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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
Do they? I don't watch much TV and nobody I know makes fun of Indian food, it's awesome.
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)
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.
odd, never heard of comedy making fun of foreign food.
I personally enjoy a fair bit of Indian food, it's quite varied.
bland shows catering to bland tastes, maybe?
What? I've never seen anyone rag on Indian food.
At worst, the way they eat it, but never the food.
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
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.
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.
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.
Dunno what you’re talking about there champ
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.
As an American, I too would like to know this.
Worldwide? I don't think so. Idk I tried Indian food before it was good but I prefer Peruvian food.
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.
2 things.
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It's food that is prepared in India (not essentially the cultural food). They have sanitation issues like other developing nations. Mexico- "don't drink the water".
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White people with their sensitive tummies think salt is spicy.
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.
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Huh? I don't watch a bunch of TV but I've never heard that.
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."