John Mayer & Kumail Nanjiani, anyone know the story?

[Trial]

This isn't the michael richards nigger situation.

I can't wait for yumitree to tell us he saw The MRNS play a house show.

[JuanCarlos]

If the blog story is true and went and rushed another stage, then the guy's just an ass trying to be the big fish in one of the smallest ponds.

In a pragmatic way it's good he's doing it.

Veteran comics now have a douchebag to kick around and mock on stage and plus they get heat off every exchange. Oh to be the lucky comic that gets physically assaulted by a drunken Mayer one night!

EDIT:

Also I just heard Neon, it doesn't matter if you try to be progressive if what and how you're singing is completely souless. He should be a guitar player for a real rock band, not play-singing by whispering so teenage girls swoon.

[wetandwild]

It's now known that Mayer told Nanjiani that he "looked like a brown guy but sounded like a white guy." Any more excuses?

[sharilyn]

It's now known that Mayer told Nanjiani that he "looked like a brown guy but sounded like a white guy." Any more excuses?

It's now known that after the Mayer/Nanjiani exchange, "neither Kumail nor the audience nor Herzog (who we were sitting near) nor anyone afterward seemed to pick up this “racist” thread." Any more reasons for you to obsess over this?

[scamboogah]

Yeah, let it go. This isn't something serious like that time Doug Benson made an innocuous comment about the Canadian military.

[Hated Milk Machine]

Yeah, let it go. This isn't something serious like that time Doug Benson made an innocuous comment about the Canadian military.

daaayyuuummmm this thread is heatin' up

[aenemaTron]

It's now known that after the Mayer/Nanjiani exchange, "neither Kumail nor the audience nor Herzog (who we were sitting near) nor anyone afterward seemed to pick up this “racist” thread." Any more reasons for you to obsess over this?

Right above what you quoted:

Kumail retorted: “Is John Mayer busting my balls in a vaguely racist way right now?” Yes, yes he was.

[kevin]

kumail sounds like a white guy?

[TacoSmith]

kumail sounds like a white guy?

Anybody that isn't selling him a slurpee sounds white to that sick bigot John Mayer.

[Adult Ed]

I think we can get carried away with the racism angle here. I think Meyer thought he was in an environment where he could do roast-ish material. It is the kind of thing one does if one is an entitled douchebag who can get regular time at the Comedy Cellar simply because one is already famous.

[soce]

Agreed. Let's please drop the whole racist criticism. Call him a douchebag, that's fine.

Comedians make awkward and terrible jokes about me and others all the time for being Jewish and/or gay, but I don't turn around and call them antisemitic or homophobic. Sometimes their jokes are actually pretty funny. As long as they are doing the jokes during their own set and not crashing the stage during other people's sets, then it's okay (and if the jokes are really bad, then that will make them bomb, and that's punishment enough).

Can't believe he crashed other sets as well. That's such a lame thing to do. When a performer waits all night to do 10 minutes of material, the last thing s/he wants is some random person distracting the audience away from her/him and making her/his set miserable. Sounds like Mayer is being a really attention-starved baby. How about he earn that attention by honing his material at open mics to become a skilled comedian like everyone else, instead of just being a dick.

[JayRunner]

kumail sounds like a white guy?

I've always likened Kumail's speaking voice to that of a terrible Christopher Walken impression.

[BFH]

(The following isn't necessarily directed at any of my fellow AST forum denizens, it just represents some of my frustration with these kinds of discussions.)

Just because it's "accidental" doesn't mean it's not racist. (see: latent racism)

Just because "my black friend" says it didn't offend him doesn't mean it's not offensive. (see: tokenism, internalized racism)

Just because discussions about race make you uncomfortable doesn't mean it's a conversation not worth having. (see: derailing)

If you are white, part of how this usually works is you're able to dismiss these things as "not a big deal," then walk away. Meanwhile, people of color are still in the oppressed class, and have to deal with the reality of racism on nearly an everyday basis. (see: white privilege). Perhaps white people should stop acting like being accused of racism is somehow worse than being a racist. Perhaps white people should be thoughtful when confronted, and instead of dismissing the offended party, scrutinize how their comments or actions are problematic.

There are a few who handle the topic of race brilliantly (see: Paul Mooney). There are also those who claim they're parodying racism, but just end up perpetuating it. So perhaps comedy shouldn't be used as an excuse to say something that perpetuates racist bullshit. I think it's safe to say Mayer isn't a skilled enough satirist to maneuver that tightrope, even if the target wasn't black, and the humor wasn't blatantly hateful (see: xenophobia, "other"-ing).

I would hope the consensus is that heckling, going over one's set time, and interrupting another performer by taking the stage, are all inappropriate whether you're an open mic performer or rich and famous professional artist. Crossing over between music and comedy has nothing to do with it (see: Greg Behrendt).

[JuanCarlos]

I go by the golden rule, it it's racist is wrong, if it's funny-racist it's right

OK, I read the post (but I still didn't "see:" anything.)

I disagree with one main point

So perhaps comedy shouldn't be used as an excuse to say something that perpetuates racist bullshit.

I don't like it when people are told what they should or shouldn't joke about.

[RoyalDutchOfDukes]

BFH, your post reminds me of one of my biggest pet peeves: White people who insist they've never been the benefactors of white privilege and as such it must not exist. Not only is it stupid to assert a sociological phenomenon doesn't exist based on anecdotal evidence, but it fails to see all the small indignities minorities have to face that most white people never even think about. It's not just blatant and latent racism that minorities face. For instance, I've heard tons of stories from friends and acquaintances over the years (and even witnessed one instance myself) about clueless white people trying to strike up a conversation with them based on some current event or pop culture figure who also happens to be black, Latino, or whatever. I used to work with a guy who lived in NYC a few years back when the media was going on and on about the historical Super Bowl first of having two black head coaches, and some well meaning but clueless white lady tried to strike up a conversation with him by asking "What do you think of that? How does that make you feel?" He had to fight the urge to fuck with her and tell her he hadn't read his "What Black People Think" newsletter yet that morning and simply told her that he didn't watch football (which was true) and tried to put the brakes on the conversation.

A few years ago, I witnessed one of my more socially retarded co-workers try to chat up a 22 year old black girl by going on and on about how much he loves B.B. King. It was seriously like something out of a Curb episode, the awkwardness was amazing. Most of my friends have encountered hundreds of instances of this kind in their life, and while they mostly recognize the people are only trying to relate to them, it's still very demoralizing and can really wear on you after a while.

White privilege doesn't mean that by virtue of being white you are handed everything you could ever want or need on a silver platter, but it does mean that no one on a subway is probably going to ever try to strike up a conversation with me by asking me what I think of some white politician's sex scandal or how it makes me feel to see a white man become President or the Pope in some misguided attempt to gauge what white America is thinking. This is just one small way in which we can take white privilege for granted.

[RoyalDutchOfDukes]

Also, the really annoying thing about when Mayer said "You're a brown guy but you talk like a white guy." is that, to me, it's actually more offensive than if he'd gone with some hacky joke about turbans or 7-11s or what have you. No, that wasn't enough, he not only had to make Kumail's race an issue he did it in a way that suggested that he felt he was so fucking hip that he was allowed to slight a Pakistani-American in a fashion that other members of his ethnic group might. It'd be like me accusing one of my Mexican friends of "acting white" or being a coconut because he bought a Sting album or something.

[JuanCarlos]

You should just mock him for buying a Sting album.

I think people should worry more about the whole equal rights thing and stop wanting everyone to take care of their feelings. But that's just me. You can ask me what I think of George Lopez anytime and I won't blow my lid.

[dorothy mantooth]

For every bleh single, there's a song like Neon.

I've never heard "Neon" and I never want to. The fact that the guy went to Berklee and is actually a very skilled guitarist makes him all the more contemptible for writing and performing steaming piles like "Your Body Is a Wonderland." In a just world, he would be a very sought-after session player, not a multi-platinum-selling solo artist. John Q. Public sure has shitty taste.

John Mayer is smug and entitled and I want to punch him in the neck. Racist or not, he has no business taking over someone's comedy set. Fuck that guy.

[BFH]

I don't like it when people are told what they should or shouldn't joke about.

I am not saying things shouldn't be joked about, but that the kind of jokes like Mayer made perpetuate racism, and shouldn't be excused just because they are jokes. Attempts at humor which invoke race take skill and insight to be funny and not racist. Paul Mooney has that. John Mayer doesn't.

I think people should worry more about the whole equal rights thing and stop wanting everyone to take care of their feelings.

That seems to imply that a POC's aversion to being mocked based on their race or nationality is less valid than a white person's discomfort with being called out when they say something racist. The first amendment gives me the right to lisp and bend my wrist to impersonate gays, and to call a women the c-word, but it doesn't mean those are the best choices. Equality and human rights are important, but acknowledging these other issues in race relations are, too.

[RoyalDutchOfDukes]

Yeah, here's the thing with the "people shouldn't be so sensitive" argument: A lot of comics just repeat stereotypes as jokes rather than making fun of the stereotypes and people who adhere to them as if they are always accurate descriptors of any ethnic group's behavior. When people employ racial humor on CDR, it's generally as a character and is either done ironically (the KCRW guy being racist against Asians) or is illustrative of how that character is stupid or a clown or otherwise pitiful. What Mayer did was mispronounce a fairly easy to pronounce Pakistani-American's name and then say that he "sounds white". It was completely at the expense of Kumail and didn't exhibit any kind of viewpoint or mockery of the kinds of people who would do that, it was just John Mayer being a dumb dickhead. And even worse: it wasn't funny or even remotely clever.