If you tuned in to Saturday Night Live this weekend, you may have seen some of that good old-fashioned Asiansploitation in the form of an ill-conceived martial arts gag during the opening monologue.
To accentuate the joke, which involved host Melissa McCarthy kung faux fighting Bobby Moynihan while suspended on wires, they trotted out Taran Killam as a eastern-like fight narrator. It wasn't full-blown yellowface, but it was definitely veering as close as possible, gongs, wind flutes and all.
You can watch the "Battle of Lotus" here if you really have to:
Real big sigh. Another talking point for the ongoing conversation about Saturday Night Live's notorious deficiencies in diversity. I'm not saying having an Asian American cast member could have fixed this -- more than likely, it probably would have been worse -- but it does speak to the overall glaring whiteness of this so-called comedy institution.
As usual, my man Jeff Yang says it all better than I could, in An Open Letter to 'Saturday Night Live'.
