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)
laughs in Mexican
Jajaja
There are some things you don’t joke about, taco bell actually being Mexican food is one of them. It might be a war crime to even joke it’s better than Mexican food.
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.
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.
Big bang theory.
Rag “you’re talking about a subcontinent that hasn’t had a solid bowl movement…”
Is that a comedy show?
Technically yes
Where Sheldon tells an Indian woman how to cook curry ? Ok.
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 German food stereotype is definitely that it’s all sausage.
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.
Do they?
Casual xenophobia/racism. Much like the whole MSG thing here.
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
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)
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!
Thai food is so much spicier than Indian food. I’ve yet to encounter the Indian food that was just too spicy for me to eat at all, but Thai food…
A skit making fun of an American stereotype…
bland shows catering to bland tastes, maybe?
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.
You can argue semantics until you go blue in the face. If you’re not used to spicy food or hot food, or food that produces a similar feeling in the mouth, you have to be careful with Indian food. Your tolerance level isn’t everyone else’s.
Spices are not heat. End of story. If you don’t understand this, you are obviously a pasty white American and the exact point being made.
What’s the point in being so pedantic? Calling it the correct thing isn’t going to make it palatable.
So is ketchup
Leave the Midwest. Coasts and Southwest, we eat spicy foods, tho also most of them are very hot.
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.
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.
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.
Strong odors (as noted in other comments) can cause physical distress to a sensitive individual.
Every office I’ve worked in has had a policy related to odors.
The same policy covers perfumes and body odor.
Check your handbooks people!And I bet if she hadn’t been a bitch about it then gradually_adjusting wouldn’t have said anything about it just now.
People tend to want to get along until someone starts being a bitch.
Granted they might be exaggerating, but we only have what we have to go by.
We’re an office of 4 people. There’s no HR dept, no handbook, just chaos. I’m never leaving.
I wish the places I’ve worked at had a policy like that. I always kind of hated the smell of popcorn because of how it lingers and it’s very popular in communal offices. But even more so, wearing perfume or cologne inside of an elevator should be a crime.
