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Professor P

ENGL 101

12 October 2018

Negative Stereotypes in American Comedy

In the beginning of television entertainment, white Americans controlled every aspect of

business, including who is presented in the program. When Indians were first portrayed on TV, it

tended to be in very stereotypical roles. The most well known Indian character in popular media

is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from The Simpsons. Apu runs Kwik-E-Mart, a convenience store in

Springfield, and speaks with a heavy Indian accent. Apu has created major controversy in the

past ten years because Apu was the only representation of the whole Indian population for

around two decades. Displaying a single example of a specific population instills a single

depiction of that group, taking away from the diversity that exists within that group of people.

Misrepresenting or overgeneralizing a certain group or community is dangerous because it makes

a single story, allowing people to make conclusions about that society. This has created many

inaccurate stereotypes; that all Indian Americans have an accent or are only able to obtain or

perform just the one job. This belief has not been rejected and continues to this day because there

is no attempt to correct the wrongdoings of this mass generalization. The way Master of None

uses repetitive misrepresentations of Indians while offering new perspectives of Indians removes

the negative stereotypes and generalizations people have placed upon the Indian population by

poking fun at these stereotypes and demonstrating diversity at the same time.

In this scene, Dev is auditioning for a part of a taxi driver. The first take Dev did was in a
Californian movie accent, and the casting director replies;

Director: “Okay... I want to try it again, but this time, we need you to do an accent.
Dev: You mean like an Indian accent?
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Director: Yeah. yeah.

Dev: Uh, you know, I’d rather not. I just feel kind of weird doing that voice. Is that
okay?
Director: You know, Ben Kingsley did an accent in Gandhi, and he won the Oscar for it,
so..
Dev: But he didn’t win the Oscar just for doing the accent. I mean it wasn’t an Oscar
for Best Indian Accent. Also, it might be strange to play Gandhi and talk like I’m talking now.
Director: I would argue that the same could be said of this cab driver.
Dev: I would argue that that’s kind of a weird argument to make.
Director: Okay. We will be in touch.
Dev: Okay, but sounds like you won’t be cause of the whole accent thing.
Director: Yeah, no. Sorry.
Dev: Alright.

This quick scene is important to demonstrate the somewhat offensive stereotyping that

happens to minorities, specifically Indian Americans. The stubbornness of the director is a

significant point in this episode. No matter what the actor feels comfortable with, the director is

looking for what they want, even if that means ignoring social barriers. The director has a belief

installed from the producer and a bunch of other members working on the same production. The

way they are auditioning people who they think correctly will perform their belief of cultural

attributes, which reinforces misrepresentations. Before the audition, the camera was used to

subtly show the number of Indian actors waiting to audition for a small taxi driver role. The

amount of Indian actors sitting there waiting is to provide evidence for the way Indians are

looked upon in society. Because of misrepresentation in the past, so many Indians are shown

waiting for the audition of a taxi driver instead of another audition because there are no better

roles that allow Indians to contain superior occupations, and many of them know they will be

unable to land different or better roles. Dev is uncomfortable with performing an accent but since

Indians have only been portrayed with accents in the past, directors will continue to follow

history and cast only Indians who will perform the accent they want. The installment of this
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belief removes diversity of the Indian population. The director is pushing these stereotypes

further and puts billions of people into one small descriptive umbrella, taking away any ability

for advancement among the Indian population. The director is so intent on making the taxi driver

have an accent that she is disregarding the need to break the social stereotypes that have followed

Indians since they were represented in an erroneous way.

In Master of None, bringing attention to the misrepresentation of Indians was not the sole

focus of the episode. This episode focused on eliminating the negative stereotypes, but adding

humor to the scenes of misrepresentation was not enough. Master of None was able to construct

an alternative image for the Indian population by adding a new Indian character, Anush. Anush

is in wonderful physical shape, and his actions are incredibly goofy. We do not know Anush’s

profession except that he is trying to start his own company. He is shown trying to promote his

protein shakes created from an organic blend of peas and even has his buddy, Ravi advertising

for him as well. Anush is an entrepreneur, not a taxi driver, convenient store owner or

information technology technician. He is a character trying to succeed by putting all of his effort

into his specialized edition protein shake. Anush breaks away from the archetypal Indian

character that has been shown since the beginning of television, and symbolises a new era of

Indian representation. This created an opportunity for non-Indian Americans to realize that the

negative generalizations of Indians are not always true, and were historically generated and

misrepresented in popular American media by a dominant white culture. The addition of Anush

provided an inspirational character for young Indian children to have an alternative

representative.

The show Master of None succeeded in establishing new ways to portray Indians in a

different manner. They are portraying Indian Americans in an alternative way, not through the
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perspective of how White Americans view Indian Americans. This has stripped some of the

negativity that comes with the stereotypes; however, it will require much more effort to remove

all of the stigmas that come with Indian characters in the media. Unless more Indian characters

of all different backgrounds, careers, and intelligences are introduced into mainstream television

and media, the perception of the Indian population will continue be distorted. This directly

correlates with the obstinacy and negativity with which society treats the Indian and Indian

American community. Some people will go their whole lives believing what they hear because

no one has told them otherwise. This show has provided different representations of Indians in

order to advance cultural awareness and negate the flawed generalizations that Hollywood uses

to portray characters of Indian descent.