Indian Food is praised worldwide and celebrated in countries like the UK and Germany. Americans, why do all your comedy shows rag on Indian food?
I've not heard these jokes. I love my Indian food. Taco Bell jokes are 10x more prevalent. What are your sources for Indian food hate?
As a Mexican, I don’t take Taco Bell jokes to be offensive. Or even Mexican food jokes to be offensive, for that matter. I mean, i know my people’s food will sometimes make me shit my pants, but fuck it’s delicious. But back to the point, Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.
Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.
You’re right, Taco Bell is way better.
(just kidding pls no hate)
Yeah, the joke isn't just that Mexican food gave them the shits, it's that we still eat knowing that is the case because its so fucking good.
Do Mexicans even know how to be offended, or is it a foreign concept completely? You guys like Speedy Gonzales.
Taco Bell was started by a white guy named Mr. Bell. He had a hot dog stand that wasn't doing so well, and talked a Mexican restaurant that always had a line out the door into teaching him how to make tacos. He moved the stand across town and made so much money that he started his own store.
Carl's Jr, and In N Out have similar origin stories.
I'm American and I can't think of a comedy show that makes fun of Indian food. Can you name one of them so I can check it out?
I'd say most medium to large sized cities in the US have Indian restaurants, so it's not so unusual.
Friends did, Big Bang Theory does all the time, but yeah pretty much every yank comedy contains some negativity towards Indian food. I don't watch much comedy, but it seems to be a meme in their shows.
Indian food is very popular in the US and I have never heard anybody rag on it ever. Don't know what kind of media you must be consuming.
Do they? I rarely see jokes about it and if I do see jokes they are spicy diarrhea related which I will admit is odd because Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all.
I don't know if I've ever seen jokes about Indian food, but if you're right I would guess it's for the same reasons Taco Bell gets the same jokes - it's still spicy by "mayonnaise is spicy" standards and (at least my orders) are usually bean heavy and that's a lot of fiber by average American diet standards. The joke is really on us, not the Indian food.
exactly the spicey diarrhea jokes, as well as direct comparisons to vomit. American Dad and Family Guy writers spring to mind.
That's the kind of jokes those shows make; cheap shots and poop jokes.
So 2 cartoons that are by the same people. So basically a single source.
Indian food is probably given less shit in the states than most other foods. Mainly just the smell it leaves permeating through everything.
British food is tasteless trash.
Mexican food makes you shit your pants.
Chinese food is eating cats and dogs.
Thai will burn your butthole to death.
German food is angry and has sauerkraut.
Canada just has syrup on everything.
Japan is fish they won't cook.
Irish is all potatoes and sheep belly.
Indian is stinky and smells forever.
Americans deep fry everything.
We're an equal opportunity country. We'll talk shit on everyone.
The spice jokes happen in any nation that culturally lacks a pepper based heat as a common seasoning, towards any food with said spice. Southern states, who share food inspiration with mexico, do not have these jokes. They eat the hottest nonsense sauces, theyre used to the effect.
Americanized Indian food is not spicy at all
Disagree. This is entirely dependent on the particular restaurant. None of them put Scoville ratings on things, so “hot” can mean “barely mild” at one restaurant and “this will absolutely wreck your colon” at another. This has been my experience, at least.
Agreed, seems like a weird comment. It’s easy to get incredibly mild Indian food here but plenty of places go up to inferno hot too if you want it.
Casual xenophobia/racism. Much like the whole MSG thing here.
Do they?
It gets the same jokes as Mexican food usually here. Really, some people's guts just can't handle any amount of spice, and poo jokes are always a hit.
Do they? I don't watch much TV and nobody I know makes fun of Indian food, it's awesome.
It's not just Indian food. A number of mostly older Americans like to make fun of any spicy "foreign" foods that are more adventurous than the local Taco Bell. They do it because their tummies can't handle anything that's not bland to the point of being tastless. These are the same people who think salt and pepper are exotic spices. For the record I am American and I love Indian food
Who made you the expert on old people and their tummies?
I did. I decide those kinda things.
Don't ask who tasked me with this responsibility
A bunch of cranky old relatives who do things like order hibachi chicken at the best Thai restaurant in town, or insist that their steak be cooked until it is flavorless shoe leather
Its not that they arent used to flavored food. You have a built up tolerance to a mildly toxic chemical such that it doesnt cause you intestinal inflammation anymore.
I love heat as much as the next guy, but lets be clear. You dont taste with your butthole, and its a toxin that doesnt discriminate between tongue and tookus.
I haven't seen too many shows make fun of Indian food, but to be fair my taste in TV often isn't very mainstream and doesn't tend to include a lot of comedy, so I may not be the right one to answer this.
When I do see it, usually I see them joking about the smell, and I can kind of get that. Don't get me wrong, I love Indian food, I love the flavors and smells and all that goes with it. But all of those wonderful spices can create a powerful smell, it can kind of cling to clothing and such, if you live in an apartment it's very likely you'll smell when your neighbors are cooking Indian food, etc. and I can get how that can be annoying or unpleasant for some people. Honestly, if I was constantly smelling Indian food wafting into my apartment through a shared vent or something, I'd probably get sick of it too.
There's also the fact that a lot of Americans just have a very bland palate, and all of the spices, not to mention heat, can be very overwhelming to people who aren't accustomed to it. Personally when I see these jokes, and again, my experience may not be typical, it tends to be more at the expense of the American having boring taste in food than actually making fun of Indian food itself.
And since I mentioned that people may not be accustomed to it, let's not forget that America is a big, diverse country, and not every part of America has a big Indian population, which means a lot of the country doesn't necessarily have a lot of exposure to indian food. I do happen to live in an area with a lot of Indian families, but you only need to drive maybe about an hour away for your options to dry up pretty quickly. I have friends who genuinely do not have any Indian restaurants anywhere near them, and their grocery options are sometimes kind of limited which may get in the way of making it at home if they wanted to (and not everyone is a great cook or willing to risk messing up dinner with unfamiliar recipes) And that much spice and flavor when you're not used to it can be a bit off-putting. I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but I didn't grow up eating Indian food (my mom is one of those kinds of people who thinks a McChicken is too spicy,) and I know the first time I had Indian I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, I didn't dislike it, but I had to have it a couple times before I really came to appreciate it.
Personally, in my circles the people who don't like Indian tend to be the odd ones out that get made fun of, but again I'm not necessarily representative of America in general, that's just been my own experience. I even know some people who love indian food but can't/shouldn't eat it due to all of the spices and such not sitting well with their stomachs (and there may be a discussion to be had about many American's bland, super-processed diets having negative effects on their gut microbiomes possibly making it harder for their systems to handle certain cuisines, but that's well outside of my depth to really go into, I'm a foodie, not a nutritionist, so take my speculation with a heaping helping of some coarse finishing salt)
let's not forget that America is a big, diverse country
We just did a 5 week trip in the US which was LA, drive to Vegas, fly to NYC, then drive 5000k to the middle of Texas, and man... I keep hearing about all this diversity but that joint is the same all over. Having some mountains in the background instead of a desert, and having a majority RAM 2500s instead of majority Teslas is not the "diversity" I'd been led to believe existed. It's all just chain stores, tipping, and bad coffee anywhere you go.
Yeah I'd like to see some examples. Everyone I know loves Indian food. Hope you're not some kind of troll. Give me that curry, man!
Aww I sure hope you aren't basing your opinion off of one of the most purposefully offensive shows out there haha. Indian food is known for its potential heat and the corresponding affects.. and more often than not the joke is about stupid americans who think they're chads who go for the multiple star rating and pay the price. Peter from Family Guy is beloved because of his stupid decisions and we laugh at the consequences!
Also, Indian food is not the only example of this.. Thai Food is my particular masochistic joy =) Give me that pain! It tastes so good!
It's funny because Tikka masala isn't Indian, but a British dish and it isn't even spicy.
A skit making fun of an American stereotype...
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=6Th2ZA9CdOo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
odd, never heard of comedy making fun of foreign food.
I personally enjoy a fair bit of Indian food, it's quite varied.
What is the punchline you see in American media about Indian food?
The stereotype of Indian cuisine is that it sometimes has really strong flavor, sometimes a strong smell to match. Those are not bad things.
I don't have any overall negative associations with Indian food. There are certainly dishes that don't appeal to me, but if anyone wanted to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner, I would say "yes, please".
Edit: I see some comments about "spicy diarrhea" jokes. I see those as a function of people not acclimated to spicy food, not that the spicy food itself is bad. I'm impressed by people who can eat full spicy level Indian food. I would be on a toilet for a day if I ate fully spicy level; that's my problem, not the fault of Indian cuisine overall.
No amount of acclimation will stop an ulcer from reacting badly to spicy food. There are plenty of people who love spicy hot food but physically can't eat it, unfortunately.
bland shows catering to bland tastes, maybe?
Maybe it’s that I don’t watch much comedy, but I’ve literally never seen anything dump on Indian. There is nothing more delicious than Indian. Nothing. Not even Mexican food. I do not say that lightly.
Eh, however on the Mexican side, it became kind of tradition to associate Taco Bell with uncontrollable, debilitating, liquid diarrhea
Taco Bell is about as Mexican as Mac & Cheese. When I talk about Mexican food, I am talking about Mexican food.
Taco Bell isn't "mexican food," it's fast food, and there was a time when it was even worse then it is now.
In general, similar to Thai restaurants, Indian restaurants in the US all have the same ~10 things on the menu, so our exposure to the diversity of Indian cuisine is actually really limited to mostly northern Indian dishes.
In the US, a lot of Indian food is served buffet-style, so you walk around and slop different colored mushes on your plate, which can be kinda unappetizing. And some of them aren't that good.
It's very vegetable based, and Americans are meat babies.
Spices, Americans don't like em. Strong smells can be off-putting to the sensitive cracker palette
Racism/orientalism
Ah yes, the make assumptions and lump all 330 million Americans into the same bucket comment. Tell me all Americans have a bland pallette and can't stand spice after eating hot chicken.
What? I've never seen anyone rag on Indian food.
At worst, the way they eat it, but never the food.
It's so common people don't even see it. But it's the same thing as Mexican food. The perception is it is spicy and will give you diarrhea.
I firmly believe this is because American people in general don't understand what spices are. Spiced does not mean spicy hot. Spiced is flavourful and they just can't have that. I have dined with Americans that truly believe black pepper is too spicy. We had a Starbucks chai which is absolutely terrible, and they've said "it's too spicy"... What? Their brains equate flavour to spicy heat to bad.
It's stupidly infuriating.
Spiced does not mean spicy hot.
Yea but like... it's way hotter than most other American food by default.
No it isn't... It has more spices. It does not have more capsaicin. Indian food by default is NOT spicy hot. It is spiced. You can get it spicy hot but that's not default.
It's like saying fried chicken is spicy because you can order it with a hot sauce coating. In reality just that style of preparation is spicy.
So is ketchup
Leave the Midwest. Coasts and Southwest, we eat spicy foods, tho also most of them are very hot.
I honestly can't think of seeing anything like that.
If anything we might make fun of some of us who can't take anything spicier than mashed potatoes.
Dang. Now I'm hungry for some saag paneer.
Dunno what you’re talking about there champ
Hollywood and reality are very different. Hollywood makers can be slightly out of touch. In reality people here love Indian food. Many people I know tolerate decent spice levels too.
Any time I used to bring anything with so much as a waft of cumin for lunch, the bitchy conservative office manager would complain.
I now happily WFH.
That just sounds like the perfect opportunity to eat Indian food for lunch every day at work.
Indian food is the best on earth! In addition to what trabpukcip said Indian food smells a lot more strongly than the average american garbage, so if you're heating up indian food at work the whole place knows what you're having for lunch. Thats a big part of what gets joked about.
Worldwide? I don't think so. Idk I tried Indian food before it was good but I prefer Peruvian food.
As an American, I too would like to know this.
There are two sides to american eating habits.. the ones who think the Wendy's Ghost Pepper fries were too spicy, and the ones who are actively out there inventing a whole new level of spice to torture their taste buds with.
Sadly, the first side is WAAAAAYYYY larger than the second and any level of spice stronger than black pepper will instantaneously send them both to the bathroom and the emergency room for even daring to try something with some flavor on it. And it doesn't help that as far as most people (around here anyways) consider indian food chicken tika marsala and samosas.. and that's the entirety of the menu.
The only other thing I can think of that might cause it is the intention for each bite of bland food (like rice) to have a surplus of flavorings on it, which works for most non spiced foods but may wreak some havoc on people who don't balance out their spice intake with the rest of the meal. There's probably something to be said for overall quality causing some problems as well.
I can't be sure, but from the people I've interacted with, these are reasons I can think of which may explain how things got to where they are.
Side one thinks Ketchup is spicy enough. The other side laughs at them, but they don't understand how much spices hurt side one. This is genetic as far as I can tell - it isn't just you get used to spices if fed them as a kid which side two seems to think.
It's nothing genetic...
At least not for people
Capsaicin is what makes peppers hot, and all mammals are sensitive to it. But birds aren't.
And birds are better are distributing seeds than mammals, so some peppers that evolved to have a lot of capsaicin spread much further. There was an advantage to large mammals not woofing a whole pepper down in one bite.
The difference in people is some like the endorphin rush from their bodies thinking they're in actual pain, and some people don't think it's worth it.
But the vast amount of people that don't like spicy food never work up to it, they just go straight to something crazy spicy and then refuse anything remotely spicy.
Like, if your first time drinking alcohol you just chug a fifth of everclear, it's probably gonna be a while before your second night drinking.
There is a third side who understands that there are more food flavorings then "spicy," and that often excessive spicing is used to hide shitty quality food.
Huh? I don't watch a bunch of TV but I've never heard that.
My problem is with a specific, hyper common ingredient of Indian food: Cumin
I'm sorry, but garlic, onion, cloves, etc don't even come close to the clinging, pervasive staying power of cumin.
I don't like to smell what I cook or eat for days after the fact.
This has never made sense to me. I love the smell of food. When people apologise for the smell of garlic on their clothes, all I can think is "Why?? You smell delicious."
"I could just eat you up"
"Awww... wait you meant that figuratively right? ...right???"
2 things.
Am American and eat Indian food several times a month. Even here there's hole in the wall restaurants that have sanitation issues and you have to do some investigating before choosing to eat at a new place.
How come everyone gets sick if the go to India ?
Really too many reasons to list
If you're from a country that sanitizes water, you're going to get the shits from water in a place that doesnt. Because your body isn't used to fighting all that stuff off on a daily basis.
But there's also the insane amounts of air pollution in India, again, it's bad for everyone, but especially people whose bodies aren't used to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35PUIhDUFZo
Very relevant.
Basically, it's a combination of new foods and exposure to new bacteria.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=35PUIhDUFZo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Same reason you get sick going anywhere, the water.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/cfQmcCGm6Vs?si=rhTI_4zUPVoDfiYx
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
They cater to the lowest common denominator...
American peasants
Could you post some examples of comedy shows making fun of indian food? Otherwise it sounds like you are using anecdata and then drawing an inaccurate and worthless generalization of a diverse genre of "comedy shows."
Can you give an example? I know that some people have a hard time with the strong smells, but I honestly have never heard it made fun of in any demeaning way. Maybe at worst a character has a bad time on a toilet due to the Indian food being so spicy, but I can't think of how it would be made fun of. Seems well loved here in the States in my experience.
I thought you meant for Indian food being praised worldwide at first...
Most people I know that enjoy Indian food switched to Thai prerty quickly. They might still get Indian occasionally, but Thai food does everything better.
Most Indian dishes that are popular in other countries, aren't even Indian. At most they were invented in other countries and portrayed as authentic. So I'm not even sure that counts.
Kind of like how General Tsao's chicken is an American dish
Such an odd way to hear people talk about food.
I’d never consider food to be “switchable”, let alone think another culture does it “better”. Like there’s so much diversity between Indian/Thai, on a dish by dish basis no country is better.
Butter chicken was invented for the British (in India), but naan bread and the various dal dishes are authentic, and those are the first things I think of. Thai food is good too, but it's different.
That's always how ethnic food works though. It always starts with the original base food then gets modified by the local culture to fit their tastes and available ingredients. Chinese is the same. American Chinese food isn't the same as Indian Chinese food which isn't the same as French Chinese food. American Thai food isn't 100% authentic either, it's just different than Indian food because it's not based on Indian food.