Some comedy skits...

This has been an awesome weekend, despite the fact that my body is going haywire in reaction to the weather. We had two friends from Providence, S & S, come visit us. We cracked up a whole lot watching the impromptu comedy skits of this duo play out. In addition to theoretical breakdowns of the "hipster phenomenon" (it is worthy of a post in itself -- bottomline is, I don't get it!!), we also went to the hipster hangout of Seatown: Ballard, to watch the South Asian stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu perform. He is one of the few POC stand-up comedians in Seattle, and his shows have super sharp commentaries on race in the U.S. For those who dont know him, here are some clips:

On anti-Mexican racists:




On non-POC name-friendly spellchecks:



It's my first time going to a comedy club ever! Gotta say some of the stand-ups weren't jiving with me, especially those that bordered on morbid (I never got into the baby-killer jokes...I'm missing something about the humor of killing them in awkward ways). There was an awesome one also on hipsters -- yoga mat touting middle-age/long silver-hair-tied in a pony tail kinds in Capitol Hill, who self-righteously seek universal peace and spirituality in individualized, selfish acts with no attempt to understand or engage in society outside of themselves. What was so great about it is how real it was, not only in how it triggered memories of uncomfortable interactions, but also of how much of a widespread trend this phenomena was in Seattle!

Anyways, on the topic of humor as social commentary, here's something from the homeland. A dated clip of Liang Popo aka Jack Neo in Singapore -- see class, see agism, see labor exploitation, English-speaking wannabe locals. It's in Chinese, and minimal Singlish: