February 23, 2007
Hari the Comic on Kimmel (UPDATE: Kimmel Clip Found!)Humor
A friend emailed me over the weekend, notifying me that desi stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu was going to appear to on Jimmy Kimmel on Monday, February 19. Unfortunately, I was out of town and didn’t get to check my email in time (drat!) so I missed the whole thing. And I’ve been scouring the internet since then, trying to find the clip for this post but I have yet to find it. (If anyone can point me to it, I’ll upload it here.)
UPDATE: My friend emailed Hari and asked him for the clip, and he was nice enough to send it to her. Here you go. I love it!
I’m usually not a huge fan of stand-up comedy, although there’s a few comedians that I follow. My favorite is Aron Kader (which shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who reads PSID) — mainly because his material is gutsy and clever and yet non-polarizing at the same time. And, he’s a cutie.
In any case, I’d never heard of Hari Kondabolu until I received my friend’s email. According to his website, he’s only 24, which makes his appearance on Kimmel even more impressive. But this line in his bio had me intrigued:
Hari Kondabolu discovers big laughs with material most comics wouldn’t think about exploring: Racism, Privilege, and Power.Looks like he doesn’t hold back.
His writing is also snarky and witty and much more subtle. This excerpt from his blog had me smirking:
The most common annoyance I have at comedy shows are MCs or hosts (always White comics…I’m in Seattle) introducing me to the stage with a corny joke about me being “Indian.” For some reason, many white comics feel this is new ground and continue to introduce me with jokes like:His blog is worth a look.“Ladies and Gentleman straight off the reservation…” OR “Let’s hear it for our favorite Cherokee comedian!” OR “Our next comedian is Indian…DOTS NOT FEATHERS!”
You get the picture. Hack. Straight-up hack.
I generally smile and move on with my set. Sometimes, however, I’m just not in the mood for the bullshit. For example, several months ago after an intro similar to the ones listed above, I came on stage and uttered this line:
“Thanks Tom for that wonderful introduction. Ladies and Gentleman, let’s give it up for the BISCUIT…oh…I meant, the CRACKER… sorry, I get those two things confused as well.”
naina on February 23, 2007 12:21 AM in Humor · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
meh. Most comics are.
Good comedy like good cooking is all about timing. That's why it is always a mistake to Hari the comic.
This is the first desi comedian I've seen whose material touches on cultural and political issues and whose stuff is actually funny. It's refreshing to see a brown man on stage who doesn't resort to cliches, stereotypes and various other types of minstrelism (yeah, I'm talking about Russell Peters) to get laughs. In my mind there's a wide gulf between being "bitter" or "angry" and expressing righteous indignation. Shit, everyone should be pissed off about what the British did to South Asia.
I completely approve. I completely, completely approve.
LOL @ rah. Hari is funny as HELL!! LMAO. He's definitely funnier than Russell Peters. Not that I dislike Peters, but he said something on TV, that I really disagreed..."POC are more racist now than white people."
I heard that and I said to myself, "WTF is he smoking? Russell must be smoking crack. I've never heard of any black, Puerto Rican, Pakistani or Korean Klansmen burning crosses on the lawns of gated communities."
I'm from Georgia, in the Deep Dirty South. I'm quite sure Russell Peters never been to Mississippi, Georgia or Alabama to say something that crazy. Russell Peters is from Canada. He can say that BS in Canada because it's too freaking cold to be racist in Canada; you can't burn a cross in a blizzard.
No harm in a little anger here and there. He is Bitter...Nawt!
I liked the Youtube bit. I thought he recovered well from the "gasp" when he said what he said about the Queen of England -- he must have known that might happen.
We need more desi comics to just be their idiosyncratic, bitter selves.
The bit about the British Queen wearing his grandmother's jewelry was the best in the whole clip! Ranks up there with the punk song "God Save the Queen". Standup should "kick upward", instead of kicking those who are already lying down.
:)
Love it.
There are tons of comics that explore these topics all the time.
Aziz Ansari is another desi comic whose material touches on cultural and political issues. I've heard him do stand-up about growing up desi in South Carolina. It's occasional, but it's there. He has a skit about meeting M.I.A. and speaking Tamil to her - I think you can find it on YouTube. He's kind of hit or miss with me, though.
I loved the Hari Kondabolu clip.
I didn't hear the bit, but it needs to be looked at in the right context. For example, Chris rock's joke, "Who's more racist? white people or black people? Black people! Cuz black people hate black people too" or the very funny,
"Who's the most racist? the real most racist? Old black men. Because they went through the real racism, fuck this "I can't get a cab" bullshit, they were the cab. White man just jumped on him and said, 'Main street!'"
In each of these cases, he was saying sarcastically that black people were more racist out of been on the receiving end of 1000x more racism for so long.
"out of been on the receiving end of 1000x "
...out of being on the receiving end of...
Exactly! bitter comedy routines are funnier for ex lewis black, carlos mencia.
Lizzie, thanks for the tip on Aziz Ansari -- I'd never heard of him before. The MIA bit was hilarious in parts, though maybe a bit too long.
The one that I really liked was actually "Google Results."
Super find. I am going to root for this guy, because thats exactly how I feel about british.
I am glad he is about to present it via humor, which I wont be able to.
GO HARI!!
Awesome! Thanks for pointing this guy out. Going to have to keep an eye on his career:)
Amardeep - no prob. :) I guess I thought SM had covered Aziz before?
Anyhoo, I went to his Monday night show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade fairly often when I was in New York (it's called Crash Test and it's different stand-up comedians, hosted by him and with sketches by him and friends). It's a good show (and free!). He's also putting together a sketch show for MTV; Sepia Mutiny should definitely give it a shout-out when it debuts. His website is azizisbored.com, and there's more info there (but no air date yet, I think). He's young, too - 23, I think.
HMF - I love that Chris Rock skit, all the way down to his MLK avenue reference.
I like this guy, and aside from the f-bombs, my grandfather would love this skit, too, and he hardly laughs at anything anymore. But seriously, anyone who can rib the British Empire, and be sassy about it, is awesome.
I'm emailing Hari's YouTube video about misusing Telegu to a friend ('cause it's funny), but I thought the Bryan Adams rant was weighted a little more toward the angry and a little less toward the funny.
(Sorry, this computer isn't letting me do direct links, but his YouTube user name is harithecomic.)
i thought it was hilarious! esp the part about the queen-- and the time-traveler. i also like aziz ansari (have you all seen his mixtape bit??). i think i'm also easily amused...
Aziz Ansari is very funny and doesnt necesarily play the desi comic part.
This Hari guy is an oder of magnitude better than Russell Peters, and Dan Nainan both of whom are dullards.
RP, DN choice of material is quite banal. I had heard all of the jokes they years before and they seem very uncreative and I am not sure
how come these 2 became relatively popular in the diaspora.
CLWAT - I agree, I much prefer both Ansari and this guy to Russell Peters. My PARENTS like Russell Peters, what the hell?
Hari has some pretty good stuff up on www.myspace.com/harithecomic. I really like that diversity joke and the revolution one. I wonder how both those things would play in the midwest. I saw that Brian Adams one on youtube and its ok. What I think is funnier is how Hari responds to people in the comments section. This guy is funny.
I think Russell Peters is loads better then Dan Nainan. Nainan, has been using the same act for the past 4 years - at least he used the same jokes at both performances I saw him at, with 4 years in between. As for the "recycled" jokes, it's never about the actual joke, just about the delivery...!
Hari seems pretty funny. I think it's interesting that the desi community has a whole sub-culture of comedians - i mean here in LA, I've met more desi wanna be comedians then I have the desi wanna be actor. What does that mean...?
"colonial time traveler." hee.
I know you were looking for British Asian *standup* comics, Shodan, but someone ought to mention the sketch show "Goodness Gracious Me." Someone--probably in the UK--mentioned it in passing on Sepia Mutiny a few months ago, and I typed its name into the YouTube search box. And discovered that there was a whole show in the '90's by and about British Asians! Very funny, and quite a bit of commentary about racism and immigration and identity and so on. I strongly identify with it, even though I'm a South-Indian-American rather than a Punjabi-Briton.
Oh--also, I certainly hope for more "bitter" South-Asian-American comics like Hari Kondabolu.
I can't listen to the clip you provided here at work, but can I just say that Aron Kader is GORGEOUS!!!
Russell Peters is sooo not funny. For the life of me, I can't understand his appear. For a very funny gay desi comedian, check out Vidur Kapur. www.vidurkapur.com
Thanks ABCD. G. G. Me rocks. I loved the skit where bunch of Asians go out for British food.
Hmmm. Why do all here approve when a brown comedian calls the Queen of England a "white bitch"? The double standard is so ingrained that it passes unnoticed...
Well PP I agree she should be called pink bitch.
Made props to Aziz Ansari. Love his act. Not really brown oriented. More hipster oriented. His "Trapped in the Closet" routine & stories are genius.
aron kader is fugly, what r you talking about. he looks israeli
who gets more hot desi chicks, hari or aziz?
ADCDagain. Shodan, you mean this one I think, my second favorite. These lot are amazing actors, and yes, completely bitter. Here's another one I love, and another....
ADCD, I did post a link to my absolute favorite GGM clip on SM a few weeks ago, though I'm in NYC, and hell, I love it so much, I'll try posting it again.
I know! I mean, people get all worked up when someone calls the Queen of India a "white bitch", but as soon as you direct it towards the Queen of England, suddenly they're all quiet!
You know what else pisses me off? Everyone complains about how Europeans stole land from Native Americans, but NO ONE is complaining about all the land Native Americans stole from Europe! I mean what is the deal with that!!??!?!? o_0
"You know what else pisses me off? Everyone complains about how Europeans stole land from Native Americans, but NO ONE is complaining about all the land Native Americans stole from Europe! I mean what is the deal with that!!??!?"
Is this an attempt at comedy? Genuinely interested. The golden rule of comedy is, comedy = truth + pain.
" You know what else pisses me off? Everyone complains about how Europeans stole land from Native Americans, but NO ONE is complaining about all the land Native Americans stole from Europe! I mean what is the deal with that!!??!?!? o_0"
Maybe as a sign of protest you should refuse to live on this stolen land among Europeans and instead move away to the wonderfully nostalgic world of reservations among the original owners of this land. And while you are chilling with the real Americans maybe you can ponder why most humanity ( including you and your immigrant parents ) so strongly desires to live on lands stolen from the natives by Europeans and to work in a system set up by the Europeans- Places like America, Australia and New Zealand.
HMF and NoHate: You know Yeti was making a joke, right? An extremely sarcastic and extremely funny joke about who has power in the situation and why its ok for Hari to use the word bitch in that situation. You get it, right? Please tell me you get it.
HMF, I hear what you're saying. Chris Rock's routine elaborates on the "more racist than whites" theme.
After hearing Hari's routine and reading about how both Indians (South Asians and Native Americans) caught hell from Europeans, it would be really cool that Hari, Peters, Rasika Mathur join with Native American comics like Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman and start a "F**K CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (Indian Takeover) COMEDY TOUR" and just sell out all over the country.
Amrita. Thanks for the links. I'm guessing you watched Kumar's too? Loved the one w/ Picard from Star Trek.
I saw this guy on Kimmel and I am sad to report that it didnt go to well, but that clip from youtube made me change my mind about him. He is funny! You can tell he is an intense and intelligent comic and it sometimes takes 30 sec. to get to the joke and when you only have 2 min. to perform it doesnt look so good. This guy is offically the funniest indian guy out there.
The thing I noticed about Kimmel is that all stand up comics on his show just totally bomb. He needs to give them more time.
I thought about doing standup a little while ago, and my jokes about ethnicity were basically just like Hari's. I love this guy.
ShallowThinker, I saw his Kimmel appearance too. Yeah, his stuff online is definitely better, but I didn't think it went all that bad. Seemed like a pretty good appearance to me. I do wonder why he chose the jokes he chose instead of his funnier stuff. Rookie mistake?
I met Hari a couple years ago at Youth Solidarity Summer. He was funny then and he is funny now. I thought his Kimmel performance was pretty great actually. You have to compare it to other comedy acts you see on TV, not to what he is able to do in comedy clubs. Certain stuff flies for TV audiences and certain stuff doesn't. He walked that line well. It was weird (in a good way) watching mainstream TV and hearing a standup dealing with Desi issues. Hopefully there's more to come...
hari is GREAT. it's so rare to see a comedian who makes such smart critiques of this fucked up world we live in who doesn't resort to homophobia and misogyny to get cheap laughs. i'm very excited he is getting more exposure.
Hari seems to be a 3rd rate standup completely lacking in any talent whatsoever - any wonder why he had to make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel? And youthsolidarity? Looks like another bunch of those herders railing and ranting against reification and forced identity only to band themselves together under that fraudulent South Asian label. Looks like a bunch of talentless hacks. Hari is angry? Big deal! who cares? Get a job!
shiva, I really do hope you are being sarcastic. If you're not, you're pathetic.
I guess it depends on your view of YSS, FOIL, ASATA and similar organizations. Those of us, myself included, who don't think Marxists have much to offer the subcontinent and reject the notion that the primary obstacle to "S. Asian" bonhomie is Indian Hindus find the YSS crowd to be pathetic. That being said, I think Shiva is being a bit too harsh in his denunciation. Goofing on the Queen, the World's Biggest Welfare Mother, is always OK in my book.
Shiva keep up the good fight...but know that it is pretty much the fate of Indian dudes to be hated by their kids. You & I are as likely to require angioplasties at some point as we are to have spawn who do up their hair in dreds and come home from Trinity College spouting all kinds of Vijay Prashadian drivel
Wow shiva and louiecypher, harsh critiques of Youth Solidarity Summer without much backing. Disclaimer: I was a YSS attendee in 2000 and am on the organizing collective now.
shiva: YSS does create a South Asian space - we recognize the problems with identity politics and actively use YSS as a chance to educate people in thinking about work outside their own identity. The space is organized intentionally to deal with breaking down identity politics. Hopefully that deals with your "fraudulent South Asian label" criticism.
louiecypher: YSS is not a Marxist organization per se. Progressive maybe, individual alums or collective members who identify as Marxist, maybe, so be careful in how you lump us in. But more importantly YSS does not take the position that Indian Hindus are the primary obstacle to harmony in South Asia, not sure where that is coming from. We do anti-oppression work that stands against communal violence - oppression of people solely for their religion is against everything we as a group stand for.
Happy to talk about it more. But most importantly, I still think Hari is funny as heck...
Arvind:
Apparently you didn't get the memo from your "comrades". Check out the speaker line up in the link you sent us. Vijay Prashad self identifies as a Marxist and your host, the Brecht Forum runs the New York Marxist school
Worried about you bro...sounds like you were Patty Hearsted. Worst thing that ever happened to me at camp was getting a purple nurple...these are less innocent times. Get help for your Stockholm syndrome soon.
YSS's organizers make no attempt to hide the fact that it is for progressive/radical youth of South Asian descent. That is YSS's purpose.
That said, no one at YSS forces his/her thoughts on anyone else. It's a forum for [relatively] like-minded people to come together, share ideas, and get to know each other. The collective structure of the organization means that people DO disagree with each other and discussions come out of these disagreements. While organizing and facilitating discussion certainly means there is some element of control, discussion is always open.
In fact from what I understand, in some years participants have challenged various elements of how YSS is structured, and the entire week has ground to a halt to deal with these problems. Feedback is extremely important to the organizing collective, and to their credit, they spend hours after each day looking through feedback forms and deciding how the rest of the week will be structured.
Can you imagine someone going to an RSS shakha and, after a couple of days of participating, raising his hand and saying he has a problem with how everything is structured?
"Can you imagine someone going to an RSS shakha and, after a couple of days of participating, raising his hand and saying he has a problem with how everything is structured?"
And this is what is your unique selling proposition? Can I laugh or I need permission for that?
I am sorry but trying to instinctively label people who do not necessarily agree with your South Asian solidarity views as Hindutva bigots is pretty pathetic. Get out of the bipolar world.
Regards,
I don't think it's fair to Hari to threadjack like this. If you want to continue this, I invite you to do so here.
I'm still deciding whether to send my kid to an ABD Marxist-Leninist camp or an ABD Hindutva camp for her further edification on all things desi. Knowing kids these days, I'm sure it will all be a matter of who has the better after-parties.
then you have got to go with us left-wing desis. right-wing desis shit a brick when they see people holding hands in public.
Thanks Mahesh!
louiecypher: thanks for your concern, but I'm doing just fine thanks. I was simply trying to say that YSS is not a Marxist organization. Yeah, we rent space from the Brecht and they host the Marxist school, and we have speakers who identify as Marxist. We'll bring speakers in from any persuasion as long as they can speak to progress in whatever work they do.
For those Desis around who want to look at things with a critical eye, we're keeping an alternative space alive. It lets great people like Hari have a stage, one that isn't easy to come by...
So no need to pigeonhole us as Marxists, we'd rather we called Rad Desi's :)
Don't sweat it arvind. It's a lot easier for people to apply broad, irrelevant labels to people as a means of dismissing them. That's how polemicists work, they frame debate in impertinent but polarizing terms and then simply ignore critical dialogue on real issues. It makes defending their positions a lot easier (since they basically don't have to). Anyway, I for one was heartened to see that young like-minded brown folks are organizing in such a fashion.
This is one of my favorite Aziz Ansari clips besides the M.I.A. one. Heart him.
I love watching him at Crash Test.
The Kimmel clip was really good. I have to agree that he's better than the other north-american desi comedians I've seen.