Friday, April 26, 2013

Angry little animated cartoon

When your strip has the word angry in it, don't be surprised when photographers and journalists keep asking you to make this face whenever you pose for a picture.

The Los Angeles Times (to whom I'm linking, even though they are rat bastards for charging money for their site even though I link on ads) is reporting that Korean-American cartoonist Lela Lee's online comic strip "Angry Little Girls" is going to be turned into a television show this summer:
It's "South Park" with Asian attitude — a primal scream, a blast of defiance.

"It's not easy being a girl, stuck with mean parents, a dumb boyfriend and annoying friends," Lee says, by way of introducing her main character. "I love the freedom of being able to say just what you need to say."

The comic-strip heroine acts out where her creator never had the nerve. Lee tells of being raised by ultra-strict parents, the youngest of four daughters in a Korean American household who were constantly pushed to achieve and "be somebody."

"I had lots of humiliating experiences and never had the guts to speak my mind," she says, hugging her forearms as she speaks, her eyes locked onto her listener's.

Now in her late 30s, Lee is making up for lost time: Like Kim, she never seems at a loss for words, talking at a rapid clip, her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders.
I might be bothered to watch this, at least once or twice to see if I like it. I've seen the strip a few times, and it seems funny, but when they say "it's 'South Park' with Asian attitude," I'm reminded of an admonition by Lisa Simpson that "anything that's the something of something isn't the anything of anything." (I won't even touch the idea of there being an "Asian attitude," other than "ha ha, look at all the fat White people.")

That's three-quarters of the Asians I've
dated and about half of the Caucasians. 

This one, too. 
...

4 comments:

  1. I guess you don't remember that I talked about the show on your blog when it actually premiered last year.

    The program debuted last October. You can see my link to it on the above link on your "Twitter feed" post on October 26th--the same day I watched the premiere on the poorly programmed, and designed, MnetAmerica channel.

    Sadly, the L.A. Times writer didn't bother to do any research and is mistaking this re-launch as the actual launch when it isn't. I guess they don't have editors at the paper anymore.

    Mnet is still a mess and most people will probably miss out on this re-launch as well, but you can find episodes from October 26th, 2012 at the link I posted in your previous blog post on October 27th, 2012. Here is the October 26th premiere from MnetAmerica, once again.

    And comparing the program to "The Simpsons" is like comparing off-brand grape juice to fine wine.

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    Replies
    1. Now I do recall you having mentioned the program. When you first mentioned it, I had planned to watch it, but have had no way to watch it. Plus I've had a crazy busy past two semesters, which you may have noticed by the dramatically lower level of posting lately.

      To be honest, I did let the LAT's sloppy reporting get the best of me when I assumed they were correct. Nevertheless, it is a noteworthy news story when the LAT prints it up, so I went with it (though a bit too uncritically).

      I'm not sure what you mean by comparing this program to "The Simpsons" (unless you meant "South Park"). I was only pointing out that very clever quote, which I often trot out when something is called the something of something (even if I don't always agree with the conclusion).

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  2. Do watch the first episode which I linked to at the MnetAmerica website. Then you will get the fine wine reference, and that this series is no "The Simpsons." I'm pretty sure that after watching the first episode, you will never watch the program again. Grating and amateurish aren't something that most people find enjoyable.

    But even if you had MnetAmerica, the programming on it airs in blocks with no real set time schedule. too bad The Times forgot to mention that in their very tardy article as well.

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