Rating: 7.169315231776542800015238871886752341999999999911111000000000313333333
Outsourced, the new addition to NBC’s stacked Thursday comedy repertoire developed a major stir with American viewers because it has caused NBC to cut the highly-acclaimed hit Parks and Recreations’ season in half just to make space for Outsourced. This big move has put a lot of pressure on Outsourced.
Outsourced, a show about a young American call center manager, Todd Dempsey sent to India with the promise of becoming Vice-President of his company, Mid-American Novelties, is progressive as far as TV shows go because of its mainly Indian cast and its globalized atmosphere.
Yet, many critics are skeptical of the show’s long term ability. Anglo-American senior Evan Pye, not an avid watcher of Outsourced, commented that “it probably won’t do well because a show about racial stereotypes will only be funny for so long; they’ll run out of good material pretty quickly.”
As the season has progressed, however, the jokes have become more of situational humor rather than racial humor. Outsourced has also introduced America to Indian culture and the culture clash between America and India. The east-west culture clash is brought up in almost every episode, from showing contrasting holidays to demonstrating contrasting philosophies regarding sexuality.
Outsourced teaches Americans that, while Indians have different beliefs in some aspects of daily life, they’re pretty similar overall to the citizens of the U.S.A. However, some critics don’t appreciate the racial, cultural humor. Hilary Rothing of UGO said that Outsourced’s culture shock humor is “cheaper than a whoopee cushion” (www.ugo.tv).
In a period of a struggling entertainment industry both economically and artistically, Outsourced could help NBC gain a better reputation. Junior Jon Carr asserted that “I think modern television has influenced our younger generation to do what we never would have done 20 years ago, it’s influenced that younger generation for the worse.” Outsourced has tried to distinguish itself as a new type of television show breaking out of the mold of traditional sit-coms. Viewers seem to be buying the idea of a TV show set in a country thousands of miles away from America, as “Outsourced” is averaging a 3.3 rating, making it the #1 new series on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox this fall” (www.tvbythenumbers.com).
However, some critics have called out Outsourced as a show entirely based off of racism. Wesleyan-educated Indian-American rapper, of the critically acclaimed New York rap duo Das Racist, Himanshu Suri wrote on an Op-Ed for Stereogum that “I almost hoped [Outsourced] would get progressively more offensive solely so I could have a laugh.” Suri said that he hoped that Outsourced would at least have funny racial humor similar to that of the material of popular Indian-Canadian comedian Russell Peters, but rather found Outsourced both prejudiced and “unfunny” (www.stereogum). While Suri acknowledged that he was glad that Outsourced hired an ensemble of Indian actors, he said that the show’s negative effects on the reputation of India in America was even more powerful than its positive effects on Indian actors’ employment.
Yet, Indian-Americans in USC seem to respond favorably to Outsourced, and many USC Indian-Americans are avid viewers of the television show. Junior Maya Chandrasekaran, whose family comes from the Tamil Nadu providence of India, stated that “I don’t think its racist, it’s [sic] just hilarious.” Even Junior Arjun Sharma, from the Utter Pradesh province of India, said that “[Outsourced is] funny because it shows typical Indian behavior.”