Asian American Comedy's Revolutionary Rebrand
Huff PostEver since she was a little kid, comedian Youngmi Mayer knew she was funny. Today, she speaks through the lens of her identity: as a woman, as a Korean, as a biracial person, as someone who immigrated to America when she was 20 and realized that life wasn’t all like ”Saved By The Bell,” and as the author of her upcoming memoir, “I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying.” Youngmi Mayer's approach to comedy is a refreshing, triumphant example of how comedy made by and about Asian people has evolved. ANN YOO PHOTOGRAPHY Mayer’s approach to comedy is a refreshing, triumphant example of how comedy made by and about Asian people has evolved. Asian people in the West were typecast as “forever foreigners” and members of a model minority, because America’s white gaze didn’t have tolerance for nuance. “And then when they hear the punchline, people are like, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’” His set at the comedy festival did exactly that, throwing his audience for a loop while still delighting them, and finding nuance and normalcy in topics such as queerness and divorce that have traditionally been swept under the rug in many Asian households.
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