intimidating
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If what Gifford said was true about Roker imitating Chinese, it is Roker who is in today’s “hot seat.”
A New York State Assembly candidate, Grace Meng, wrote a letter to NBC News demanding an apology for Gifford’s hurtful portrayal of Asian Americans.
AsianWeek would like to create a healthy platform for multicultural discourse on issues that affect our community. As an integral part of the Asian American community, we would like to know how you feel about this controversy. Why do mainstream hosts feel that imitating Asians are “okay?” (Remember Rosie O’Donnell, Stephen Colbert, and Adam Corolla?) Are we “crying” about small and insignificant things? Are we making a big deal about nothing? Why are perpetuating these stereotypes dangerous?
Please make respectable comments in accordance with our policy stated below.
Thank you.
He should loose his job, and dignity – if only because he caused the same for Don Imus. Frankly this world needs to lighten up.
Al Roker gets me sick what a double standard…. He bitched about Imus demands that he gets fired…. Roker makes fun of epeoltic people far worese that what imus did now he does it again to the asain communitny ….NBC you $UCK GETR RID OF HIM like you did imus……
Al Roker has long demonstrated that he is without talent – just another over-paid phony. He was only too happy to throw a conversely very talented Imus under the bus, but I’m sure the suits at NBC will think long and hard before punishing their hypocritical favorite son, Al Porker.
And there we have the reason people can’t stand KLG!
I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Funny stuff, comedy is supposed to be edgy.
Your article reminded me of the wise Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”…
(Realize this is an old thread)…
It is shameful that it still seems to be okay to poke fun at Asians in America. Can you imagine what would happen if you made an African-American stereotype joke? The NAACP, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton would come out swinging. What if you told an anti-semitic joke?
Look what happened to Michael Richards for using the word, “Nigger.”, or Mel Gibson for his anti-semetic comments.
Yet it’s okay to still use words like “gook”, “Chink”, “Jap”, and “slope” in media context whether it’s in movies, TV, or foul mouthed comedians?
And where is the NAACP and the Jewish anti-defamation league when someone like Matthew McConaughey or Sarah Silverman makes an anti-Asian joke or comment? They’re nowhere to be heard from because they only look after “their own kind”.
Is that the way it’s going to be?