It's also funny as hell.
It's one of those Andrew Dice Clay-like horrible things. People who disapprove of racism will, nonetheless, laugh at the prank because it is funny, because it was "put over" on a news organization, and because it has a nice dash of xenophobia-lite.
It makes fun of eastern languages (these guys were Korean, but I've heard that "sum ting wong" thing with Chinese jokes as well) and it sounds, on first inattentive blush, plausible. It is only when one pays attention to the entire list that one sees what is going on.
The reason the joke is funny is that "not too many" people died. If the entire planeload of passengers had been killed, that would be deemed extremely poor taste, for mocking a situation where there was so much death.
Because so many people walked away from what looked like an horrific crash, there's a sense of giddy relief, even from those just watching the events on TV. It's that giddy relief that makes it "almost" OK to laugh at the joke. Also, the names describe what was going in in the cockpit, the pilots realized there was something wrong, that they were too low, Holy Fuck! they crashed, and Owwwww, bang, ding, the plane and passengers were banged up and the plane was dinged.
Not that it makes it any "better," but we're not the only racists, or people who insult others based on their country of origin, in the world. Other cultures make brutal fun of those who aren't like them, too, and they also make fun of Americans because they're Americans (regardless of race). The French have that down to a fine art.
This is a Japanese singing group (the Gosperats) that has been "big" for a long time. Look carefully at the backup singers...no, that's not sketchy lighting...they are wearing BLACKFACE.
They've toned it down a LOT over the years (as if that makes it "better"
--they used to make it look like Al Jolsen had a light touch.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read