Margaret Cho is never one to cower from controversy, and her reaction to some of the venom directed at her over her Golden Globe sketches are no exception.
Cho who portrayed an emotionless inscrutable North Korean general and journalist with thick accent told Buzz Feed her Korean ancestry gave her creative license.
“I’m of North and South Korean descent, and I do impressions of my family and my work all the time, and this is just another example of that,” she said. “I am from this culture. I am from this tribe. And so I’m able to comment on it.
“I’m the only person in the world, probably, that can make these jokes and not be placed in a labor camp.”
I'm not playing the race card. I'm playing the rice card. #hatersgonwait #winnersgonpun
— Margaret Cho (@margaretcho) January 12, 2015
I'm of mixed North/South Korean descent – you imprison, starve and brainwash my people you get made fun of by me #hatersgonhate #FreeSpeech
— Margaret Cho (@margaretcho) January 12, 2015
No one is arguing Cho’s right to comment on North Korea. But is it fair to ask is there a way to comment without hurting? It there a way to do satire without resorting to tired old cliches designed to get cheap laughs?
It’s a question asked one might ask after reading a blog in 18 Million Rising. Blogger Kao Kalia Yang, a Hmong American writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota described the reaction his daughter had when she saw Cho in her full military dress.
Yang’s daughter pointed to the television and said “Meemao”…monster.”
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