How Asian-American Sitcom, “Fresh Off The Boat” Is Using Humor and Wit to Battle Universal Themes Like Race and Identity, 22 Minutes At A Time
By Megan Rummler, The Laughter Effect
Increasingly, new voices on cable, broadcast and streaming networks may be leveraging comedy to engage audiences and weigh in on difficult and often polarizing social issues like racism, bigotry and prejudice.
“An informed racist is a better racist,” sarcastically declared stand-up comedian and actor, Kumail Nanjiani, in his opening monologue as host of Saturday Night Live on Oct.14, 2017. Pakistani-American Nanjiani used his seven-minute monologue to deliver a searing, albeit humorous, speech against all forms of racism.
Likewise, ABC has received critical acclaim for its groundbreaking family comedy sitcom, “Fresh Off The Boat,” that manages to address race, culture and identity with cutting humor, grace and finesse. Perhaps more importantly, it is the first show in over 20 years with an Asian-American cast since Margaret Cho’s 1994 sitcom, “All American Girl,” which aired for one season.
“Fresh Off the Boat” premiered on February 4, 2015, debuting to nearly 8 million American viewers on a Tuesday evening at 8:30 p.m. EST, placing it as the second-highest rated comedy premiere that season. Now, almost three years on, the show has been renewed for a fourth season and continues to use its comedic platform to subvert Asian-American stereotypes and launch nuanced conversations about awkward cultural differences and otherness.
The series is loosely based on celebrity chef and restaurateur Eddie Huang’s memoir of the same name. Set in the mid-1990s, viewers follow the Huang family, a Taiwanese-American family as they move from Chinatown in Washington, D.C., to Orlando, Florida, as their father opens a steakhouse and pursues his version of the American dream.
The sitcom revolves around five main characters and the Cattleman’s Ranch steakhouse. Randall Park plays Louis, the mild-mannered, easy-going father. Constance Wu plays Jessica, the sharp-tongued, aggressive mother and Hudson Yang plays the eldest son, Eddie — portrayed as the family outlier.
Eddie’s younger brothers, Emery and Evan, are played by actors Forrest Wheeler and Ian Chen, don lovable and tame personalities.
As viewers follow the lives of the Huang family, it becomes clear the experiences of this Taiwanese-American family invite a multifaceted way of understanding the assimilation process even as they depict varied cultural experiences and differences. And that is wherein lies the magic of the creative comedic content. The sitcom helps to widen viewers’ mindsets to see an Asian-American family with nuance and complexity, all while garnering laughs along the way.
Highlighted are some powerful past moments from “Fresh Off The Boat.”
Season 1 — In the pilot episode, viewers watch as a young Eddie, the protagonist in the sitcom, fights back after being called a “chink,” by a classmate. The use of this word is groundbreaking for a prime-time show.
Season 3 — As Louis and the Cattleman’s Ranch staff prepare to serve as a polling place for the 1996 election, Jessica suspects that one of the restaurant employees may be an undocumented immigrant. When Jessica reports her findings to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, she learns her immigration status is also questionable. This episode explores the meaning of citizenship and addresses the topic of immigration.
Season 4 — The season premiere episode took the bull by the horns and leveraged comedy to tackle the weighty matter of budding teenage sexuality. Eddie Huang’s neighbor, Nichole, came out as gay in a hilarious, awkward chip-eating confession scene. Then she poses a set of questions to Eddie:
When do you turn gay? And, does it affect what kind of jeans you wear?
Using sharp, thoughtful comedy to break down barriers and encourage dialogue is a classic hallmark of the creative writing deployed in the sitcom.
Melvin Mar, who executive produces “Fresh Off the Boat,” knows firsthand about breaking down barriers and what it means to be an outsider. A Taiwanese-American, he has had to fight his way to the top echelons of the closed network of the mostly white-male dominated Hollywood executive ladder. Mar’s Hollywood career began more than 15 years ago in an unpaid internship at Kopelson Entertainment. He then turned his role into jobs at DreamWorks and Scott Rudin Productions. He worked his way up and through the ranks where he met Jake Kasdan, director of “Orange County.”
Kasdan and Mar have worked together since and currently have an overall deal at Twentieth Century Fox Television, where they are developing comedies and dramas for cable and network television. Their latest feature “JUMANJI: Welcome to the Jungle” (Columbia Pictures), starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, opens in December 2017.
Mar spoke to us recently from Los Angeles about the power of comedy as a platform for social issues and impact.
Laughter Effect:
How would you describe your approach to “Fresh Off The Boat?”
Melvin Mar:
My favorite thought in all of this is that people tend to listen when they’re either laughing or crying. I prefer the former, you know, that is the sort of business I’m in. When people are laughing and having a good time, they are listening to you. The secret is nobody wants to watch a show about an Asian-American family where they are constantly talking about how they are being discriminated against. We know what that is like. We know what prejudice is like. We know what racism is like. So, the key is to figure out a way to address it — in the midst of everyone being entertained and having a good time — you say something about it.
Laughter Effect:
When you and your team are behind the scenes, influencing and shaping the content for the show, what is the conversation around how to decide what is funny?
Melvin Mar:
I think there is a thin line between things that are stereotypical and things that are true. And, you have to look for these sort of uplifting elements in all of it. Basically, you sort of analyze that nuance.
A very good example is in season one. One of my favorite episodes is the subject of superstitions. I grew up hearing the superstition about the number four, right? In the Chinese language, it sounds like death. That to me was something fun that you can poke fun at and basically points out how ridiculous your family is for thinking that. I will continue to talk about that and poke fun at it, but at the same time there’s sort of a reason for it and you appreciate it. It comes off and you have to present it in an appreciating manner. It just becomes sort of a thing. It is part of the identity of the people that are behind the show, of the show and people involved in the show. It becomes part of the authenticity.
Laughter Effect:
Can you shed some light on how the creative process works? How do you come up with the material?
Melvin Mar:
It’s a writer’s room and it’s headed by my partner on the show, Nahnatchka Khan. She is a Persian American woman who has worked on a lot of comedy shows. She started in the Seth MacFarlane animated world, and she is a first-generation Persian American. She, in the beginning, did not understand the authenticity and intricacies of a Chinese Taiwanese family. But, she understood what it was to be the first generation of a minority in America, and that was the common thread that we pulled out. Everybody that is writing on the show — and the thing that we are most proud of — is that it is a room full of 15 people: seven are women, [three are gay and seven are non-white] half men and woman, which is usually not a thing that exists in Hollywood. It is usually very sort of Harvard-lampoon Caucasian-men heavy, which is the history of comedy rooms. We have endeavored to make the rooms very diverse in terms of minorities, women and even sexual orientation. Another great example is, last night was the premier and it was the set-up to one of the kids coming out, not one of our kids but Marvin’s daughter, the girl next door. She comes out to Eddie. And, that is a very good example of it, and I link it all the way back to, Nahnatchka Khan, this is organically who she is. She is a first-generation, Persian American, lesbian woman, comedy writer. It’s a culmination of everything that makes her up is put into the show. The one thing she needs help on is the authenticity of Taiwanese-Chinese family in America, you know, like those details. I help with those details, there are a couple of other Taiwanese people on the writing staff. That is how you mix it up and actually get the formula to create something like this.
Laughter Effect:
Some say comedy is inherently personal. Maybe this is a good time to pause and talk about your personal background.
Melvin Mar:
I grew up in Montebello, Los Angeles and in elementary school, I was one of two Asian kids in a class of predominantly Latinos. The thing with “Fresh Off the Boat” that sort of stuck with me is that in season one the Huang family are the only Asian-American family in their neighborhood. That’s exactly how it felt for me growing up. In the show, it changed a little bit to where it was Orlando in the 1990s surrounded by Caucasian people. But for me it was all Latinos and just myself. Being very small in stature — I still am — it was not easy. That was the quintessential childhood. You are picked on a little bit and there were the playground experiences. It really gives you some perspective and at the time it was terrible. But, when you get older and you choose to work in the field of comedy these memories are where you find golden stuff.
Laughter Effect:
How do you address stereotypes?
Melvin Mar:
In talking with Nahnatchka very early on, we talked about the areas we wanted to tackle. We said to ourselves, we don’t know how long we’re going to get to make this show so let’s look at the things we want to tackle. The pilot tacked the word, “Chink.” The other thing was the Long Duc Dong stereotype, which for me being a fan of John Hughes, I’ve always been very conflicted about it. I love those movies and I think those movies are great, but there was always this one thing. For me, in a very personal way, I was directly picked on that way. They thought it was so funny that he showed up, upside down, from the bunk bed up top, so I was held upside down on the playground to try and mimic that. Our haircuts looked the same, when I was a little boy. It was one of those things where we had the chance to tackle these stereotypes and we just figured out how to do it. I spoke to Randall about it, and it was a very heavy Randall episode, and he grew up in LA, and is very active in the Asian-American community and I remember saying to him this is one of things that we should do. We should figure out a way tackle the Long Duc Dong stereotype without telling people John Hughes sucks, and that was the dance and because he doesn’t suck and it was just the thing of the time. The key is to figure out how to address the idea that Long Duc Dong is racist, the idea of it is racist. Do you want to be taught and told that one of the quintessential movies of the 1980s has this horrible thing in it and you are horrible for liking it. That is not the message, that is not it. Even though it offended some people you have to point that out in a much more nuanced way.
Laughter Effect:
“Fresh Off The Boat” has over 7 million viewers. How does that break out? Who is the audience for “Fresh Off the Boat?”
Melvin Mar:
Obviously, Asian-Americans and what I’ve been told is that we are tracking very high amongst the African American and Latino audience followed by the Caucasian audience. And, it really speaks to minorities in America.
Laughter Effect:
How do you write content to a massive audience that is shifting in real time and make it relevant to them?
Melvin Mar:
It’s interesting because I think the social issues aren’t shifting as much, you know. The show was set in the 1990s and eerily we didn’t plan out any of the things that happened in Season 3. We just knew we wanted to talk about Jessica becoming a citizen, and how most of our parents have some sort of immigration story, especially for Asian-Americans. There is some version of it, there is either your parents came over to study or came over because some family member brought them, there is always some story. At the time immigration was relevant in the 1990s when the show is set and it’s still a thing now, more than ever. Depending on how you look at it, good or bad, we are still dealing with it.
Laughter Effect:
Do you feel like you are making a difference?
Melvin Mar:
I hope so in our own sort of little way.
Laughter Effect:
One of the things we wanted to touch on is metrics. Is there a way to know a difference is being made?
Melvin Mar:
You know it’s interesting, I was talking to somebody the other day about this, which is, there are many, many different metrics. Unfortunately, the network television business still runs on Nielsen, which isn’t the most accurate version of measuring. On occasion I have people come up to me and talk to me about the show and how much it is impacting them. But on a very personal level, I measure it this way: I have a young daughter and her whole lifetime there has been an Asian-American family on television. The writers do an amazing job of coming up with things that not only speak to Asian-Americans but I think speak to immigrants and minority groups in America as a whole.
Laughter Effect:
What shows do you like to watch that are an example of using humor to address pressing social justice topics?
Melvin Mar:
I was a huge fan of the great Norman Lear shows. The purest form of inspiration for me with television is when I was a kid and watching television shows. It goes back to when I was in high school. I watched them because I loved them and it was the thing that I did after school, instead of doing homework. I’ve seen all of “Good Times,” “All in The Family,” “One Day At A Time,” and “Family Ties.” All that stuff to me at the time was quintessentially what an American family was. Those Norman Lear shows was where he was able to teach America something but also make them laugh. That culminated for me and that was it. The sort of genesis for “Fresh Off The Boat” was that idea.
Laughter Effect:
How did you persevere in a Hollywood environment that is slow to the idea of minority leads?
Melvin Mar:
You have to look for your opportunities, that is just it. If you’ve done this long enough, you’re used to rejection and in all forms. It’s nothing personal. Think about it this way, working in film and television is like you are starting a business every single time you start one of these things. It’s a multi-million dollar business. If you take it out of the spectrum of Hollywood and you give yourself a little bit of levity and you think about it in layman’s terms — you’re starting a business. Often things don’t work out ninety percent of the time because of variables. It has nothing to do with anyone attacking you, you know what I mean? You just have to figure out a way to do it. If you are starting a restaurant and you don’t get the location, it’s not because people are against you, it just didn’t work out. I’m not saying Hollywood is not racist, it is just the lack of exposure and knowledge and the lack of people working behind the scenes to tell these stories. There is a lack of writers wanting to write these stories. And they are out there. In the time that the show has premiered and in the time that I started working in this business as an assistant until now, it’s changed a lot. It becomes people like myself and people behind the scenes that need to step up and come up with ways to tell these stories and it’s really changing. It’s not quick but it is really changing.
Laughter Effect:
What lessons have you learned so far in your career?
Melvin Mar:
I choose to think of it this way. No is just the beginning of the conversation. It’s how I think about everything. They will tell you no, for whatever reason, and it has nothing to do with you. You just have to reassess and figure out what your next move is. You are constantly sort of looking at your hand again. It’s like playing poker all the time. Look for leverage, look for opportunities. Keep looking for new angles.
Laughter Effect:
During this season, what social issues will be addressed?
Melvin Mar:
Well, we are starting this year with Nichole coming out, which is a big thing. About the chip scene, yeah, that is all Nahnatchka Khan. I got a text message from her that said, “I feel like Eddie should eat a chip, because it’s like muscle memory with Eddie.” The real sort of meat about the storyline yesterday was about not saying thank you, and it was about explaining that whole thing and that we [Asian-Americans] don’t have to. It’s sort of the east meets west and this is how you culturally understand each other. As far as the rest of the season, there will be a Chinese New Year episode with some cameos. Oh yes, I’ll give you a little hint that the episode after Chinese New Year will be about 1998 Winter Olympics.
Laughter Effect:
Do you ultimately think comedy can be a unique force for change in pressing social issues?
Melvin Mar:
I think it can help. Is it going be the end all, be all answer? No. It’s going to be a combination of a lot of things that help us achieve meaningful progress and it will be an ongoing conversation. As things shift, as life shifts as society shifts, it’ll never be done. But, that’s the beauty of it, right? I think comedy is a big factor in just the way people are when they are laughing. It’s a huge thing. Everybody wants to laugh. Everybody just wants to have a moment where they can, sort of, get away from it all and if we can do it in 22 minutes at a time, make them laugh and maybe give them something that they don’t know, then it’ll be worth it in the end to me.
