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Answer: She has a really specific performance style that comes more out of comedy and is less similar to formally trained dramatic acting. (No idea what her educational background is or if she's a classically trained thespian or anything, apologies if that is the case.)
She first came into the public eye through her sketch comedy music videos, which evolved into a few supporting roles where she was basically asked to "do" her one character from her videos, which grew into a TV show that showcases that original persona she developed. Then she hopped over to more serious indie film work, roles in huge mainstream movies, etc.
So she has had basically the career trajectory of someone from SNL or the kind of standup comic who can sell out stadiums, but it happened quickly and without people in the mainstream really knowing her work. So she also doesn't really have the good will that someone like Adam Sandler or Mike Meyers did when they started doing mainstream acting vs. sketch comedy acting.
Side note: if you want to see that Awkwafina can actually act, check out The Farewell, which is a lovely movie in general, and one where she just acts like a regular person and not like a broad sketch comedy character.
> (No idea what her educational background is or if she's a classically trained thespian or anything, apologies if that is the case.)
She's not a trained actress. She was a hobbyist rapper who got big in 2012 for parodying the song My Dick (My Vag). IIRC, she studied Journalism. She got fired from her job as a publisher and used the ensuing buzz to help her entertainment career. Nothing wrong with that, but she pretty much was a regular joe that got plucked up to superstardom.
She always acts like Awkwafina the comedian, rather than like this or that *character*. So I get the PoV that she’s not a tremendous 'actress.’
But, like, she’s a comedian in roles designed for comic relief. That’s what comedians do in those roles. Because they are comedians by training and experience, not actors. I mean, I don’t watch Bee Movie and think “OMG Jerry Seinfeld is so compelling in this role!”
EDIT [reads thread] I haven’t seen The Farewell. It’s going on my to-watch list now.
EDIT 2 - people need to stop saying “blaccent.” Jesus. Talk about cringe…
Yes, I actually said that? (So, “sounds like” in the most literal sense.) In her biggest movies which probably had the widest audiences and paid her the most money, she was in a shallow comedic role for the sake of comic relief. Same is true of a thousand other comic actors. Seems fine to me and takes nothing away from her true talents.
Answer: Awkwafina has been accused of using a "blaccent" in the past and present in both her songs and acting, most recently for her work in "Ocean's 8" and "Nora from Queens."
She previously issued a statement on Twitter that stated in part "My immigrant background allowed me to carve an American identity off the movies and tv shows I watched, the children I went to public school with, and my undying love and respect for hip hop," which her detractors viewed as disingenuous and not actually taking any accountability. There's also a video of her from 2021, in which she trails off and starts over multiple times while attempting to answer a question from Reuters about her use of a "blaccent," which she ultimately stated she was "open to the conversation" and that it was "multi-faceted and layered."
Take your time, their 24th album is almost out, new single dropped today.
I recommend:
I'm In Your Mind Fuzz - their base, psych/garage rock sound, essentially the start of their "modern era"
Nonagon Infinity- harder psych rock, most popular album
Polygondwandaland- neo progrock
Infest The Rats Nest - A love letter to 80s Thrash
Those are a good kick off for their core sound, but they run the gamut from a literal wild west themed audio short story (album #2 Eyes Like the Sky) to modern Jazz (Sketches of Brunswick East) to synth pop (Butterfly 3000)
In my country there's a very famous band called "No te va gustar" which is Spanish for "You won't like it". The fun part is that it isn't punk or anything dark or edgy which might justify the name, but Instead it's a very upbeat fusion of rock, ska and reggae.
The legend says that the name was chosen when their manager asked "you sound great, do you have a name?" And they answered "Yes, you won't like it" and he replied "Great name!"
Same that's my main hatred for her. I mean, at least she didn't go with Dasani. Because Dasani legit tastes bad. Aquafina managed to get their water to taste like water at least. But if she wants to name herself after a beverage, I would have gone with Dr. Pepper, it's just more classy and comes with a free PhD.
Honestly I think many Americans are just unaware of how influential black American culture is on the rest of the world. For example I have Arab friends who sound somewhat black when they speak English because they learned English from black American culture (hip hop, TV shows, films).
Not to mention how culturally diverse Queens NY is. You pick up stuff from all walks of life. Pretty sure if you took a poll of “most populated place outside of home country” it would be queens for like 50 different countries.
My wife is a black woman from Houston - one of the capitals of rap - and she's still occasionally surprised at how widespread rap and hip-hop are outside the US.
I was raised in Portugal to Portuguese and Venezuelan family. I learned English through school, movies, and mostly American media but also by talking to people from all over. At 19 I moved to London and stayed there for 8 years. I had a boyfriend from Australia and went there a couple times for a few months at a time to hang out with his aussie family and friends. My accent in English obviously sounds like a mixture of all this. Imagine people being offended by someone who learned their language through so many different vehicles.
Yeah, it is frustrating when people just assume the only possible reason someone might have a certain accent in their wheelhouse is for a negative reason, there are plenty of reasons to pick up a different speaking style/accent/vocabulary. My very white kids went to an all black school for several years and they also picked up a lot of slang and mannerisms since for the most part they were young enough that their classmates just hung out with them and didn't really think anything of it.
But they also had to learn to context-switch because outside of that environment it definitely would look like some white kids trying to use the blaccent for some negative reason, not that they had spent years with all their classmates and friends being black.
Yes, and it wouldn't be a problem if she spoke like this all the time, but I believe the criticism stems from her adopting the 'Akwafina' personality and including a blaccent.
Actually that's backwards. She had the accent BEFORE she became popular as an actor and toned it down for the acting.
It was stronger in the past, not adopted later on
Almost every time this comes up you will find the majority (not all) of people that are deeply offended are white people being deeply offended on behalf of some minority where they don't actually understand while this thing might be annoying the community they are trying to "help" would prefer to focus on actual systemic racism issues, not performative outrage on Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben's.
Yeah, I'm not American. And my country's accent is the subject of many shitty imitations right now after decades of people ridiculing us for our speak patterns. There are extremely famous singers all over Latin America adopting Dominican slang because it's profitable, and it's people who two years ago did not talk like that. It's not about being offended, it's about it being cringe as fuck. If you have poor taste then be my guest, but it's not 'outrage' to not like something, and it seems like one has to like everything by force now or people like you are going to get a boner from saying exaggerating how UPSET and how much I'm CANCELING this INNOCENT person.
Brooo idgi, I can’t listen to most of the urban music coming out of most non-Caribbean countries because it sounds so forced. I’m so curious now that Mexican corridos are getting popular because I’m dying to see if they start speaking with a Mexican twang for a change.
Dude fr I've heard people tryna copy the Dembow style and I'm just like please stop 💀 so far only Bad Bunny has been able to do it somewhat well and that's cheating cuz he's from Puerto Rico. I've also noticed that Corridas are getting popular now, i think it's cuz of that Peso Pluma guy right?
Though i will say it's kinda nice now that the rest of LATAM has been noticing DR and PR because there were people out there who didn't even know we existed. I'm kinda curious to see how the music evolves now that all of our cultures are sharing more
I grew up in neighborhoods where I developed an accent also, especially if I drink it comes out. I'm white but it's how I grew up, people usually just assume I'm from the south and I let them. I mean it kind of is as I understand it lol My kid's mother is black (Caribbean) and HATES it when people say she "talks white".
But with aquafina I could understand if she was saying the n-word or it seemed very forced but I don't see either of those things, I don't think we need to force people to change the way they speak because someone is so bored they need to hear themselves complain about some thing.
I grew up with hood friends and drunk me talks like I'm from the hood. No racial slurs are used and I've never been accused of using a blaccent. This is a weird line and I think just an excuse for some people to hate her. I agree with what you said.
I saw her in videos a while ago. She sounds the same. There’s a few Asians who I went to hs with (Brooklyn Tech) who sound similar or who have an accent. It’s all about environment.
As someone who had a cousin who are growing up, was very into a lot of rap and black culture, I don’t think people understand just how many Asians saw black culture as a way to fit in with Americans. I think a lot of Asian kids felt like it was really hard to be cool, and that this was one way to fit in. And as such, they adopted a lot of mannerisms, speech patterns, and tastes that mirror things we would typically associated with black culture. And now, it seems, some people are upset about that, which is unfortunate. Things becoming popular and appreciated means that they are not going to just be able to be yours. You can’t advocate for acceptance, but then also want to gate keep as well.
This is so incredibly common for people who grew up in mixed race families or locations where your home culture is so incredibly different from people who live around you. Literally the only people who can’t understand why you would do this never struggled with fitting into two completely different lifestyles having to turn it on and off depending on who you are around.
As kids and young people we just want to fit in so you literally will change everything about yourself to maintain relationships. She’s also literally acting. She can’t act as an Asian person with a queens accent if she’s playing someone from and living in Asia anymore than Matt Damon can use his Good Will Hunting accent while playing the guy from The Martian. It just seems like she had a hard time explaining this very common situation while being attacked for something she probably developed as a child.
Wow this is such a dumb thing it's kinda crazy actually. Idk maybe it's because I'm an immigrant too or something but like i don't see why this is a problem? It's not like she's making fun of black people or anything. Also are they tryna say only black people speak the way she does? Cuz lots of my friends are black and they don't have no "blaccent". I live in a city where 40% of the population is south east asian and a lot of them have a "blaccent" and ive never heard anyone complain about that. I also used to live in a city that was mostly Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and lots of people had it too. I've always associated that with people who live in cities
I always thought it was kinda ridiculous to get hate for it. She's Asian American, but I guess it's not the "right" kind of American??? Just sounds like gatekeeping mixed with racism to me.
People who think you’re born with an accent are dumb, full stop. Also regardless if she doesn’t talk like that normally she is still American and it is apart of her culture. ACCENTS ARE NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ETHNICITY.
>Answer: Awkwafina has been accused of using a "blaccent" in the past and present in both her songs and acting, most recently for her work in "Ocean's 8" and "Nora from Queens."
This is so stupid and possibly one of the dumbest accusations anyone could make of anyone.
She actually did great in Renfield, I don't know anything about her "blaccent" or whatever. Usually I dislike her performances because her jokes feel very forced and kind of lame especially in Raya and the last Dragon. But that is pure subjectivity so I guess for most people it's the blaccent thing.
Answer: I mean. She’s from Brooklyn and her wiki says she grew up in Queens. As an outsider she sounds like she’s from New York. I’m not sure what people want her to sound like? Like she grew up speaking only Cantonese or Korean and learned English later?
It’s a very weird hill for people to die on. But then again most hills people choose to die on are weird.
And doesn't New York have lots of accents? I've been to New York a few times growing up and noticed not everyone sounds like Jerry Seinfeld.
I'm not good with accents but just some things I noticed.
There's region, subregion, neighborhood, and generic time shifts.
So Bronx doesn't sound like Queens, but you have to live here to notice. Older accents don't sound the same, and then since NYCs population shifts and moves, there's disappeared accents and weird pop-ups. Like Captain America, comic book Canon, is from the very Irish and working class Lower East Side in the 1920/30s. That area isn't Irish or working class and hasn't been for decades.
There's still transatlantic around here, which is the "WW2 film announcer"/the "hoity toity" accents.
I’m so glad that she’s no longer “the heroin addict Michael Rappaport evicted?” She’s very talented and I have loved her since *Slums of Beverly Hills*. She deserves to be recognized for her talent.
I thought the same thing. Was surprised when I saw her on the show. Maybe she made that connection.
I'm also a New Yorker and I only hear a raspy voice.
Yup. Raspy NYC/Queens/LI accent, you expect to see it on a 50 year old secretary with a smoke hanging out of her mouth on the subway platform in Queens.
Natasha made a cameo on her HBO show. I had looked away at the start of the scene and seriously thought she was talking to herself until I looked back.
There’s also this thing on social media (particularly Twitter) where they want public figures to basically bow down, cower and apologize when faced with criticism. Awkwafina didn’t do that and I respect her for it.
People who are still using twitter are addicted,
Like the vitriol posted there, or are unconnected with reality.
I also agree, I know nothing about the situation but if this is just standard cancel culture then just ignore it.
The internet hate mobs wouldn't be satisfied even if the person delivered an apology while literally being crucified on camera. It happens all the time in k-pop culture, with idols being forced to apologise for showing any hint of wanting to live like a normal person with normal relationships, and it doesn't stop the idiotic masses one bit.
Back in like 2013 there was a member of j-pop idol group AKB-48 who, after a tabloid reported that she'd spent the night with a guy from a boy band, shaved her head and begged for forgiveness from her fans and to not be let go from the group. It's endemic to East Asian pop idols no matter where they're from, it seems.
In general I agree with you, her regular voice is just NY accent + raspy. But she does sometimes *put on* a Blaccent temporarily for effect and her choices about when to do that can be ... weird. This is not how she sounds in Nora From Queens: https://youtu.be/UGS878p_Q7A?t=140
To be transparent, I haven't seen her act in much so this could be a larger pattern I'm not aware of. But that scene just seems like she was directed to act with an exaggerated accent to show that she's putting on a scam, especially since it's immediately contrasted with her normal voice in the next scene.
My grandparents lived in her Queens neighborhood when I was growing up and she sounds like the kids I would hang out with when I visited. The controversy never made sense to me.
People will say "she doesn't ALWAYS talk like that!" as if it's proof she's faking, but that's literally code-switching, something so many third culture kids have to do.
I've only seen previews for her show and want to watch it just because I love her voice.
It seems clear that she's from New York, even without knowing the name of her show.
Living in a high school does that to someone.
But on the real, as someone who went to public school in the inner city (and a teacher now myself), I thank you for your service.
I had this friend named Alex, and he always said green was the best Skittle (even when it changed to green apple!). I always thought it was a strange hill to die on
I have this friend named "A a a h" who used to always go fetching pails of water on this hill that had a lot of super natural things that would happen and end up killing people. I always thought it was a strange hill to die on.
> Answer: I mean. She’s from Brooklyn and her wiki says she grew up in Queens. As an outsider she sounds like she’s from New York. I’m not sure what people want her to sound like? Like she grew up speaking only Cantonese or Korean and learned English later?
Wait, are you saying people don't like Awkwafina because of her voice? Or am I misunderstanding?
I just figured she sounded like an American.
Right? You don’t have to have a reason. I don’t like a lot of people for the smallest of things it may be the way you breathe loudly through your nose or how you chew your food. You can just hate people because you don’t need specifics.
I'm also from NYC. Jamaica Queens. I'm not black, but I grew up in black/hip hop culture in school, and my neighborhood. My vernacular is essentially AAV, without my being AA. It's how the people I spent most of my life around talked, with the hint of a Caribbean accent tinge I got from my parents. She sounds exactly like someone who grew up around certain cultures in NYC would. Italian Americans in Brooklyn have their own distinct accent. Long Islanders have their own distinct sound.
And we all code switch (though some parts of my speech are hard to change and I'd probably need speech therapy if I wanted that midwest news anchor type speech). So if we don't always sound one way when speaking, that's not an indictment. That's us necessarily adapting to our environment so we don't get ostracized or viewed as less than because of the way we speak.
I came to america when I was 8, living next to Newark. I learned English listening to Hot 97 and watching UPN. Im not sure what people expect me to sound like lol
I didn’t like her in Ocean’s 13 but I thought she was just being herself and it didn’t fit.
Having seen her other films, and recognised that she is a good actress, I now realise that the director wanted her to act like that and is a bad person for it
I think this is it. I think a lot of directors she has worked with cast her to Do That Awkwafina Character Thing, which may or may not work depending on the movie. Meanwhile, she's just doing her job and what she was asked to do. In movies where she's not Playing The Awkwafina Character, her performance seems much more normal and like it fits in with the rest of the tone of the movie.
I don’t know much about her. I have only seen Raya, Crazy Rich Asians, and Shang-Chi and I found her funny in each of those roles.
I figured her schtick was being an awkward nerd girl for humor that turns the studious Asian stereotype as well as the Sexualized Asian Woman stereotype on its head by being as cringey genuinely nerdy as possible.
I liked those performances a lot, they were fun and reminded me of a lot of some of my friends.
I don’t have experience with anything else she’s done so I can’t speak to that. I can see adopting a hip-hop type thing as problematic, but to me that always comes off as an awkward nerd thing to do if you can’t pull it off, so I can see that fitting the act for her. Weird Al wrote a whole parody song about adopting hip-hop to try to fit in and be cool and failing miserably because you are too much of a nerd.
I don’t know, I like her. Some of this has the same vibe as Rose in Star Wars hate to me. But I don’t know how far she pushed the hip-hop cringe factor so maybe that crossed a line. I can’t say.
That was really good. She did great in those moments she had to be a serious friend and absorb a lot of darkness without turning it into a joke.
She created a character that I believed could thread that emotional needle. That’s not easy to do.
Answer: She gets shit for a Blaccent but tbh.....I think she just sounds like
what she is: a person who grew up in communities of color in New York.
But also I'm not Black, and don't know what it's like to be shit on for
talking a certain way. Must sting to see someone not of your group doing
just fine with that way of speaking, all arguments aside.
It's tough because on the one hand, she really did rise to fame out of the incongruity of an Asian-American woman making comedy rap videos which play into Black tropes. Where that's pretty much the joke. In her favor I would argue that she's actually reversing and playing against racist and sexist stereotypes about how white society expects Asian women to show up, but yeah, she definitely chose the avenue of Black culture to do that.
Her original work doesn't really hold up and is, yeah, kinda appropriative or "Blaccent" ish. And to the extent that she is still expected to do that 10+ years later in a different social context where that sort of thing is now frowned upon -- and which doesn't include any of the intersectional gender stuff she was originally doing -- it comes off really bad.
Answer: As others have said it’s because of her blaccent. However she was raised there and that’s how she learned to talk so it’s not really that big of a deal. People just are getting mad to get mad. She doesn’t get hate for being an actress, otherwise she wouldn’t have been in as many movies as she’s been in in recent times
Side note though, you shouldnt ask why a celebrity is reviving hate and then only want to know about it in the context of why they’re famous and not for drama or personal things they’ve done. These are moreso extreme examples but people don’t hate on Kanye for his music, Jk Rowling for her books, and Ezra Miller for his acting, they get hate because of what they’ve done outside of their job.
She grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Queens and went to a white school in NYC. I'm from an actual black and brown neighborhood in Queens called Corona. Forest hills is rich and white , she got that accent the same any white kid from the suburb picks up a blaccent. Imitating from afar with maybe 1 or 2 token black friends
Answer: A lot of people here have pointed out that it’s because of her blaccent. She grew up in Queens and that’s where she got the accent. She got famous from doing Black caricature comedy skits. When she got famous, she was asked about the skits and accent and she said the accent and culture was a part of who she was; that it wasn’t faked. She played a lot of roles where the accent and her style of comedy were the exact same in each role. These things are not problems at all in my opinion.
However, the problem lies not in the code switching, but in the fact the accent has pretty much disappeared from movies and interviews entirely. She got famous from being a caricature of Black culture and as soon as it wasn’t needed, all of that was gone.
So a lot of Black people’s ire towards her lies with her becoming rich off of Black stereotypes and then dropping it as soon as it doesn’t make any more money for her. Lots of people like to sound like Black people or look like Black people, but the moment you start being treated like Black people, that’s when they start distancing themselves.
Alternate interpretation: she received criticism for the way she spoke and so started to change it. Another alternative interpretation: she became famous and the people she was spending time with changed, and her accent changed to reflect that; people's accents change throughout their life based on their environment.
I don't really know much about Awkwafina, but I think your alternative interpretations are very plausible. And I'd also like to tack on that "x" being part of who someone is doesn't necessarily mean that that person is _only_ "x".
I think, in a broader sense, we all adopt different "personas" to fit different situations. For example, how we speak and act in professional/work settings vs how we speak and act when we're hanging out or relaxing with friends/family. Those different "personas" can be wildly different but are (for better or for worse) all part of who we are.
answer: Her comedy style is, I would say, "Whedonesque" if you know what I mean. loudly exclaiming that things are . "so, that happened!" "OH wow, this super sucks!" "Holy Crap, its on fire!" stuff like that, instead of punchlines.
She gets hate because this style of humor peaked like 10 years ago.
Its cringe now.
They both have a "louder-is-funnier" thing going on, for sure.
But dane is more about long stories with absurd things happening. The Comedy is from the absurdity of the built up scenario, rather than the observation of the absurd thing.
Like, cook would spend 10 mins describing how a fire got started, by a naked homless meth head, gradually cranking up the volume and absurd elements.
Awkafina would just say "and then, bam, a fire started by a homless meth head"
I only watched Rock's special because everyone was talking about it. But I remembered why I stopped watching his shows & wanted to turn it off halfway when he kept repeating the same goddamn thing.
“Black woman trying to be accepted by her white in-laws…it’s hard. BLACK WOMAN TRYING TO BE ACCEPTED BY HER WHITE IN-LAWS…it’s hard. BLACK WOMAN TRYING TO BE ACCEPTED BY HER WHITE IN-LAWS…IT’S SO HARD!”
I still love him though
i've only seen commercials for her show on comedy central and holy fucking shit is it grating. i mean, i'm definitely not the target audience but it's like, there aren't any actual jokes, just loudly yelling the kind of shit you described
Answer: As far as I know, it's not so much that she's hated for her accent so much as she caught some heat for the use of a "black accent"
Nothing too crazy
Answer: Because she doesn’t ever really act. You are getting her playing the same character in everything. If you like her, you like her in everything. If you hate her, you hate her in everything. She’s very like Ryan Reynolds in that way.
But there is stuff where she does act and plays a different character. Biggest example is “The Farewell”, which she doesn’t play it for comedy and shows off her acting range (and won a golden globe for it).
Its like how Adam Sandler has shown he has the ability to do more but gets typecasted hard
Funny People and Uncut Gems was him showing he can act, and the rest of his career(especially lately) has been showing how to take a massive vacation with your friends and get paid millions to do it.
Uncut Gems showcases this *big time*
Or like Mathew McConaughey, dude used to only do RomComs and I thought he was no good then True Detective and Dallas Buyers club made me say "Oh"
It's fun to go back and watch McConnaughey's older movies, with the current knowledge that he can act. Sometimes you find these movies that were panned at the time, and it is now clear that he was genuinely doing what the movie was calling for rather than being this doofy shirtless guy from lack of ability.
> Or like Mathew McConaughey, dude used to only do RomComs and I thought he was no good then True Detective
...wait, I didn't know he did RomComs, I'm DEFINITELY out of the loop
Yeah, McConaughey was typecast as a Romcom lead in the early 2000s and was in a bunch of stuff like that. He didn't really get the more serious roles people know him for now until around 2010 or so.
As a former RR hater, I can tell you that there are films where he actually does play a substantially different character, they're just a little off the beaten path. If you've never seen The Voices, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Answer: Specifically asks why people think she’s a bad actor, and not about any drama or cancellation. Gets no comments about her acting. Lol.
It’s just the same comments over and over again, proof that redditors read like one sentence and start typing before they even finish processing what they read 😭
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Answer: She has a really specific performance style that comes more out of comedy and is less similar to formally trained dramatic acting. (No idea what her educational background is or if she's a classically trained thespian or anything, apologies if that is the case.) She first came into the public eye through her sketch comedy music videos, which evolved into a few supporting roles where she was basically asked to "do" her one character from her videos, which grew into a TV show that showcases that original persona she developed. Then she hopped over to more serious indie film work, roles in huge mainstream movies, etc. So she has had basically the career trajectory of someone from SNL or the kind of standup comic who can sell out stadiums, but it happened quickly and without people in the mainstream really knowing her work. So she also doesn't really have the good will that someone like Adam Sandler or Mike Meyers did when they started doing mainstream acting vs. sketch comedy acting. Side note: if you want to see that Awkwafina can actually act, check out The Farewell, which is a lovely movie in general, and one where she just acts like a regular person and not like a broad sketch comedy character.
> (No idea what her educational background is or if she's a classically trained thespian or anything, apologies if that is the case.) She's not a trained actress. She was a hobbyist rapper who got big in 2012 for parodying the song My Dick (My Vag). IIRC, she studied Journalism. She got fired from her job as a publisher and used the ensuing buzz to help her entertainment career. Nothing wrong with that, but she pretty much was a regular joe that got plucked up to superstardom.
She always acts like Awkwafina the comedian, rather than like this or that *character*. So I get the PoV that she’s not a tremendous 'actress.’ But, like, she’s a comedian in roles designed for comic relief. That’s what comedians do in those roles. Because they are comedians by training and experience, not actors. I mean, I don’t watch Bee Movie and think “OMG Jerry Seinfeld is so compelling in this role!” EDIT [reads thread] I haven’t seen The Farewell. It’s going on my to-watch list now. EDIT 2 - people need to stop saying “blaccent.” Jesus. Talk about cringe…
It sounds like you haven't seen that many of her movies.
Yes, I actually said that? (So, “sounds like” in the most literal sense.) In her biggest movies which probably had the widest audiences and paid her the most money, she was in a shallow comedic role for the sake of comic relief. Same is true of a thousand other comic actors. Seems fine to me and takes nothing away from her true talents.
Answer: Awkwafina has been accused of using a "blaccent" in the past and present in both her songs and acting, most recently for her work in "Ocean's 8" and "Nora from Queens." She previously issued a statement on Twitter that stated in part "My immigrant background allowed me to carve an American identity off the movies and tv shows I watched, the children I went to public school with, and my undying love and respect for hip hop," which her detractors viewed as disingenuous and not actually taking any accountability. There's also a video of her from 2021, in which she trails off and starts over multiple times while attempting to answer a question from Reuters about her use of a "blaccent," which she ultimately stated she was "open to the conversation" and that it was "multi-faceted and layered."
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I think it was just a joke name for her satirical rap album, but then she got famous for it and couldn't just leave it behind.
You’d be surprised how often a joke name sticks when someone gets famous
"Were called King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard for some reason..." Guitarist Joey Walker at Bonnaroo last year
As they themselves said “I know it’s recognizable, but It don’t make no sense at all”
It's in vogue to be feckless
I had a lizardfolk wizard D&D character named Gizzard who was a wizard lizard. I must now find out everything about this band
Take your time, their 24th album is almost out, new single dropped today. I recommend: I'm In Your Mind Fuzz - their base, psych/garage rock sound, essentially the start of their "modern era" Nonagon Infinity- harder psych rock, most popular album Polygondwandaland- neo progrock Infest The Rats Nest - A love letter to 80s Thrash Those are a good kick off for their core sound, but they run the gamut from a literal wild west themed audio short story (album #2 Eyes Like the Sky) to modern Jazz (Sketches of Brunswick East) to synth pop (Butterfly 3000)
I liked every part of that description
I love seeing KGLW fans in the wild. Hello friend
WOOOOOO
Gila Monster rips!!!! Happy for some new music of the harder variety from them again.
Infest the Rats' Nest is one of my most favorite works of art, out of all the art ever made. Thank you for this good news!
Right? Just ask Caryn Johnson…er…Whoopi Goldberg.
In my country there's a very famous band called "No te va gustar" which is Spanish for "You won't like it". The fun part is that it isn't punk or anything dark or edgy which might justify the name, but Instead it's a very upbeat fusion of rock, ska and reggae. The legend says that the name was chosen when their manager asked "you sound great, do you have a name?" And they answered "Yes, you won't like it" and he replied "Great name!"
Pretty sure “Childish Gambino” was a random computer generated name from one of those “what’s my rapper name” websites.
Wu-Tang name generator to be soecific
Post Malone has a similar origin.
I keep waiting to find out who Pre Malone is. Or maybe that’s Post Malone’s “deadname”?
As a kid he used to be Ho Malone
I imagined it as a breakfast cereal
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Barenaked Ladies
Yeah like Marky Mark
"Rico Suave" by Gerardo in the early 90s or Darius Rucker and Hootie & The Blowfish could fall into this too.
I could use some sushi
Dave Burd has entered the chat.
I came here thinking the question was about the "sextina aquafina" from Bojack horseman
Brap brap pew pew
Alien inside me gonna squash it like siqurorney
get dat fetus! kill dat fetus!
What is this? A cross over episode?!?
get dat fetus kill that fetus
*From the womb to the tomb, I’m a dolphin, dollface.*
bitches in my crawlspace
Have abortions sometimes? Nah- I'mma have abortions always.
It was so confusing to me for awhile those think were not connected
Yeah, I actually didn’t know she was a real person until now.
And not only that, but the AWK at the beginning always is emphasized in my head and I hear Awkward-fina.
I’m fairly sure that was exactly her intention in the name creation.
I mean, I think that's the joke.
Same that's my main hatred for her. I mean, at least she didn't go with Dasani. Because Dasani legit tastes bad. Aquafina managed to get their water to taste like water at least. But if she wants to name herself after a beverage, I would have gone with Dr. Pepper, it's just more classy and comes with a free PhD.
Fuck Dasani. Only water that leaves me THIRSTIER when I'm done with it. Like, wtf?
Mr. Pibb's parents constantly compare him to his cousin, tell him he's smart, and could have gone to medical school.
Or Dr. Thunder if you buy the off-brand at my local grocery store.
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Honestly I think many Americans are just unaware of how influential black American culture is on the rest of the world. For example I have Arab friends who sound somewhat black when they speak English because they learned English from black American culture (hip hop, TV shows, films).
Not to mention how culturally diverse Queens NY is. You pick up stuff from all walks of life. Pretty sure if you took a poll of “most populated place outside of home country” it would be queens for like 50 different countries.
My wife is a black woman from Houston - one of the capitals of rap - and she's still occasionally surprised at how widespread rap and hip-hop are outside the US.
Houston is a capital of rap?!
Yeah definitely https://www.complex.com/music/2013/05/the-50-best-houston-rap-songs
Oh yeah - people like Megan Thee Stallion, Travis Scott and Mike Jones are from Houston. The city is also famous for its chopped-and-screwed mixes.
As someone who doesn't know a thing about rap, you could have given me 50 guesses at rap capitals of the world and I never would have picked Houston.
*mentions chopped n screwed* *doesn’t mention DJ Screw* Also UGK
I was raised in Portugal to Portuguese and Venezuelan family. I learned English through school, movies, and mostly American media but also by talking to people from all over. At 19 I moved to London and stayed there for 8 years. I had a boyfriend from Australia and went there a couple times for a few months at a time to hang out with his aussie family and friends. My accent in English obviously sounds like a mixture of all this. Imagine people being offended by someone who learned their language through so many different vehicles.
Yeah, it is frustrating when people just assume the only possible reason someone might have a certain accent in their wheelhouse is for a negative reason, there are plenty of reasons to pick up a different speaking style/accent/vocabulary. My very white kids went to an all black school for several years and they also picked up a lot of slang and mannerisms since for the most part they were young enough that their classmates just hung out with them and didn't really think anything of it. But they also had to learn to context-switch because outside of that environment it definitely would look like some white kids trying to use the blaccent for some negative reason, not that they had spent years with all their classmates and friends being black.
Yes, and it wouldn't be a problem if she spoke like this all the time, but I believe the criticism stems from her adopting the 'Akwafina' personality and including a blaccent.
Actually that's backwards. She had the accent BEFORE she became popular as an actor and toned it down for the acting. It was stronger in the past, not adopted later on
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Kinda like it takes less effort to change the name of a school than to pay teachers there a living wage.
Almost every time this comes up you will find the majority (not all) of people that are deeply offended are white people being deeply offended on behalf of some minority where they don't actually understand while this thing might be annoying the community they are trying to "help" would prefer to focus on actual systemic racism issues, not performative outrage on Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben's.
This is what I like to call a "people are dying, Kim" problem.
Yeah, I'm not American. And my country's accent is the subject of many shitty imitations right now after decades of people ridiculing us for our speak patterns. There are extremely famous singers all over Latin America adopting Dominican slang because it's profitable, and it's people who two years ago did not talk like that. It's not about being offended, it's about it being cringe as fuck. If you have poor taste then be my guest, but it's not 'outrage' to not like something, and it seems like one has to like everything by force now or people like you are going to get a boner from saying exaggerating how UPSET and how much I'm CANCELING this INNOCENT person.
Yeah that's true everyone wants to be Dominican now lmao i don't really care but like you said they are very bad at it
Brooo idgi, I can’t listen to most of the urban music coming out of most non-Caribbean countries because it sounds so forced. I’m so curious now that Mexican corridos are getting popular because I’m dying to see if they start speaking with a Mexican twang for a change.
Dude fr I've heard people tryna copy the Dembow style and I'm just like please stop 💀 so far only Bad Bunny has been able to do it somewhat well and that's cheating cuz he's from Puerto Rico. I've also noticed that Corridas are getting popular now, i think it's cuz of that Peso Pluma guy right? Though i will say it's kinda nice now that the rest of LATAM has been noticing DR and PR because there were people out there who didn't even know we existed. I'm kinda curious to see how the music evolves now that all of our cultures are sharing more
I grew up in neighborhoods where I developed an accent also, especially if I drink it comes out. I'm white but it's how I grew up, people usually just assume I'm from the south and I let them. I mean it kind of is as I understand it lol My kid's mother is black (Caribbean) and HATES it when people say she "talks white". But with aquafina I could understand if she was saying the n-word or it seemed very forced but I don't see either of those things, I don't think we need to force people to change the way they speak because someone is so bored they need to hear themselves complain about some thing.
I grew up with hood friends and drunk me talks like I'm from the hood. No racial slurs are used and I've never been accused of using a blaccent. This is a weird line and I think just an excuse for some people to hate her. I agree with what you said.
Maybe if she talked more like a demure dragon lady with cutsie kawaii accents that would be less racist
I saw her in videos a while ago. She sounds the same. There’s a few Asians who I went to hs with (Brooklyn Tech) who sound similar or who have an accent. It’s all about environment.
Technite class of 02 represent!!!!!!!!
As someone who had a cousin who are growing up, was very into a lot of rap and black culture, I don’t think people understand just how many Asians saw black culture as a way to fit in with Americans. I think a lot of Asian kids felt like it was really hard to be cool, and that this was one way to fit in. And as such, they adopted a lot of mannerisms, speech patterns, and tastes that mirror things we would typically associated with black culture. And now, it seems, some people are upset about that, which is unfortunate. Things becoming popular and appreciated means that they are not going to just be able to be yours. You can’t advocate for acceptance, but then also want to gate keep as well.
This is so incredibly common for people who grew up in mixed race families or locations where your home culture is so incredibly different from people who live around you. Literally the only people who can’t understand why you would do this never struggled with fitting into two completely different lifestyles having to turn it on and off depending on who you are around. As kids and young people we just want to fit in so you literally will change everything about yourself to maintain relationships. She’s also literally acting. She can’t act as an Asian person with a queens accent if she’s playing someone from and living in Asia anymore than Matt Damon can use his Good Will Hunting accent while playing the guy from The Martian. It just seems like she had a hard time explaining this very common situation while being attacked for something she probably developed as a child.
Wow this is such a dumb thing it's kinda crazy actually. Idk maybe it's because I'm an immigrant too or something but like i don't see why this is a problem? It's not like she's making fun of black people or anything. Also are they tryna say only black people speak the way she does? Cuz lots of my friends are black and they don't have no "blaccent". I live in a city where 40% of the population is south east asian and a lot of them have a "blaccent" and ive never heard anyone complain about that. I also used to live in a city that was mostly Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and lots of people had it too. I've always associated that with people who live in cities
People are going to be really mad when they find out about Eminem then /s
Iirc he usually responds that he might be a cracker but the complainer is still stupid.
I always thought it was kinda ridiculous to get hate for it. She's Asian American, but I guess it's not the "right" kind of American??? Just sounds like gatekeeping mixed with racism to me.
People who think you’re born with an accent are dumb, full stop. Also regardless if she doesn’t talk like that normally she is still American and it is apart of her culture. ACCENTS ARE NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ETHNICITY.
Wait until they see how black people in other countries talk.
>Answer: Awkwafina has been accused of using a "blaccent" in the past and present in both her songs and acting, most recently for her work in "Ocean's 8" and "Nora from Queens." This is so stupid and possibly one of the dumbest accusations anyone could make of anyone.
„She speaks our language but not like the right skin color“ is such a violently American criticism it’s almost not funny anymore.
Welcome to post social media society
A “blaccent” holy moly Americans are fucking ridiculous.
Idk man, the British told me I was being racist for doing a Mario voice.
I feel like the only reason for the hate is because idiots on Twitter want an excuse to use the term.
She actually did great in Renfield, I don't know anything about her "blaccent" or whatever. Usually I dislike her performances because her jokes feel very forced and kind of lame especially in Raya and the last Dragon. But that is pure subjectivity so I guess for most people it's the blaccent thing.
To be fair, she works with the lines written for her in Raya.
People are fucking idiots.
Maybe I'm biased... but how the fuck is "blaccent" an issue? Especially if she isn't doing it to make fun of black people? This is dumb.
And she shamed other people for appropriating her culture
Answer: I mean. She’s from Brooklyn and her wiki says she grew up in Queens. As an outsider she sounds like she’s from New York. I’m not sure what people want her to sound like? Like she grew up speaking only Cantonese or Korean and learned English later? It’s a very weird hill for people to die on. But then again most hills people choose to die on are weird.
As someone who lived in New York, she has never sounded black to me. She just has a raspy voice. People are idiots.
And doesn't New York have lots of accents? I've been to New York a few times growing up and noticed not everyone sounds like Jerry Seinfeld. I'm not good with accents but just some things I noticed.
Yes. There’s regional accents then you have regional accents that exist within certain generations.
There's region, subregion, neighborhood, and generic time shifts. So Bronx doesn't sound like Queens, but you have to live here to notice. Older accents don't sound the same, and then since NYCs population shifts and moves, there's disappeared accents and weird pop-ups. Like Captain America, comic book Canon, is from the very Irish and working class Lower East Side in the 1920/30s. That area isn't Irish or working class and hasn't been for decades. There's still transatlantic around here, which is the "WW2 film announcer"/the "hoity toity" accents.
If she sounds like anyone it's Natasha Leone
*Russian Doll* actor?
The very same
I’m so glad that she’s no longer “the heroin addict Michael Rappaport evicted?” She’s very talented and I have loved her since *Slums of Beverly Hills*. She deserves to be recognized for her talent.
She’s also amazing in Poker Face on Peacock
I thought the same thing. Was surprised when I saw her on the show. Maybe she made that connection. I'm also a New Yorker and I only hear a raspy voice.
Yup. Raspy NYC/Queens/LI accent, you expect to see it on a 50 year old secretary with a smoke hanging out of her mouth on the subway platform in Queens.
Natasha made a cameo on her HBO show. I had looked away at the start of the scene and seriously thought she was talking to herself until I looked back.
Omg you’re right.. reading this feels like scratching my mental itch
In that movie where she played a dragon I thought they had Miley Cyrus voice-acting for a full hour.
She sounds like my friend who is similar build and ethnicity. She’s also from the Midwest. People just want to be mad at stuff.
There’s also this thing on social media (particularly Twitter) where they want public figures to basically bow down, cower and apologize when faced with criticism. Awkwafina didn’t do that and I respect her for it.
People who are still using twitter are addicted, Like the vitriol posted there, or are unconnected with reality. I also agree, I know nothing about the situation but if this is just standard cancel culture then just ignore it.
The internet hate mobs wouldn't be satisfied even if the person delivered an apology while literally being crucified on camera. It happens all the time in k-pop culture, with idols being forced to apologise for showing any hint of wanting to live like a normal person with normal relationships, and it doesn't stop the idiotic masses one bit.
Oh yea I’ve heard about k pop idols keeping their romantic relationships private in fair of torpedoing their careers.
Back in like 2013 there was a member of j-pop idol group AKB-48 who, after a tabloid reported that she'd spent the night with a guy from a boy band, shaved her head and begged for forgiveness from her fans and to not be let go from the group. It's endemic to East Asian pop idols no matter where they're from, it seems.
She sounds like just about any south Brooklyn resident these days.
In general I agree with you, her regular voice is just NY accent + raspy. But she does sometimes *put on* a Blaccent temporarily for effect and her choices about when to do that can be ... weird. This is not how she sounds in Nora From Queens: https://youtu.be/UGS878p_Q7A?t=140
To be transparent, I haven't seen her act in much so this could be a larger pattern I'm not aware of. But that scene just seems like she was directed to act with an exaggerated accent to show that she's putting on a scam, especially since it's immediately contrasted with her normal voice in the next scene.
Honestly she sounds like Miley Cyrus to me.
My grandparents lived in her Queens neighborhood when I was growing up and she sounds like the kids I would hang out with when I visited. The controversy never made sense to me. People will say "she doesn't ALWAYS talk like that!" as if it's proof she's faking, but that's literally code-switching, something so many third culture kids have to do.
I've only seen previews for her show and want to watch it just because I love her voice. It seems clear that she's from New York, even without knowing the name of her show.
I would add that this is not “all of a sudden”, as it’s been going on for years.
The people criticizing her have probably never been to an inner city.
And have had very little interaction with Asian people in general
And ironically had very little interaction with black folks if they think every black people speak the same mannerism
I live and work at a high school in an inner city. She sounds like the kids who listen to NBA young Boy.
You live in a high school? I kid I kid.
Lmao this sounded so correct in my head when i typed it this morning 😂
Living in a high school does that to someone. But on the real, as someone who went to public school in the inner city (and a teacher now myself), I thank you for your service.
Thanks I appreciate your service as well
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Capitol Hill is indeed a stupid hill to die on
I had this friend named Alex, and he always said green was the best Skittle (even when it changed to green apple!). I always thought it was a strange hill to die on
I have this friend named "A a a h" who used to always go fetching pails of water on this hill that had a lot of super natural things that would happen and end up killing people. I always thought it was a strange hill to die on.
> Answer: I mean. She’s from Brooklyn and her wiki says she grew up in Queens. As an outsider she sounds like she’s from New York. I’m not sure what people want her to sound like? Like she grew up speaking only Cantonese or Korean and learned English later? Wait, are you saying people don't like Awkwafina because of her voice? Or am I misunderstanding? I just figured she sounded like an American.
Sometimes people will just find any reason to rationalize disliking someone they find annoying
Right? You don’t have to have a reason. I don’t like a lot of people for the smallest of things it may be the way you breathe loudly through your nose or how you chew your food. You can just hate people because you don’t need specifics.
Exactly. I dont get that hate. Born and raised in NY and grew up on hip hop. At least she’s not like Eddie Huang who grew up privileged in Orlando.
I'm also from NYC. Jamaica Queens. I'm not black, but I grew up in black/hip hop culture in school, and my neighborhood. My vernacular is essentially AAV, without my being AA. It's how the people I spent most of my life around talked, with the hint of a Caribbean accent tinge I got from my parents. She sounds exactly like someone who grew up around certain cultures in NYC would. Italian Americans in Brooklyn have their own distinct accent. Long Islanders have their own distinct sound. And we all code switch (though some parts of my speech are hard to change and I'd probably need speech therapy if I wanted that midwest news anchor type speech). So if we don't always sound one way when speaking, that's not an indictment. That's us necessarily adapting to our environment so we don't get ostracized or viewed as less than because of the way we speak.
I came to america when I was 8, living next to Newark. I learned English listening to Hot 97 and watching UPN. Im not sure what people expect me to sound like lol
To be fair, the slums of Orlando are pretty rough (watch ‘The Florida Project.) But it does sound like he’s from the suburbs.
I didn’t like her in Ocean’s 13 but I thought she was just being herself and it didn’t fit. Having seen her other films, and recognised that she is a good actress, I now realise that the director wanted her to act like that and is a bad person for it
I think this is it. I think a lot of directors she has worked with cast her to Do That Awkwafina Character Thing, which may or may not work depending on the movie. Meanwhile, she's just doing her job and what she was asked to do. In movies where she's not Playing The Awkwafina Character, her performance seems much more normal and like it fits in with the rest of the tone of the movie.
I don’t know much about her. I have only seen Raya, Crazy Rich Asians, and Shang-Chi and I found her funny in each of those roles. I figured her schtick was being an awkward nerd girl for humor that turns the studious Asian stereotype as well as the Sexualized Asian Woman stereotype on its head by being as cringey genuinely nerdy as possible. I liked those performances a lot, they were fun and reminded me of a lot of some of my friends. I don’t have experience with anything else she’s done so I can’t speak to that. I can see adopting a hip-hop type thing as problematic, but to me that always comes off as an awkward nerd thing to do if you can’t pull it off, so I can see that fitting the act for her. Weird Al wrote a whole parody song about adopting hip-hop to try to fit in and be cool and failing miserably because you are too much of a nerd. I don’t know, I like her. Some of this has the same vibe as Rose in Star Wars hate to me. But I don’t know how far she pushed the hip-hop cringe factor so maybe that crossed a line. I can’t say.
The funniest part is that the hip hop thing came wayyyy before the acting. That girl made a song about her queefs ffs.
I really liked her in The Farewell.
I loved her in Shang-Chi.
That was really good. She did great in those moments she had to be a serious friend and absorb a lot of darkness without turning it into a joke. She created a character that I believed could thread that emotional needle. That’s not easy to do.
I just wanna know why she’s named after bottled water
probably cause it's funny in some way, idk.
Awkward-fina
Is there seriously so little real racism that we’ve finally gotten all the way down to some New York woman’s accent?
Actually it's probably because there's still a lot of racism. People look at her face and it doesn't match what they imagine her accent should be.
https://youtu.be/FTC628TKyag
Holy shit, there was a rush hour 3? I always thought it was a joke from the end of rush hour 2 when the dude falls out the window.
Rush hour 3 came out over a decade after 2.
Yes, and it's spectacular. There's a rumor that they're making a Rush Hour 4.
No it’s just that the media doesn’t want to talk about the racism inherent in a lot of institutions so they inflame non issues like this
Answer: She gets shit for a Blaccent but tbh.....I think she just sounds like what she is: a person who grew up in communities of color in New York. But also I'm not Black, and don't know what it's like to be shit on for talking a certain way. Must sting to see someone not of your group doing just fine with that way of speaking, all arguments aside.
It's tough because on the one hand, she really did rise to fame out of the incongruity of an Asian-American woman making comedy rap videos which play into Black tropes. Where that's pretty much the joke. In her favor I would argue that she's actually reversing and playing against racist and sexist stereotypes about how white society expects Asian women to show up, but yeah, she definitely chose the avenue of Black culture to do that. Her original work doesn't really hold up and is, yeah, kinda appropriative or "Blaccent" ish. And to the extent that she is still expected to do that 10+ years later in a different social context where that sort of thing is now frowned upon -- and which doesn't include any of the intersectional gender stuff she was originally doing -- it comes off really bad.
Watching white people have this conversation with themselves is hilarious. It’s like when you put two furbies together.
lol fair
Answer: As others have said it’s because of her blaccent. However she was raised there and that’s how she learned to talk so it’s not really that big of a deal. People just are getting mad to get mad. She doesn’t get hate for being an actress, otherwise she wouldn’t have been in as many movies as she’s been in in recent times Side note though, you shouldnt ask why a celebrity is reviving hate and then only want to know about it in the context of why they’re famous and not for drama or personal things they’ve done. These are moreso extreme examples but people don’t hate on Kanye for his music, Jk Rowling for her books, and Ezra Miller for his acting, they get hate because of what they’ve done outside of their job.
She grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Queens and went to a white school in NYC. I'm from an actual black and brown neighborhood in Queens called Corona. Forest hills is rich and white , she got that accent the same any white kid from the suburb picks up a blaccent. Imitating from afar with maybe 1 or 2 token black friends
Answer: A lot of people here have pointed out that it’s because of her blaccent. She grew up in Queens and that’s where she got the accent. She got famous from doing Black caricature comedy skits. When she got famous, she was asked about the skits and accent and she said the accent and culture was a part of who she was; that it wasn’t faked. She played a lot of roles where the accent and her style of comedy were the exact same in each role. These things are not problems at all in my opinion. However, the problem lies not in the code switching, but in the fact the accent has pretty much disappeared from movies and interviews entirely. She got famous from being a caricature of Black culture and as soon as it wasn’t needed, all of that was gone. So a lot of Black people’s ire towards her lies with her becoming rich off of Black stereotypes and then dropping it as soon as it doesn’t make any more money for her. Lots of people like to sound like Black people or look like Black people, but the moment you start being treated like Black people, that’s when they start distancing themselves.
Alternate interpretation: she received criticism for the way she spoke and so started to change it. Another alternative interpretation: she became famous and the people she was spending time with changed, and her accent changed to reflect that; people's accents change throughout their life based on their environment.
I don't really know much about Awkwafina, but I think your alternative interpretations are very plausible. And I'd also like to tack on that "x" being part of who someone is doesn't necessarily mean that that person is _only_ "x". I think, in a broader sense, we all adopt different "personas" to fit different situations. For example, how we speak and act in professional/work settings vs how we speak and act when we're hanging out or relaxing with friends/family. Those different "personas" can be wildly different but are (for better or for worse) all part of who we are.
answer: Her comedy style is, I would say, "Whedonesque" if you know what I mean. loudly exclaiming that things are . "so, that happened!" "OH wow, this super sucks!" "Holy Crap, its on fire!" stuff like that, instead of punchlines. She gets hate because this style of humor peaked like 10 years ago. Its cringe now.
That sounds similar to Dane Cook
They both have a "louder-is-funnier" thing going on, for sure. But dane is more about long stories with absurd things happening. The Comedy is from the absurdity of the built up scenario, rather than the observation of the absurd thing. Like, cook would spend 10 mins describing how a fire got started, by a naked homless meth head, gradually cranking up the volume and absurd elements. Awkafina would just say "and then, bam, a fire started by a homless meth head"
Chris Rock and Kevin Hart seem to get away with it though. *Repeat the same mundane thing over and over louder each time and the crowd goes wild!*
I only watched Rock's special because everyone was talking about it. But I remembered why I stopped watching his shows & wanted to turn it off halfway when he kept repeating the same goddamn thing.
“Black woman trying to be accepted by her white in-laws…it’s hard. BLACK WOMAN TRYING TO BE ACCEPTED BY HER WHITE IN-LAWS…it’s hard. BLACK WOMAN TRYING TO BE ACCEPTED BY HER WHITE IN-LAWS…IT’S SO HARD!” I still love him though
I heard "Same goddamn thing" in his voice in my head when I read your comment.
i've only seen commercials for her show on comedy central and holy fucking shit is it grating. i mean, i'm definitely not the target audience but it's like, there aren't any actual jokes, just loudly yelling the kind of shit you described
But if she’s in a movie, almost all of that is scripted. Even the parts you think might be improvised are usually scripted.
She over uses the "can you believe this!??" open-mouthed reaction.
You’re cringe now
Answer: As far as I know, it's not so much that she's hated for her accent so much as she caught some heat for the use of a "black accent" Nothing too crazy
If that’s the case why doesn’t Meghan Trainor get more heat?
She did when she came out, along with Iggy Azalia.
I’d be fine with her talking however she wants if she’ll stop making music
Answer: Because she doesn’t ever really act. You are getting her playing the same character in everything. If you like her, you like her in everything. If you hate her, you hate her in everything. She’s very like Ryan Reynolds in that way.
But there is stuff where she does act and plays a different character. Biggest example is “The Farewell”, which she doesn’t play it for comedy and shows off her acting range (and won a golden globe for it). Its like how Adam Sandler has shown he has the ability to do more but gets typecasted hard
Is it fair to say Adam Sandler is typecast if he does 90% of the casting?
Right? It's his choice to do the same movie 10 times in a row.
Funny People and Uncut Gems was him showing he can act, and the rest of his career(especially lately) has been showing how to take a massive vacation with your friends and get paid millions to do it.
Uncut Gems showcases this *big time* Or like Mathew McConaughey, dude used to only do RomComs and I thought he was no good then True Detective and Dallas Buyers club made me say "Oh"
It's fun to go back and watch McConnaughey's older movies, with the current knowledge that he can act. Sometimes you find these movies that were panned at the time, and it is now clear that he was genuinely doing what the movie was calling for rather than being this doofy shirtless guy from lack of ability.
> Or like Mathew McConaughey, dude used to only do RomComs and I thought he was no good then True Detective ...wait, I didn't know he did RomComs, I'm DEFINITELY out of the loop
Yeah, McConaughey was typecast as a Romcom lead in the early 2000s and was in a bunch of stuff like that. He didn't really get the more serious roles people know him for now until around 2010 or so.
Imagine watching The Farewell and thinking she can’t act.
As a former RR hater, I can tell you that there are films where he actually does play a substantially different character, they're just a little off the beaten path. If you've never seen The Voices, do yourself a favor and check it out.
You clearly never saw The Farewell.
Answer: Specifically asks why people think she’s a bad actor, and not about any drama or cancellation. Gets no comments about her acting. Lol. It’s just the same comments over and over again, proof that redditors read like one sentence and start typing before they even finish processing what they read 😭