Tuesday, December 8, 2009

How not to dispel a stereotype

If you're Italian and proud of your ancestry, and detest the stereotypes too often applied to Italians, it would be a good idea NOT to make death threats against MTV producers.

"Hey, we're mad youse making a TV show about sayin' bad things 'bout us Italians. Knock it off, or we make-a you some concrete shoes and dump you in the Hudson!"

Along similar lines, my brother had a friend in college whose family once made dinner reservations with another family at a New York City restaurant, only to find the restaurant vacant when they got there. Not being part of the famous "families" of their names, they hadn't reckoned on the restauranteurs taking precautions when they got a reservation for "Gambino and Columbo."

My stereotypes of Italians, for what it's worth, are people making some seriously good food....or perhaps being a Jihadi squirrel....I would guess that won't get me too many threats.

5 comments:

  1. “‘So You’re Sicilian huh?’”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXjcf47y-zk&feature=related

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  2. "da" Hudson.

    Zheesh. ;).

    Glad to know FOX is spreading the gospel for the "real" MSM : P. Seriously, this is like when MTV refused to play Madonna's video because it was too risque, so the major networks led with it on their evening news hour ... (rolling eyes at hypocrisy).

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  3. :^) I'm kinda proud of NOT being able to do a good mobster impersonation, KR! :^)

    (though I did grow up near Chicago....I probably should be able to do a dead on mobster/Obama,uh, uh, uh, impersonation)

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  4. oh, out here on the west coast, all we have is stereotypes of the east coast (and to a lesser extent the midwest). I taught myself a Brooklyn accent for a role in college once--from a language tape in the library, no foolin!

    Eventually I got to New Yawk ... and plenty of people really do talk like that. It's not so much confined to one ethnicity, tho'.

    I even got wolf whistled by a construction worker. Talk about cliches!

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  5. Well done. All I can do is a dead on impersonation of Obama without TOTUS:

    "uh, um, uh, um, uh....."

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