Just a little throwback, Stephen Colbert and his "arch-nemesis" Rain. If you watch the link, perhaps you will think it is funny, perhaps you will think it is offensive, perhaps you won't think anything of it. This is the thing about Stephen Colbert (and his counter-part John Stewart), the show uses offensive humor, sometimes intentionally political incorrect humor. it is important to recognize for both the Colbert Report and John Stewart Show, the type of people they cater to, in other words, who is their audience? Those who watch John Stewart are more politically aware than people who watch CNN. Why? Because to understand the comedy and satire you have to know what is going on in the news. Also, Stephen Colbert does not only "attack" (pending how you look at it) Rain just once; he amusingly continues to bring up his arch-nemesis as Rain continues to earn awards, accolades, ect. If you actually go to the posted link, you can see other clips where Colbert brings up Rain randomly when it comes to Speed Racer, MTV Movie Awards, ect. The second clip is a reaction from a Korean news source, though there is no subtitles, hopefully you can get the main jist as Colbert speaks (obviously in English). Was this offensive? Or did it bring more awareness to Rain (and perhaps Kpop)? Is all exposure good exposure? Do you think that Colbert was making fun of Rain in an offensive way?
I think as Americans who know about Colbert and his quirky sense of humor, it's hard to take his "attacks" on Rain seriously. In a way, I think that Rain's exposure on the Colbert Report was Rain's only significant appearance in the U.S. that wasn't stereotypically "Asian" (i.e. Ninja Assassin). The way I see it, Colbert challenged Rain because he was more popular than him, and Colbert did it in a very creative way. I doubt Rain and his manager/s would have let their "duel" happen if the exposure wasn't positive.
ReplyDeleteTo sum up my opinion, I think Rain's exposure on the Colbert Report was 100% positive. Like Dr. Noh mentioned, humor is the hardest part to understand in a foreign language, so it didn't surprise me that Koreans misunderstood Colbert's sarcastic way of promoting Rain. But, ultimately, the publicity for Rain was only good.