DUDE WTF ASIA: SNL Korea Does Blackface

By Edward | Monday, January 9, 2012 | 28 Comments

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For starters, I didn’t even know there was a Korean version of Saturday Night Live — so it came as a surprise to me when folks have been bringing to my attention that SNL Korea did a parody of “Dreamgirls”…entirely in blackface. You can see the blackface disaster starting at the 45 second mark.

In America, we are trained to being sensitive (or at least try to be) about racial stereotypes and caricatures even if this does not seem to be the case in reality. However in foreign countries, they are taken as funny gestures with the folks genuinely believing that there is nothing offensive about doing things like the chinky eyes (like when the Brazil soccer team Santos did it as a sign of admiration) or in this particular case, donning blackface.

Perhaps these actors are merely displaying their fascination with black lifestyle, similar to how folks in Japan go to tanning salons to turn their skins darker? Eh, I highly doubt it. Rather, I think this is just an ugly case of sheer, stupid ignorance and perhaps a deep rooted hint of racism. While I have a feeling this is not the first time Korean sketch shows (or to be fair, comedy shows in general) have donned blackface in the name of “comedy”, I do wish to announce this:

Shame on you, SNL Korea. Shame on you.

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http://thylacine.livejournal.com/ ErikaHarada

How is this bad and the Australian guy playing an Asian stereotype OK? (http://www.8asians.com/2012/01/03/australian-comedian-plays-overbearing-asian-mom-in-hbos-angry-boys/)
squidnice

I think the only thing really offensive was how bad their lip-syncing was, awful. They didn’t even try and make it funny or entertaining, just bleh.
Vaughan

And “I drive a Dodge Stratus!”
http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

Not the first time this has been done in Asia by any means:

- http://www.8asians.com/2011/03/15/dude-wtf-asia-nita-negrita-tv-series-does-blackface/

- http://www.8asians.com/2010/07/07/dude-wtf-asia-japans-obama-magician/

And definitely not the first time Korean Entertainment has done a “wait, you’re offended? I don’t understand why because we’re not being offensive!” with Black culture:

- http://www.callmepatricia.com/2010/07/25/the-kikwang-blackface-conundrum-race-gender-and-fan-culture/

- http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/12/11/seriously-stupid-department-kbs-foreign-beauty-program-slammed-for-racism/

(Sorry for being “that guy” with the avalanche of links.)
Vaughan

Oh good, I’ll be anticipating their version of The GAP Girls & Matt Foley’s “I live in a van down by the river”!
http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

@Vaughan I know, right? I wonder if SNL Korea has their version of the funny fat comedian or the token black guy.*

* Irony
Dosanjee

Lol.
ClaraStockwood

Wow, then all of a sudden we get Meehin Cho called, “Chinky Eyes” when she tried to order a pizza at Papa John’s in NYC.
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

Is SNL Korea even affiliated with SNL?
Aunt Linda

WHAAAAT?! I don’t understand what’s going on here? This doesn’t make any sense! I give this a “Oh Brother!” and a “GAAAAAAHD!”
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

In Taiwan, I always saw the blackface toothpaste being used, and even as a kid I thought “there’s something horribly wrong about this…” Just an image of “Darkie” toothpaste I found:http://www.thomasawilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DarkieToothpaste_new.jpg
http://me.mikelee.org/ mikeleeorg

@ErikaHarada Different writers. Dino-Ray wrote the post about the Australian guy, Edward wrote this one. There’s a wide range of opinions amongst the 8A authors, and many times, they conflict. All part of the fun of a group blog
mwei

@TinaTsai they changed it “Darlie” and it’s still sold in China
FreedomMushaw

It just shows that being homogenous can really make an ass out of you. Be it homogenous in your community with out learning any diversity when other ethnicities live around you or sticking with your nationalistic pride and not opening up to the world. Its really sad, because the asian racial shit i hear pisses me off, but then this ignorant shit right here happens and i am like, really, what year is this and you as a country can’t catch up?? hell i know asians in korea, japan, and Philippines darker than me. But they just love to stick to what their former colonized superior put in their head of a “black” person. Asians come in all shades the same way “blacks” do. Truly stupid and embarrassing.
http://thylacine.livejournal.com/ ErikaHarada

@mikeleeorg@ErikaHarada Oh, I know, I was just making more of a general statement…:3
http://me.mikelee.org/ mikeleeorg

@ErikaHarada Oh, oh. Gotcha. Carry on then, carry on.
YukanutPhindami

Yikes and I thought when they did a sketch of a guy wearing a sikhi turban but he was “Praising Allah” I thought that was over the top…I’m too scared to watch this…come on Korea!
avaorac

@mwei@TinaTsai You can still find Darlie in every Watson’s in Taiwan. Famous host Taozi even made commercials for them recently. No one really think the toothpaste is racist so the name change didn’t matter to them. It’s still called “Black Man Toothpaste” in Chinese.
avaorac

No to excuse them but most Asians in Asia didn’t know blackfaces are offensive. Many thought it’s actually a great tribute. Even when you explained to them they still think it’s strange… Isn’t pretending to be them a great way of honoring them?, they would say. SO FWIW that’s the way it goes until we see more black people actually live in Asia I guess.
avaorac

@TinaTsai yes, it’s directly affiliated. They are allowed to use many of the same concepts, including Weekend Update.
avaorac

@Ernie H.@Vaughan more likely a token Busan guy.
http://akira.hana.bi/ akirau

Here’s one of a friend of mine doing a cover of Dream Girls in Japan

http://youtu.be/NMl61hSnZUY

I agree with avaorac, that in Japan it doesn’t seem to be offensive either.
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

@avaorac Dude, SNL NY needs to call them out. There’s critically aware comedy and then there’s just IGNORANT comedy, and clearly there’s a fine line between the two, but unless I’m missing something because this thing is in Korean, this is just IGNORANT comedy. It’s just not done in bad taste, it’s rancid.
http://tinabot.blogspot.com/ TinaTsai

@avaorac@mwei Oh Taiwan. *sigh* I’ve read and heard about a lot of discrimination against the native Taiwanese on the island by Chinese, and I mean NATIVE as in Malay Aboriginal Nomadic ancestry, not my ancestors who had moved to Taiwan from China way before the KMT vs. Communist civil war.
mssrcorp

I think that it helps to know that there is a legitimate production of the Dreamgirls Broadway show currently running in Seoul with an all-Korean cast. So, to some degree, the Korean SNL was making fun of the idea of producing Dreamgirls with an all-Korean cast.

The mission of SNL is to offend through humor. Last week’s episode of the US SNL included a sketch called “White People Problems”, so I am inclined to say this is just more of the same.
http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

@mssrcorp Thanks for your comment. With this information, the skit at least makes more sense now. A quick search on YouTube confirms that, yes, there is a Korean version of Dreamgirls (and, of course, no blackface; because if there was, there’d be much more outrage of this much, much earlier:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEAN-cz0HxQ

Although now I’ve been caught down this rabbit hole watching Korean versions of Western musical. Korean version of Grease! Korean version of Billy Elliott! Korean version of High School Musical, even though American High Schools are so fundamentally different from Korean High Schools that I have no idea how audiences will relate to this one!
mssrcorp

@Ernie H.@mssrcorp

America’s greatest export is culture. We entertain the rest of the world. And sometimes what echos back at us is rather amusing.
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