A new Cartoon Network series, Minoriteam, aims to be a sendup of racism. But it’s not clear whether it’s mocking stereotypes or just profiting off them. I’m going to assume the humor just doesn’t come across well in print:

‘By chutney, you’re right!’

Created by Adam de la Peña, Todd James and Peter Girardi — all alumni of the ribald Comedy Central puppet series “Crank Yankers” — “Minoriteam” is a provocative animated show that sends up bigotry. It makes its debut tomorrow night on Cartoon Network’s late-night “Adult Swim” block of animated shows…

Non-Stop is the alter ego of Dave Raj, an Indian, former professional skateboarder turned convenience store clerk who is incapable of being killed by firearms. After having been shot 235 times during various attempted robberies, his skin is saturated with lead, which serves as a bulletproof armor of sorts; when necessary, his skateboard morphs into a flying carpet. [Link]

If you’re keeping score at home, we have one half-naked, turbaned Indian convenience store clerk on a flying carpet, one Chinese laundry owner with a thick accent, one Mexican gardener who can’t speak English, one angry, promiscuous black man and one avaricious Jew. How subversive.

The team’s leader, Dr. Wang, is an Asian, wheelchair-bound mathematical genius with a freakishly large brain. He speaks with a heavy Chinese accent and is in the laundry business…

Landon K. Dutton, a black man awkwardly teaching women’s studies at Male University, turns into Fasto, the world’s fastest man. His extreme rage propels him to travel at breakneck speeds. When not fighting crime he spends his time “studying” the opposite sex; during one episode, it takes him only seconds to satisfy a roomful of Thai prostitutes.

Richard Escartin, a Mexican oil baron, trades his tailored suits and silk ties for a giant sombrero and a leaf blower when he becomes El Jefe, Minoriteam’s hardest working member. El Jefe’s blower is no ordinary garden tool. It can suck and blow with deadly force and rip holes through time and space. His kryptonite? Tequila. “I think a lot of people can relate to that,” Mr. de la Peña said.

Neil Horvitz may be a wimpy mail clerk in his early 20’s, but his alter ego, Jewcano, is a muscle-bound 62-year-old who sports an XXXL yarmulke and has all the power of the Jewish faith and a raging volcano. Watch him shoot molten lava from his wrists (move over, Spider-Man)…

Surely someone will be uncomfortable watching a Jewish superhero get aroused while chasing a giant glowing nickel, they said. “But who exactly will it offend?” Mr. de la Peña asked. “I have no idea…” [Link]

Um, Jews? Just a wild guess. You can pull off this kind of satire, it just requires some finesse. More often, a filmmaker will claim a work is against, say, violence while drenching the screen in stage blood. The disclaimer lets the filmmaker get mass-market trashy while inoculating the work against charges of exploitation. As Dave Chappelle said, ‘I want to make sure I’m dancing and not shuffling.’

Dave Raj by day

But I haven’t seen the series yet, so it’s entirely possible that it’s hilarious and they’ve walked the line. This bit sounds great:

The multiethnic crew battles a gang of villains including the sniveling Corporate Ladder (an anthropomorphized ladder with a cape and a pipe), Racist Frankenstein (a bigoted monster) and Standardized Test, whose head is shaped like a No. 2 pencil and whose body resembles a Scantron test. White Shadow, the bad guys’ bumbling leader, has a head that looks eerily like the pyramid found on the back of a dollar bill. He spews nonsensical corporate-speak, using words like “synergy” and phrases like “Let’s all get on the same page.” [Link]

It is Adult Swim, so here’s hoping.

Update: Wikipedia explains that most of the characters do have non-stereotypical angles after all. Bravo.

The superheroes are:

  • Non-Stop, an Indian convenience store owner who is immune to all forms of live ammunition (ironically mis-identified in widely-distributed publicity as Middle Eastern). In his non-stereotypical real life he is an ex-professional skateboarder.
  • El Jefe, a Mexican that fights crime with a leaf blower and does not speak English. In his non-stereotypical real life he is the CEO of his own oil company…
  • Fasto, an African-American man who is known as “the fastest man that ever was.” In his non-stereotypical real life, he is a bookish Professor of Women’s Studies.
  • Jewcano, a man with the powers of the Jewish faith and a volcano. In his non-stereotypical real life, he dates statuesque black women and loves soul food. [Link]

Poor Dr. Wang gets screwed:

  • Dr. Wang, Chinese Human Calculator is the leader of the Minoriteam. He also owns and operates a laundromat. He has no known non-stereotypical real life. [Link]

Note how the Indian character was mislabeled as Middle Eastern. As mainstream humor about blacks and Latinos gets smarter and more nuanced, humor about desis and Asians generally hasn’t kept pace.

Watch the pilot (thanks, Ravin). It gives new meaning to the phrase ‘the power of stereotypes.’