Unintelligent Asians Are Smart for Television

The Good Place’s Jacksonville Jaguars megafan Jason Mendoza. Wealthy hotel heiress London Tipton from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Struggling single father Miggy Park in Single Parents. The oblivious yet charming Josh Chan of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. At first glance, they might not have that much in common, but under closer inspection, it’s clear that these characters are not exactly geniuses. However, characters like these three are helping pave a brighter future for Asian representation thanks to their dimwitted tendencies.

For far too long, there’s been a certain predictable expectation for Asian characters onscreen. They’re often nerdy, like that of Hiro Nakamura on NBC’s Heroes, or the youngest sibling on Fresh Off the Boat. Or maybe they’re good at computers and exceptionally intelligent, like Conrad Ricamora, who plays the hacking expert on How to Get Away With Murder, or Suraj Partha as Alex Dunphy’s academic rival on Modern Family.

But Asian characters onscreen should show the breadth of the Asian experience. Portraying Asian characters that don’t always have it together or ones that are more brawn than brains helps better reflect the real world, one where these sorts of people also exist. Unintelligent Asians are smart for television, shattering tired stereotypes and showing that there are plenty of ways to be Asian.

The Anti-Model Minority

Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist who wrote the book Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism about minority representation, tells Teen Vogue that the model minority is among the most problematic and rampant stereotypes of Asians on television. The model minority label began in the 1960s as the notion that East Asians as a whole were financially and professionally well off, and it gradually came to include South Asians and Southeast Asians as well.

It is true that some Asian people will see themselves as studious or perfectionistic, and there is nothing wrong with being a high-powered Asian doctor or lawyer. However, the model minority stereotype is harmful because it reduces an entire race to one quality, ignores the diversity of their struggles, and puts undue pressure to achieve on Asians who don’t fit into or don’t want to be defined by that box.

By relying on longstanding stereotypes of Asians as the model minority or the “other,” depictions of Asians as geniuses or IT whizzes are limiting and unoriginal. But two recent shows contradict traditional tropes, interestingly enough, by going the other direction and bringing new life to another Asian archetype: the unintelligent Asian.

Take The Good Place’s Jason Mendoza, played by Filipino-Canadian actor Manny Jacinto, who may be every parent’s (Asian or not) worst nightmare. Jason is a failed DJ from Florida who finds eating an orange too hard, thinks claustrophobia is the fear of Santa Claus, and was sentenced to the afterlife after he suffocated by locking himself in a safe during a robbery.

Another portrayal of an Asian far from being on the dean’s list is Miggy Park, on ABC’s comedy Single Parents. The show features a ragtag group of, well, single parents looking out for one another and their kids. Miggy is a Korean-American single dad in his early 20s with a baby, and who waits hours in line for new sneakers, lists “applesauce hype man” as a possible career, and has broken dozens of wine bottles because he couldn’t hack using a corkscrew.

Jake Choi, who stars as Miggy, says he knew from the get-go that his character was unlike other depictions he’s seen of Asians.

“I’ve been telling my friends throughout the whole season and even especially before the season started, I was like, ‘This guy, this Miggy character is the antithesis, the anti-stereotype of Asian men,’” Choi tells Teen Vogue. “He’s not that weak nerd. He’s not a one-dimensional kung fu master. He’s not a model minority character. He’s really the opposite in every single way. It’s great to finally have that out there.”

Unintelligent With Purpose

What’s also vital to point out is that the unintelligent Asians of contemporary television help break down the model minority myth without perpetuating the otherness of Asian people. That’s often done with characters that can’t read or speak English or have a heavy accent.

In the case of Han from 2 Broke Girls, Apu on The Simpsons, or Cook Pu on How I Met Your Mother, many are expected to laugh at, and not with, their accents, names, and perceived strangeness, which alienate them from other characters. There is nothing wrong with being foreign or speaking with an accent; it’s these characters’ lack of authenticity and the incompetence associated with foreignness that are problematic.

What’s refreshing about characters such as Jason, London, Miggy, and Josh is that they are based off realistic people. Whether it’s a guy who’d rather play video games than study books or a ditzy young woman with a heart of gold, they remind us that Asian people of all walks of life exist. Asian people can care less about being a nerd and more about sports or designer handbags.

Shows such as The Good Place or Single Parents add more diversity and depth to representation and portray Asians who are goofy and sometimes don’t make the best choices — because we deserve range and flaws, just like white people. Asian people should be able to see imperfection with the characters that look like them on television because nobody is perfect.

For Jake, who says he “was a Miggy” in high school and college, not having sh*t figured out is authentic to many Asians’ experiences, especially at a younger age.

“I grew up with people like Miggy. I was a Miggy and I know people that are still like Miggy, all over the country,” he says. “I get so many messages and comments on social media saying, ‘This is very representative of who I am as an Asian American or Asian Canadian.’”

Positive Portrayals

Some shows fare better than others, and Yuen says exemplary programs present Asians in a multifaceted manner that reaches beyond outdated tropes. Before there was The Good Place or Single Parents, there was The Office’s resident gossip Kelly Kapoor, who Yuen says was one of the first Asians to break through the model minority stereotypes; Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody also reversed roles by featuring an airhead Asian character (played by Brenda Song) and a bookish white, blonde girl (played by Ashley Tisdale). And on Kim’s Convenience, the Korean-Canadian character Jung (Simu Liu) is more of an athlete than a scholar and manages a rental car company.

In terms of depth, while Jason and Miggy are far from the sharpest tools in the shed, they aren’t one dimensional. Jason has grown from his selfish past to be quite caring and uplifts Tahani (Jameela Jamil) when she gets down about herself. And Choi says Miggy shows real maturity throughout the comedy’s freshman season, as displayed during a scene where he eschews his old hard-partying ways to watch his son take his first steps.

And for all their misguided ways, Jason and Miggy exist in shows where everyone is flawed, and where jokes about them aren’t targeting their race. On The Good Place, all the characters, including Jason, are literally in hell for the sins they committed while alive. And in Single Parents, each parent in the core group is struggling to balance their children with their work and personal lives. So when other members in the single-parents crew drunkenly crash the Bachelor mansion, or one member accidentally exposes his butt to all the parents at his daughter’s school, it puts Miggy’s missteps in perspective.

Another important barometer of positive portrayal that Yuen examines in her book is relationships, and whether an Asian character has a personal life on a show. Yuen says if viewers can get a glimpse at a character’s friends, family, romantic partners — even the inside of their house — they’ll feel closer to that character and be more invested in their growth.

“Quantity isn’t enough if you’re putting someone there for diversity’s sake, and you’re like, ‘Oh, okay, we passed, we have the percentages and numbers,’” Yuen says. “If the person is only there to make the other characters look good, or if you’re laughing at them, then that’s not representation. That’s tokenism.”

Where Han was mocked for being out of the loop and unable to form relationships on 2 Broke Girls, Jason and Miggy are embraced by a tight-knit friend group. Both characters are acknowledged as attractive by others, with Miggy getting intimate with a woman on the show and Jason finding himself in a love triangle in season three. In particular, we see Miggy’s home life and his dedication to his son.

Next Steps

Depicting air-heads might not seem like revolutionary progress, but it pushes television in an exciting direction by exploring identity in new, candid ways. Unintelligent Asians are helping expand the horizon wider, making space for all sorts of other Asian characters. They catalyze the potential for Asians average at school, Asian filmmakers, Asian handymen, and plenty more Asian possibilities to come.

Yuen is encouraged by The Good Place and Single Parents, but she acknowledges there is room for improvement. While the “dumb guy” archetype counters the model minority label, Yuen points out that Jason and Miggy are not the “lead dumb guy” — they are ensemble cast members, who often play second fiddle to white characters who are the protagonists.

It’s critical to demand Asians to be featured more prominently onscreen, especially considering the dismal statistics: In 2015–2016, 64% of all shows did not feature a single Asian-American Pacific Islander series regular; 68% of TV shows featuring AAPI regulars had only one; and 17% of AAPI regulars had the lowest screen time on their show. And with shows such as Into the Badlands being canceled and Steven Yeun’s departure from The Walking Dead a few years ago, there are few Asians in the TV landscape who fit either the hero or leading-man bill.

In the future, Yuen says she’s hoping to see an Asian in a leading role, in addition to having more than one Asian regular on one show, to show the diversity of Asian experiences. Additionally, with groups such as Chinese, Indians, and Koreans making up the most proportionally represented AAPI regulars on TV, Yuen says there also needs to be more stories about different Asian identities as well. The report noted that Vietnamese and Filipino people, for instance, are severely underrepresented, despite being among the numerous Asian groups in the U.S., and that Pacific Islanders remain “virtually invisible” on TV.

“We have so much diversity that hasn’t been represented fully and I think that’s the improvement — we’ve seen that it’s possible. And then now we’re craving for just more,” Yuen says. “For the majority of the shows, we still face those barriers. We can’t just be content with these little improvements. Yes, we acknowledge them, and then we say, ‘Okay, where can we go next? Where is the next rung on the ladder to equality?’”

Currently, Miggy is the only Asian main cast member on the ABC comedy, and Choi wants the viewers to meet Miggy’s parents and the mother of his kid in season two, to add color to his personal life and bring in more Asian series regulars. No matter who might be introduced next season, the actor says he believes that the show has already made an impact by providing one of the few depictions of a young single Asian parent on TV.

“I don’t think [the creators] realize how big of a role the character of Miggy is for Asian representation…They probably weren’t trying to make this groundbreaking casting choice but it is a groundbreaking casting choice,” Choi says. “It’s important to see Asian characters of all different types, so hopefully this is another type that you get to see, that’s normalized.”

Related: Asian-American Stereotypes in Popular Culture Are Being Challenged by the Asian Mean Girl

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue