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Long Duk Dong on NPR yesterday

Secret_ChimpSecret_Chimp 915 Posts
edited March 2008 in Strut Central
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88591800Anybody catch this?Can you believe that 16 Candles came out 25 years ago?!It was a pretty interesting piece. It really never occurred to me, but The Donger is probably one of the most despised stereotypical movie characters of all time. They interviewed the 2 guys who created Giant Robot and The Donger himself (dude is 52 now!)I feel bad for kids that were teased using all of those classic lines (possibly some of the most quoted movie lines in the past couple decades ie. AUTOMOBIIIIIILE???). What a nighmare.A super funny character, but so so wrong on many levels.
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  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    It really never occurred to me, but The Donger is probably one of the most despised stereotypical movie characters of all time.

    You sound not-Asian-male.
  • Secret_ChimpSecret_Chimp 915 Posts
    Ha yeah. I knew he was offensive (I'm not that clueless), but I guess it didn't occur to me just how huge of an impact he had. Sometimes you don't realize these things until they're pointed out to you. There also really wasn't a very big asian population in the area where I grew up, and definitely not at my school.
  • hogginthefogghogginthefogg 6,098 Posts
    I swear this is Long Duk Dong-related:

    My old college roommate--someone from my hometown who I lived with for 5 years--emailed me about a month ago to say that he was in town on business and that he'd love to get together for dinner. He and I have really grown apart over the years and I hadn't heard from him or seen him in a long time, so I thought, "Why not?"

    As it turns out, the gap between us has become even wider: he's grown more conservative, now enjoys duck hunting, and isn't above the odd incredibly misogynistic comment. But when he started telling me about a recent sales conference trip, he really bummed me out. There was someone attending from his company's Beijing office; my friend's big joke was to refer to him as "The Donger."

    Cringe-inducingly unfunny, especially from a 37-year-old father in 2008.
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    I haven't heard or read this yet, but I can say the headline is pretty absurd:

    "Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes?"

    right.
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    enjoys duck hunting
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    There was someone attending from his company's Beijing office; my friend's big joke was to refer to him as "The Donger."

    He won't be laughing after his company gets outsourced to Shanghai.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    There was someone attending from his company's Beijing office; my friend's big joke was to refer to him as "The Donger."

    He won't be laughing after his company gets outsourced to Shanghai.

    lol
  • Deep_SangDeep_Sang 1,081 Posts
    paging... umm... DONGER...
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    While there are alot of bullshit stereo types with the Long Duk Dong character. I always thought his performance was pretty amazing. For the most part, it shows how stupid people can be. Like the dinner scene, people would be sayin stupid ass shit and he would look at them like they were fucked in the head. In any case, sixteen candles is a movie pretty much all about stereo types. The jock, Geek, Slut... Almost every character is almost nothing but a stereo type cliche.

    But serious. It's all about Gedde Watanabe in Gung Ho! And he's pretty good in ER.
  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    well, in a small country town, knowing about the donger meant you also watched 16 candles. that shit was big in the city, not so much in rural cali. except among the arty types. and by arty, bear in mind i am talking about clovis.

    anyways, i believe takashi came after the donger. i always wanted the soundtrack cuz that jam they played when takashi was on the tricycle was pretty awesome.
  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    oh yeah, my dad refused to let me watch gung ho. to this day i have not seen it. that one was a lot bigger in the asian community because it spoke directly to the perceived threat of japanese car manufacturers to detroit. now that flick was racist. 16 candles, not so much.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    While there are alot of bullshit stereo types with the Long Duk Dong character. I always thought his performance was pretty amazing. For the most part, it shows how stupid people can be. Like the dinner scene, people would be sayin stupid ass shit and he would look at them like they were fucked in the head. In any case, sixteen candles is a movie pretty much all about stereo types. The jock, Geek, Slut... Almost every character is almost nothing but a stereo type cliche.

    But serious. It's all about Gedde Watanabe in Gung Ho! And he's pretty good in ER.

    Yosh!

    For real, I wrote something on my poplicks blog about how I thought LDD has been over-villified, at least within my community. Not that he's not incredibly problematic but as one of the few Asian faces I could have seen in the '80s, he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.
  • keithvanhornkeithvanhorn 3,855 Posts
    It's all about Gedde Watanabe in Gung Ho!


    did people commonly use the phrase "gung ho" before the movie came out?

    serious question for the old men on this board.
  • keithvanhornkeithvanhorn 3,855 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.
  • Secret_ChimpSecret_Chimp 915 Posts
    Dong really was funny, but not to me because of any stereotypical generalizations, though I can easily see how it would make a lot of asians cringe. I don't think I ever viewed him as representative of anything other than a goofy nerdy guy who said funny things.

    But certain things- like the "gong" that would sound every time he made an appearance.. just unecessary and in poor taste.
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.

    I would not call those guys cool. I think the idea is that they're ordinary dudes.

    Definitely not cool like, say, most of Tony Leung's characters.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Dong really was funny, but not to me because of any stereotypical generalizations, though I can easily see how it would make a lot of asians cringe. I don't think I ever viewed him as representative of anything other than a goofy nerdy guy who said funny things.

    But certain things- like the "gong" that would sound every time he made an appearance.. just unecessary and in poor taste.

    Yeah - in all seriousness, you can't really redeem LDD as a good look. However, his character also has to be weighed against the general invisibility of Asian-ness in the '80s within mainstream American culture (not that so much as changed, per se!) and to that extent, I think he makes for a more...shall we say, interesting?...figure because of that.

    For me, I never saw "16 candles" until I was well into adulthood. I'm not sure what my opinion would have been of LDD as a 14 year old (or however old I would have been when the movie originally dropped)
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.

    That's just cause most are never really looking. But there are a bunch... Just don't forget that Asian cinema is huge world wide, which there are TONS of "cool guys". But even in American films, there are dudes that can hold it down in the so called "cool" factor.
  • DongerDonger 854 Posts
    paging... umm... DONGER...

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.

    That's just cause most are never really looking. But there are a bunch... Just don't forget that Asian cinema is huge world wide, which there are TONS of "cool guys". But even in American films, there are dudes that can hold it down in the so called "cool" factor.

    Yeah but the issue here is that there aren't cool Asian or Asian American guys in most Hollywood films. That's changed SLOWLY.
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    It's all about Gedde Watanabe in Gung Ho!


    did people commonly use the phrase "gung ho" before the movie came out?

    serious question for the old men on this board.

    As an old man, I can assure you that the answer is yes.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.

    That's just cause most are never really looking. But there are a bunch... Just don't forget that Asian cinema is huge world wide, which there are TONS of "cool guys". But even in American films, there are dudes that can hold it down in the so called "cool" factor.

    We shouldnt have too "LOOK".

    Name some "Cool" Asian Brothers since 2000, who arent fighting?
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    That's easy: John Cho, Kal Penn, Ken Leung and Daniel Dae-Kim, with Sung Kang dropped in (though he kind of fights).
  • Secret_ChimpSecret_Chimp 915 Posts
    I can definitely see how in the 80s, perhaps when a lot of asians may have been trying to integrate (if that's the right word) or become more of a part of American culture, that this would have been seen as a big setback, and that many would have been resentful.
  • hogginthefogghogginthefogg 6,098 Posts
    did people commonly use the phrase "gung ho" before the movie came out?

    Yes--people that speak Chinese.

    And Webster's states that came into use in English in 1942, when US Marines adopted/adapted it from the Chinese Army.
  • DongerDonger 854 Posts
    he was actually kind of a cool guy in a totally goofy way unlike most of the Asian guys I grew up with - myself included - who were totally goofy but not remotely cool.


    i can't really think of many "cool guy" characters in recent major films that are played by asian males, other than the guy from harold and kumar.

    That's just cause most are never really looking. But there are a bunch... Just don't forget that Asian cinema is huge world wide, which there are TONS of "cool guys". But even in American films, there are dudes that can hold it down in the so called "cool" factor.

    We shouldnt have too "LOOK".

    Name some "Cool" Asian Brothers since 2000, who arent fighting?

    Dude from Harold and Kumar?

    Then there was that high school flick.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    "Then there was that high school flick. "

    You mean "Better Luck Tomorrow"?

    DQed for being about "bad boy" AZN dudes with guns and shit.

    Props to Jason Tobin and Sung Kang in that one though.
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    That's easy: John Cho, Kal Penn, Ken Leung and Daniel Dae-Kim, with Sung Kang dropped in (though he kind of fights).

    with the possible exception of Leung (and obviously Penn), the cool Asians in Hollywood seem to all be Korean-American, no?
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts

    other than the guys from Harold and Kumar.

    That's easy:Ken Leung and Daniel Dae-Kim, with Sung Kang dropped in (though he kind of fights).



    Ken Leung - he was fighting in X-Men, but not "racialized" fighting.




    Daniel Dae-Kim


  • DongerDonger 854 Posts
    "Then there was that high school flick. "

    You mean "Better Luck Tomorrow"?

    DQed for being about "bad boy" AZN dudes with guns and shit.

    Props to Jason Tobin and Sung Kang in that one though.

    Yeah, but it's not like the martial arts stereotype thing. Any good high school film about bad kids is going to have some fights go down, asian or not. Not DQ'd IMO yet, I say it's "thin line".
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