Lessons I've Learned From Television

Television has never tied more into my life than it has now.  Finally, my avid TV watching has turned into something good and productive! In my last blog post, I posted about how one of my favorite shows, The Big Band Theory, had mentioned a remark about American Indians.  The comment was a negative comment towards the show's character Raj when Sheldon's mother comes to visit and finds Raj slightly intoxicated.  The line was, "I thought it was our Indians who had the problem with alcohol."  

As it turns out, this wasn't the only show on television that had brought up a controversial topic.  In this week's episode of ABC's hit comedy Cougar Town, the character Bobby realizes that he is racist. The character Laurie discovers Bobby's problem when he makes a racist comment to an Asian man in Laurie's bakery and then proceeds to only eat the white half of his black and white cookie.  Another example of Bobby's problem is when Bobby asks a black man if he can dunk.  

Throughout the episode, Bobby is discouraged about his problem and Laurie brings it upon herself to help him fix it.  At the end of the episode, Laurie holds an small intervention for Bobby with her black boyfriend (via Skype), the show's character Andy (who is Latino), and the show's character Sig (who is of "Eastern Indian" decent)*IMBD.com*.  I was a little confused at one part of the show, but then I realized something.  Whenever Andy said that he was Latino, the rest of the group would start laughing at him.  That's when Bobby asked the question, "why is it okay when we laugh at him?"  I realized that it was the same situation as American Indian comedians making fun of themselves on stage.  See with Bobby and Andy, they are part of a group of friends who do everything together, making them as close as family. The episode goes on to say that because he is so determined to fix his problem means that "he's a better man than most," (Cougar Town, ABC).  

I think I would consider myself like the character Bobby.  I didn't know much about American Indians, so I took a class that would further my knowledge, and I guess you could say that that makes me, and the rest of my classmates, better than most because we are trying to become aware of a situation in which we had no prior knowledge of.

Big Bang Say What?

While watching an episode of CBS's The Big Bang Theory, I was a little taken back by a comment said by a special guest.  Now, for all of you Big Band fans out there, I'm not positive if this was a recent episode from the latest season, or of an older season that reruns on TBS.  The episode is about Sheldon's mother coming to visit.

If you are an avid watcher of the show, you already know that the Character Raj always needs to have an alcoholic beverage in order to have the ability to speak to a woman. For the people out there who do not watch the show, Raj is Indian; as in he is from the country India.

During the episode, there is a scene where Sheldon's mother comes across the men drinking and it seems as if Raj has drank too much.  As Sheldon and his mother walk out of the apartment and close the door, Sheldon's mother pauses and says, "And I thought it was our Indians who had the problem with alcohol."

Now the show does bring actual facts and real studies into it's comedy, but that was the first time I had ever heard them use a more controversial issue for comedy.  I wish I hadn't been watching that episode alone; I wish I had been watching it with at least one or two other people.  I'm curious if people would laugh at that line.

I found myself chuckling when it was said.  I feel like after taking a class learning about American Indians, I'm allowed to because I'm aware. I'm aware of the studies and statistics of American Indians drinking and I'm aware of the comedy that Native comedians use in their comedy routines.

My only question is this: How aware are the writers of The Big Bang Theory?