Recently a lot of folks I know have
been complaining about the BBC comedy, Citizen Khan. For those of you who don’t
know, Citizen Khan is a ‘comedy set in
Birmingham following the trials and tribulations of Mr Khan and
his family’. Essentially like Eastenders for Asians, but funny.
The main complaint?
They make fun of Pakistani/Asian culture, which is ‘racist’, and they treat
religion lightheartedly – Because NO Muslim would ever have the laissez-faire
attitude towards their religion that this comedy describes. And that’s fine,
you’re all welcome to your opinion, I’m not asking you to conform to mine and
enjoy the show. My main problem is firstly, the amount of butt-hurt comments
the BBC is receiving over the ‘inappropriateness’ of the show, secondly when
people decide to shove their opinion down my throat and thirdly, the hypocrisy
of it all.
Allow me to explain. This
show that you’re all taking offence over? It’s a SATIRE. A light hearted comedy
for people to laugh at. It’s SUPPOSED to be ridiculous and over the top and
poke fun at cultural differences. But it isn’t racist, and I’ll tell you why.
There is absolutely nothing in that show that isn’t already true, and if you
think there is, you’re just lying to yourself. I’m not saying every single
person has every single ‘flaw’ (for lack of a better word) that the Khan family
portrays, not at all. But each of us will identify with at least some aspect of
it. My mum for example loves a good bargain! And so what? There’s absolutely
nothing wrong with that. Yes we do tease her for it sometimes, but it’s a cultural
stereotype isn’t it, and that’s what this show is full of, stereotypes!
‘But that’s not what
we’re like, people will get a bad impression of us’. The multiculturalism of
Britain means that everyone will have known/knows/will know at least one Asian
person in their lifetime - you are seriously insulting their intelligence if
you think that anyone will watch this show and automatically assume that all Asians
are exactly like that. You watch Eastenders, do you assume that all your Caucasian
friends own a pub and run down the road screaming ‘RICKYYYYYYY’ in a chavvy
accent? I thought not.
And the fact of the
matter is, there are many Muslims who take the back seat when it comes to
religion. I’m not saying it’s you, but it might be someone you know. Because
people like that do exist, and the show has chosen to highlight the fact that
these people exist. You cannot be upset by their portrayal of real people
surely? Because not every Muslim follows the Quran and Hadith 100%. Yes, many
of them do their best, and that is very admirable. But there are also just as
many that don’t bother, and that is their choice entirely. One show’s portrayal
of those people will not mean that your sense of religion is questioned, by any
means. You may know Christians or Jews that don’t really follow their religion
at all, but does that mean you’ll judge every Christian or Jew by the precedent
that the non-religious people set? No. If it really bothers you that much,
improve your own life and religion before you complain about others. You cannot
point your finger and say ‘its people like that who make all the rest of us
look bad’. Really? So it wasn’t you I saw attempting to run your mother in law over? (Yes, that was an exaggerated example, lighten up)
Again, I am NOT
saying that everyone is like this, I’m just giving a few examples of people
that I have heard complain about this topic, when I know for a fact that they
behave in a very similar way themselves. But they’re not famous or on TV so no
one will judge them and apparently they think it’s ok to be hypocritical. The
real fact of the matter is, this show has hit too close to home for some people
and so they’re lashing out. If you were truly nothing like what’s portrayed in
the show and happy with your own take on religion, you wouldn’t care about this
show at all - you might even enjoy the laughs.
Then there are the
people who think their kids will be negatively influenced by this. Firstly,
parents tend to grossly underestimate their kids’ intelligence. Honestly, your
child CAN understand the difference between a satirical comedy show and real
life, sometimes better than the parents. They are more influenced by their home
environment than what they see on TV, because they know that it’s not real
life. Your blind panic about this affecting your children is sometimes quite
obviously your parental insecurity, over the shortcomings of their upbringing.
If you are confident that you gave your children the right religious and
cultural upbringing, you would have no problem in letting them watch the show because
you’d be assured that your children will know that what they see on the TV isn’t
the same as what they’ve been taught by you.
So chill out, take a
step back and just enjoy the (cheap) laughs the show provides. If it’s really
not your thing, don’t watch it, there are many other things on too. But why
increase your stress levels worrying about something that truly isn’t the end
of the world? No one is asking you to watch and if you don’t watch, you don’t
have any complaints J
And please note that
this is all my own opinion, I’m not asking you to agree with everything I’ve
written. If you identify yourself with any of the people I’ve written about
though, please do give thought to what I’ve said. You’re more than welcome to
share your own opinion with me and I respect that. At the end of the day, these
are all our own thoughts, and none of them are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – it’s all
about how we as individuals perceive things J
I've never watched the show, but the stereotyping thing reminded me of comedian Russell Peters, who highlights and jokes about near enough every race and religion during his shows. The people who laugh most at say, the 'white people' stuff, are generally the white people, because like you rightly said above, we either do those things, or know someone who does. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason and making some light-hearted jokes about a stereotype shouldn't cause offence. So I totally agree with this entire post.
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