May I have a word? Ching chong

Dallas Morning News | Esther Wu:

“Rosie O'Donnell said she was just making a joke on The View last week. But few Asian-Americans found humor in her words. While talking about the notoriety that actor Danny DeVito created by his recent appearance on the show, Ms. O'Donnell said: "In China it was like, 'Ching chong, ching chong Danny DeVito!'" ... Why is it that Ms. O'Donnell doesn't understand that these words are as repugnant as Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic comments or Michael Richards' racist remarks? It's wrong for someone to use the N-word or do a stand-up comedy routine in black face, so how can it be OK to make fun of the way Chinese people talk?”

Ed Cognoski responds:

It is not OK to make fun of the way Chinese people talk. But that's not what Rosie O'Donnell was doing. She was commenting on how big a phenomenon Danny DeVito's appearance on The View was, with people talking about it around the world. Perhaps she should have used video clips from international news and talk shows to make her point. But she didn't. She imitated the sounds. Not being able to speak the language herself, she used fake Chinese. The subject of her humor was the international fuss over Danny DeVito, not how Chinese speech sounds.

To compare this incident with Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rant or Michael Richards' racist rant goes way overboard. In those cases, bigotry was the whole point of the rant. That's far from the case here.

Nevertheless, some Chinese people were genuinely offended by the comment. They don't want to have to figure out intent. They don't want others to maybe draw the conclusion that mocking a foreign language is OK. Fair enough. Rosie O'Donnell ought to apologize and resolve to drop the shtick. Chinese people ought to accept the apology and move on.

It's not always easy to know where to draw the line between witty satire and insensitive comedy. Trouble is, the line keeps moving. Charlie Chan, once hilarious, is now embarrassing. Inspector Clouseau? No longer hilarious, maybe, but not yet embarrassing enough to prevent an unfunny Steve Martin remake. And Borat? Apparently witty satire and politically acceptable to laugh at. Or maybe not. Watch who hears you. The consensus can change on a dime.