From time to time, Ennis and Vinod remind me of the awesomeness of the Secret Asian Man comic strip. They’re drawn by Boston artist Tak Toyoshima, and although only a few are specifically about desis, there are tons of parallels.
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Jet Li and Aaliyah in ‘Romeo Must Die’ |
If Secret Asian Man hooked up with Angry Asian Man, we’d have Secret Angry Asian Men. And where you find Secret Angry Asian Men, mutiny hangs thick in the air. (Whereas around Fat Happy Asian Men, you find muttony hanging. Very different.)
Some of the desi parallels:
Underrepresentation
- Never Gets the Girl (a.k.a. Hollywood Thanks): The all-time classic
- What’s in a Name?: Never finding your name in souvenir stores
- No Hollywood Hunk: Thank you, Fisher Stevens (the original reference)
- Classic Movie Part 1: Never finding desi actors in classic American movies, except in degrading roles
- Secret Asian Man Loves SPAM!: Spam using desi names
Second-gen cinema
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: Joker, smoker, midnight toker
- Better Luck Tomorrow: Better movies today
- Classic Movie Part 2: The silver screen improves
Culture clash
- Sad But True Tales: Dot, not feather
- Advice for New Dads: All look same
- A Holiday of One’s Own: No Diwali?
- The New Majority: ‘Where are you from?’
- Seriously Committed (Or Maybe He Should Be): Self-immolation as protest
- Nowruz: Irani and Parsi Navroz holiday
‘Don’t call me South Asian’
Politics
- Skeletons: U.S.-born citizens can be deported too
- Asian American Month 2004: ‘South Asians don’t face real discrimination’
- Yao Ming, Hideki Matsui, and Me: Quitcher bellyachin’
Ethnocentrism
- How I’m Racist: Asian ethnocentrism
- The Tsunami and Media Standards: White ethnocentrism
Being an American
- Independence Day: No hyphenation
- Patriotic: The motherland has issues
Check out all the strips.
Related post: Secret Asian Man weighs in on media coverage of the tsunami




