July 25, 2007
Pak AttackArts and Entertainment
This has been forwarded to me ~15 times and you are all right, it’s some seriously funny shiznit. “Yo Momma” is an MTV series that looks for the best trash talkers around the country. I watched last season end to end (ah, the miracle of Tivo) and it was ridiculously good. This time around, the show’s been infiltrated by a desi dude who’s donned the character “Pak Attack” and if he can keep the gimmick going, he’s actually got what it takes to go all the way & win the show.
 |
|
You smell so bad that people would rather sit next to me on an airplane… |
In this clip over at MTV.com, he DESTROYS his yo momma competitor, Osa. Set aside ~10 min of your life to watch a Russell Peters worthy performance. Except, of course, there’s a much higher improv quotient here & Pak’s strictly amateur. (His myspace page indicates that in real life, he’s probably a GeorgiaTech engineer. 
)
Now I’ll warn you, gentle mutineers, that there’s a certain brand of humor you’ve gotta be ready to accept on any show called “Yo Momma”… with that caveat in mind, a couple of Pak’s laugh lines -
“It is true, it is true, I work at 7-11, but just like my store, yo momma’s legs are open 24-7”
“The only difference between my camel and your momma, my camel spits”
Social commentary?
Well, I love it. Pak’s humor pokes as much at the purveyors of prevalent racial / ethnic stereotypes as it does his opponent. He’s obviously a buffoon and therefore, so must be the folks who actually buy into these stereotypes. Despite clearly being a harmless, good natured, Pakistani guy, most of his material is about being confused as both an Arab and a terrorist (by ignorant, racist idiots). Laugh with him and you therefore laugh at them.
Strategically, he finds both content and an unassailable perch of power by revelling in every nook and cranny of the character ad absurdum. Given Yo Momma’s competitive format plus the modern rules of PC, Pak’s allowed to leverage nervous laughter from these jokes. The competition however, can’t follow him into that territory without appearing, well, racist. It’s an unexpected reversal for many of the black kids on the show who throw around N*gga jokes left and right leaving their non-black opponents staring into the camera wondering if they’re even allowed to laugh…
So eventually there’s The Question that dogs any desi we find in the media. In this case, for desi’s as whole, I contend that Pak’s a positive image. As discussed here in relation to Aishwarya showing up in beauty commercials, pop culture vehicles like Pak leverage the same dynamics that made Will&Grace (arguably) better drivers of Gay social acceptance than QueerNation. Smart non-desi folk should readily recognize that Pak Attack is donning a character but they’ll also suspect that the real guy under the salwar khameez seems like a pretty cool dude to hang out with. And voila he’s now a “real guy”.
Of course, none of this would matter if he weren’t genuinely funny. 
vinod on July 25, 2007 05:49 PM in Arts and Entertainment, Humor · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
I agree, I thought it was great :)
let's not forget that he's a winner--that's really enough, for me, to designate Pak Attack as a positive image.
Like pre-nups, this post had me cringing...but I told myself to keep my mind open (like Osa's mama's legs!) and I did laugh, so I'll give it up for the furry funny-man. I don't know if this is our Will and Grace, but...okay. He deserved to win, no doubt. :)
Vinod, yo momma's so fat, she went to the beach and Columbus sailed up and planted a flag in her ass.
I'm just sayin', is all.
That guy is really funny. But the African language joke made me cringe a little.
funny guy. hey who knows, maybe he will be the next Borat/Sascha Cohen, but desi style :)
While I agree with Vinod's sentiments (this time), I have to say that both of those guys were pretty weak compared to this dude name Mintoo who went to my old gurudwara in Houston...
Like Vinod said, though, Pak Attack's best stuff does refer back to the racist attitudes his persona might face. Thanks for sharing.
Two posts on the same topic same author same picture... slightly different wording? Yo mama so blind she needs to see the same post two different ways
the duplicate post will get nuked in a sec... ran into a bug.
I guess it beats the other way desi kids try to fit in at school, i.e. by dumping on the other desi kid.
louiecypher, you so ugly yo momma loved the other indian kid more.
'You smell so bad that people would rather sit next to me on a plane'. Classic!
salil: yo momma so horney...when she found out what happened to vinod's momma, she went and layed down on the beach of Normandy.
Salil, yo momma so fat:
even the mahouts are scared to ride her
pujaris tie her outside of temples for goodluck
teak wood smugglers use her instead of pissing off PETA
Jayalalitha is afraid to get on a seesaw with her
Yo momma so fat that the b*tch jump up in the air and got stuck.
yo momma's teeth are so brown she spits yoohoo.
yo momma's house is so dirty roaches ride aroung on four wheelers.
YO momma is so dumb that she drowned in a carpool.
I saw this last week and actually found it relatively offensive. I didn't think it was such a clever twist of stereotypes, but this is also "Yo Mama!" so I don't really know that it commands a lot of my attention, you know?
Currently outside of the US so I can't watch it (some message about MTV not being allowed comes up) but I thought I should mention that the girl in the background of the screen cap looks hot. So if someone sees the clip can they confirm that she is (or does it just seem that way in the cap), oh and you can tell me whether the guys actually any good too if you like.
the girl in the background is pak attack's sister. shes pretty.
anyeone know where us non american ppl can view this video? i wanna know what all the fuss is about, if anyone knows, let know me know
Go to his myspace page linked in the original post.
works in China, wonder why it doesnt work for other guys outside U.S.
that wuz funny. yeah, the afrikan joke was a bad call, but he acknowledged it. hiz sister looked cute.
I watched all the clips last week and thought it was hilarious. But I love the Yo Momma non-PC style humor. I especially loved when Wilmer Valderama went to Pak's house and fell for Pak's mom and sister...Can Wilmer come by my house?
How do you feel about this guy (Rahul Siddharth)?
meh...he's basically a brown PG-13 Margaret Cho.
Tend to prefer comedy acts where desiness is a minor element in the repertoire
What was with the Yo Mamma host, forgot his name, wanting to go out with Pak Attack's sister and mom? I didn't think that part was funny. His sister looks OK, I have seen much better from desi's though.
Like Aziz Ansari? I think he's super.
Loved it! =D
It's the old Dave Chappelle dilemma:
One particular sketch still disturbs Dave today. The skit was about a pixie (played by Dave) who appeared in black face, which Dave describes as the "visual personification of the "N" word."
"There was a good-spirited intention behind it," Dave says. "So then when I'm on the set, and we're finally taping the sketch, somebody on the set [who] was white laughed in such a way I know the difference of people laughing with me and people laughing at me and it was the first time I had ever gotten a laugh that I was uncomfortable with. Not just uncomfortable, but like, should I fire this person?"
After this incident, Dave began thinking about the message he was sending to millions of viewers. Dave says some people understood exactly what he was trying to say with his racially charged comedy¦while others got the wrong idea.
Fixed. ;)
Dude...Razib...YOU'RE saying this!?!?
Fuerza Dulce: Aziz is awesome. His attitude is like "Yes I am browm man with a Southern accent, bugged out eyes and a name that doesn't suggest comedy but I don't need explaining". He just does his thing.
I think he has a guest appearance in the upcoming "Flight of the Conchords" episode.
Dude...Razib...YOU'RE saying this!?!?
wut?
Razib -- You've gained a reputation as someone who finds Desi women repulsive. Disgusting. Vomit inducing.
Well, Maybe I exagerate. (Did I get that right Amitabh?)
A parallel processing polymath like Razib can surely love the brunettes and the blondes
fyi.. Ali Eteraz has a great collection of pointers on Pak Attack here
Not that so much as that he doesn't like to objectify women and finds it demeaning and sexist to comment on their looks. And he wants to keep this a safe place.
That being said, the sister was hot. That is some liberal Pakistani dude if he can make jokes like that in front of his sister. When I was in England, desi men who were so free with their sisters, and partied with them, etc. were called 'gorafied'.
Sister so wheatish she make chapati like this (said while furiously rubbing scalp to indicate removal of dandruff)
Sister so convent educated nuns ditch her to have a good time
Sister so homely she go to Gurinder Chadha Charm School
Sister so East-West mix people think she's the Bosporos Straits
Not that so much as that he doesn't like to objectify women and finds it demeaning and sexist to comment on their looks. And he wants to keep this a safe place.
oh, that. yeah, mostly i'm just shitting you. there's a lot of serious PC-kommissars on SM now, so i like to get all righteous now & then to join the fun. it makes me feel better about myself ;-) (it says something that everyone takes my asinine crap about 'safe place' seriously too >;-)
Way to represent Big D. Although I'm guessing he's from Richardson, suburb just outside of Dallas.
Wilmer seems a bit shady to me.
Asha's dad,
This is totally Off topic..but I followed the link to your amazing wedding pictures .They are great ! Love the Bollywood tree photo and the texas bhangra
Asha's Dad, He is from Dallas, GA - a suburb of Atlanta; not Dallas, TX. Why would you guess Richardson, TX?
I think this is officially my favoritist thread EVER.
Razib, you so serious, ain't nobody makin' yo momma jokes at you. WTF, man? :-D
louiecypher, yo momma so fat she don't order at the drive-thru, she just says "ahh!"
She so fat, one time she got caught in a drive-by, and they ran outta bullets.
She so stupid, she use her turn signals on the driveway.
You can check out Pak Attack (out of character) here....youtube deletes any portions of his episode that are uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtZupCmVXC0
All his episodes can be found here:
http://www.myspace.com/pak_attack
On another note....that african joke was messed up due to a memory lapse (but he recovered by insulting his own joke)....the joke was actually "Yo momma is so stupid that she was driving down the highway and saw the sign click it or ticket, so she started speaking in her native language" and then he was supposed to click/talk in an african click dialect....
Salil dude, keep the putdowns desi flavored...
Yo momma hair so oily Cheney wants to occupy her head
Yo momma so fat that when she goes to Tirupati, Vishnu has to incarnate just to prevent her from eating all the prasad
I din't get the biggy smalls left eye joke.
As a non american, please explain?
louiecypher, I didn't know the rules. But now it's straight, dawg :-D
Yo momma so fat, she don't wear a sari, she just lay down on a tarp and roll up like a burrito.
Yo momma so fat, she went to Vaishnudevi, and all the people tried to hike up her.
Yo momma so ugly, they didn't even know she was a girl until she was three. Yo grandparents thought their son just liked to pee sitting down. Then they all pissed cuz now they gotta get a dowry together.
Speakin' of dowries, yo momma so ugly, her dowry was a bottle of whiskey and a trip to Vegas.
Yo momma so ugly, instead of a veil she had to wear a paper bag at her wedding. You know yo daddy was worried, too, cuz they didn't even cut eyeholes in the mofo.
ak, I'm not sure if you're ABD or DBD, but in Pakistan and northern India, brothers and sisters don't interact like that. For that matter I'm pretty sure they don't do that in southern India too, although it might be less strict. For that matter, usually in India the younger siblings respect the older ones, which is another thing generally lacking in the West. Now of course, when you grow up in the West, you have to decide how to balance each and every aspect of your identity and culture (sibling relationships being merely one aspect of that very multi-faceted and complex process). I guess each person and each family comes to a different point on that 'East-West' spectrum that suits them best. Some families maintain a lot of traditional behavior, some ditch most if not all of that stuff. This dude and his sister have found their own particular balance...she appears to be his younger sister, and for all we know, maybe she still shows him a certain amount of respect, who knows. I know an ABD Muslim family where the younger sister has two older brother...she calls the older brother 'Bade Bhai Jaan' and the other one 'Chhotte Bhai Jaan'. I don't think they would ever make 'yo momma' jokes around her. I don't know if I'm expressing myself well here or not...I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, I understand where you're coming from...but what you said is not a desi notion, it's a western notion...there's nothing wrong with that, we all balance desi attitudes and western attitudes in our lives on a daily basis...and we all find a different balance...but at least in the desi circles that I'm used to, this kind of behavior would be more on the liberal side of things. That's why the more traditional-minded desis in the UK (all 2nd gen mind you) called this 'gorafied'.
amitabh, i hear you. but the reason (partly) why i said it's not gora-fied is because a lot of people in the west do not do that either. i have plenty of western friends who are not that comfortable with their siblings when it comes to issues like this. on the other hand, i have one cousin in india - he's older than me, and somewhat conservative guy, or so i thought. but once he realised that i'm generally liberal and willing to discuss almost anything, he himself did away with the elder brother-younger sister formalities, and in many ways, the relationship sort of turned - he asks me for advise, i scold him for mistakes etc. but it's one of the best relationships i have, precisely because we are so frank. as for respect for elder siblings, it's a two-way street : one should live up to that role, or is not really worthy of it. plus, if it's super formal, it limits a lot of dicussion and honesty in the relationship. save for a few cousins and one younger brother, i am always the youngest in my family, and it's very frustrating that my family still thinks of me as a kid, even when i am almost 30. and back to the original point, i am not sure it's necessarily an east-west thing - looking at my relatives in madras/TN, i see plenty of sibling relationships that are casual and do not uphold certain rigidities. i even see that amongst generational relationships. i guess at some point, they decided that this is what works for them, regardless of the prevailing traditions.
ak, excellent points. It's hard to disagree. And you're right, people in India themselves show such a wide variety of different behaviors when it comes to this stuff. Even in India they have to deal with finding a balance between tradition and the ever-stronger western influence. Rich kids in Mumbai are probably some of the most liberal people I've ever seen. But I still cringe when I see a younger sibling cuss out an older one. And one very nice thing I witnessed once...I was in one of those desi grocery stores in NJ...there was this young mom, with two small kids, a girl of around 5, and a boy of around 3. The girl kept trying to say something to her little brother, but he wasn't listening, he was preoccupied with something in the store. The girl kept trying to get his attention without success...the mom, who herself was mostly focused on her shopping, distractedly said to the boy 'didi kuch bol rahi hai, suno'. Which means 'your (older) sister is saying something, listen to her'. I thought that was very desi, and very nice.
amitabh, it's definitely interesting to see the changing trends, esp. in desi cities. i think one good thing is to ingrain in kids that there is some notion of respect for elders - even for the sibling that was only born 12 or 18 months ahead of you - so that this remains with them to some extent, even if they choose to later lessen its degree. when i was younger, i always used to call my sister akka (didi) but stopped when i realised that not only was my younger brother not calling me that, but that my parents didn't even expect it of him! (yes, middle children put up with a lot :)) even to this day, my parents maintain a sort of reverence for my sister as the eldest sibling. it is both frustrating and nice. my sister maintains her 'elder' status for the bossy things, but doesn't take that role seriously when it comes to other roles, like advise, which i much would have preferred; if that was the case, i would have no problem maintaining the elder-younger sibling divide. on the other hand, my younger brother, who makes fun of me to no end and has dispelled with most formalities, still relies on me for advise, which i gladly dispense. so the tradition still presents itself to varying degrees. btw, cute story about the kids.
I'd say that his sister is okay looking in the face. From the looks of her on video she has the body of a 12 year old boy though and that's kinda disappointing. I'm glad I got to finally watch the videos though and see what all the hype is about.
How are your disparaging remarks regarding his sister's looks relevant to the discussion? Keep your sexist, disrespectful words to yourself.
The vague "she's hot" thing upthread was bad enough, evaluating her body and insulting her crossed the line. Enough about the sister.
random saturday night aside, but pak attack's sister? wow.
What part of "enough about the sister" did you not grasp? One more comment about the sibling and this thread will be shut down.
i think more people are paying attention to his sister than him
oh and she is quite the cutey btw
Late reply I know. Work very busy.
Richardson Texas is a suburb just outside of Dallas with a large Indian and Pakistani population and some good restaurants by the way. Shiska-Bobs (get it!!), Afrah, and Jasmine's. The church I attend is in Richardson as well.
I assumed Dallas and thought Texas. I thought we were the only state that stole names from other places (i.e Paris, TX, Italy, TX). There's even an India, Texas just south of the Dallas VA hospital. It's not very big though only a couple of houses and no major buildings.