Here's how to blatantly shit on Asian men on nationally syndicated television. Thank you, Steve Harvey. The tiresome comedian/host kicked off Friday's edition of the Steve Harvey Show with a segment highlighting and mocking a bunch of goofy, useless self-help books. Weird titles like Knitting With Dog Hair, How to Have Sex in the Woods... and, ahem, How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men.
Yes, this is an actual book, written by somebody named Adam Quan and available on Amazon. Longtime readers will remember that we all laughed at it and rolled our eyes way back in 2004.
The book is moronic, and deserving of all the ridicule it has received over the years. But Harvey doesn't devote too much time making fun of the book. Instead, he sets his sights broadly on Asian men and gleefully mocks the seemingly outrageous notion that anyone, white or otherwise, would want to go out with an Asian men.
"That's one page too!" Harvey says. "'Excuse me, do you like Asian men?' No. 'Thank you.' How to Date a Black Woman: A Practical Guide [for] Asian Men. Same thing. 'You like Asian men?' I don't even like Chinese food. It don't stay with you no time... I don't eat what I can't pronounce."
It's an uncomfortably long bit in which he's literally hunched over laughing at his own idiotic jokes.
Note the extremely unfortunate quick cut to the Asian woman laughing along in the audience.
In the next segment, "Ask Steve," Harvey takes questions from the studio audience. Guess who's first up? It's that Asian woman! Well, that's awkward. Harvey stammers and feigns being flabbergasted, having to face this Asian woman with the mic immediately after dragging the men of her entire race. Harvey plays it sheepishly apologetic, though it's fairly apparent he's also doing it for laughs.
Her name is Leah and she doesn't really have a question. It turns out that she is Filipina, and has some advice for Harvey regarding his upcoming trip to the Philippines to host the Miss Universe Pageant. She talks him through some Filipino rituals for good luck, in consideration of the disastrous job he did while hosting last year's pageant. (Seriously, they asked him back?) See, Steve can't be racist! He just did this whole shitty bit about Asian men, then let this nice Asian lady speak and even pretended to be sorry about the whole thing.
And there you go. That's how a TV host can shamelessly shit on Asian man on national television, and get an entire room of people to laugh along with you. You're a real class act, Steve Harvey.
(Thanks, Jennifer.)
UPDATE: A spokesman for the Steve Harvey Show has issued a predictably non-apologetic non-apology:
A spokesperson for the #SteveHarvey show sent @BuzzFeedNews this statement re: Harvey’s bit mocking Asian men 👀 https://t.co/UdiSaFmoXk pic.twitter.com/GgmUX3G9EP
— BuzzFeedEntmnt (@BuzzFeedEnt) January 12, 2017
Meanwhile, on Friday, Harvey made headlines after meeting with, for some fucking reason, Donald Trump. Why anyone would choose to meet with Steve Harvey, of all people, to discuss federal policy seems beyond reason, but this is Donald Trump, so it makes perfect sense. After the meeting, while speaking with the press, Harvey did mention the controversy over his comments about Asian men:
"I ain't been laughing that much over the past few days," Mr. Harvey said. "They’re kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that's life, ain't it?"
"For no reason"? Get the fuck out of here.
