ABC is bringing out a new show this February. It’s called Fresh Off the Boat. It’s an Asian-American sitcom created by Eddie Huang, based on his memoir of growing up in Orlando, and it was to have been called Far East Orlando until Huang led a Twitter campaign to get ABC to change the name. Given that history, therefore, you would think that a TV reporter would be sensitive to Asian stereotypes when interviewing the cast of the series. But no. An unnamed journalist at the Television Critics Association panel for the show had this clanger of a query. “I love the Asian culture. And I was just talking about the chopsticks, and I just love all that. Will I get to see that, or will it be more Americanized?”
A brief awkward silence followed, but, reports Us Magazine, “The surprised-looking cast didn’t miss a beat as actress Constance Wu, who plays Huang family matriarch Jessica Huang, said, ‘Yeah, we got some chopsticks.’ Producer Eddie Huang added, ‘Yeah, we got a lot of chopsticks,’ with writer and executive producer Nahnatchka Khan adding, ‘Wait till Episode 5. It’s all about chopsticks.'” Apparently the reporter wasn’t getting the fact that he was being mercilessly mocked. “Will there be more about the culture or is it more about the becoming more American?” they asked. “It’s more about the chopsticks,” responded Huang, and Randall Park (the best thing about the dreadful The Interview) added “The original title was Chopsticks.” The lesson here is if you ask stupid questions, you’ll get stupid answers. Or get humiliated by celebrities. Or both.
