And the Award for 2007 Korean of the Year Goes To….
Last Thursday, the premiere of The Cho Show, a peek into the life of Margaret Cho, aired on VH1. Since I don’t get VH1, I actually didn’t catch the premiere on TV, but I was able to download it on iTunes and watch it on my lovely new iPod nano. Of course, you can also go to VH1’s website to watch it. The episode, entitled, “Korean of the Year,” was about Margaret receiving the 2007 Korean of the Year award from Koream Journal. In the episode, she’s a little wary of attending the award ceremony, because in her mind, she has never been accepted by the Korean American community.
In the first episode, there is a scene where she is trying on dresses to wear to the Koream award ceremony. In this scene, she is modeling a dress concocted by one of her assistants for her parents. But basically, there is no dress. She’s wearing a painted on dress with glued on crystals that looks like a Chinese qipao. Her parents are a little shocked, but their reaction is subdued: “Why are you wearing a Chinese dress?” The idea is neat, though not entirely new. I do think that it was totally inline with Margaret’s outrageous MO.
The other interesting scene in the episode is one where her parents buy a set of traditional Korean clothes meant for a baby boy and bring it home to her. It is a “hint.” They want to be grandparents. They want her to have a baby boy. They say, “Without children, you cannot be a complete person.” Uh, wtf? I think what they really mean is, without grandchildren, we cannot be complete. Though reproduction is one of those basic instincts that many animals have, I’m pretty sure you don’t need children to be complete. Granted, having children can be rewarding (and exhausting), but people can be whole without having and raising children. Somehow, I get the feeling that women get this kind of “you-must-reproduce” pressure a lot more than men.
I’ll admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of Margaret Cho. I always thought that she was obnoxious and loud and just plan irreverent. I think she would take that as a compliment. I do take offense to some aspects of her comedic style. I do not appreciate how she makes fun of Koreans and other Asians. In my opinion, her mockery and sarcasm are not productive ways to raise awareness that Asian Americans aren’t all doctors and lawyers. Making fun of your community is probably not going to get them to hear your message. At the same time, I have a feeling that some of her comedy makes her enormously popular with the non-Asian crowd.
I will say that I do appreciate the fact that she is a role model to young Asian Americans (like Bobby Lee who appears in the first episode), who can be inspired by her work and make career choices that are different than those typically associated with Asians. If I get some time, maybe I’ll peep Episode Two, which if you have VH1, aired yesterday. Yeah, I’m still a little behind sometimes.
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Tags: television.
never been a fan of margaret cho at all. ALTHOUGH, this seems like it could offer kind of a remedy to what i dislike about her.
she includes jokes about her parents in her act, but they are the typical “my parents are so foreign” jokes that appeal to non-asian people.
with her parents actually being a part of this show, maybe they’ll be represented more fully and that would be suh-weet.
i actually saw the episode (when i saw korean of the year in the tv guide, how could i NOT watch?)
that dress scene was hilarious. she was bascially naked, her mom wasn’t so much phased by the naked-ness but was like, why are you looking chinese!!
it’s interesting to see her interact with her parents. you can tell their relationship has come along way and accept her (super successful) life, but yes, the traditional ideals are hard to let go of….
i agree with giles, i wasn’t a fan of margaret cho when she first came out, but she’s on national tv. isn’t the typical korean woman, and you see her dealing with identity politics (not that gracefully, but i think she’s passed the self-hating part. i hope)
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