bad editing kicks aaron's ass

I got a pretty interesting email from actor Aaron Takahashi, who you may know from this commercial. He tells us about his recent appearance on the Comedy Central show Reno 911, which ended up becoming not quite what he expected:

Earlier tonight, a new episode of Reno 911! aired. In it, I play a store owner with a terrible Asian accent. We shot it about 2 years ago, and we originally shot several minutes of footage.

The original arc of my segment was that I was robbing convenience stores. The sheriffs arrive because the alarm went off. I convince them that I work there, and that the alarm is broken. I use a fake Asian accent and pretend that I do not understand a lot of English. After the sheriffs leave, the cameraman finds the real store clerk tied up on the floor behind me. I look straight into the camera and say, in perfect English, "What the fuck are you looking at?" And then I run out the back door.

Well, through the wonders (and deceptions) of editing, that original segment has now become an 8-second spot in which I play the store owner, telling the sheriffs that the alarm has been ringing for 6 or 7 hours. In a horrendous accent which never gets explained.

Yes, an intriguing lesson in the wonders of editing. What could've been a clever bit (the overarching joke on the show is that the cops are not very good at their jobs) simply becoming another cheap Asian stereotype. That's how they get you!