TV commentator in New Zealand apologizes for mock Asian accent

This is just pathetic. What an increasingly repugnant and repressive place global society is becoming.

I disagree with @Burning Bush on almost everything. But this time, big thumbs up. World has gone mad.

At least Himeno a good sport. Bet he proraly teases kiwis about their accents too! Give and take, aye bro.

This intire thing is leally not light. BB very much aglee.

I agree with @burning and @theresient.

But...I don’t like the way my sister-in-law has raised her two kids to talk about other races as if they are scum. I like humor and freedom of speech very much, it’s all about context. I met a Kiwi big rugby dude a few years back who told me when he was a teenager him and his mates used to get drunk and...um...catch...cough...sheep...cough.

but I don’t generalize, apart from maybe most Kiwis like cafe lattes and craft beers. And rugby.

Sports commentators and hosts have a habit of putting their feet in their mouths. And not just in NZ, either.

Show a bit of respect, eh.

This is just pathetic. What an increasingly repugnant and repressive place global society is becoming.

Well, hopefully this idiot will lose his job & think twice about using such bigotry again.

Okay, so you're not allowed to do a comedy Japanese accent. How about a French one? When I'm talking about my holiday in Paris for example, am I allowed to put on a fake French accent for laughs? Or how about a Scottish accent? Are we really being banned from comedy accents now? The world has gone insane.

If one is employed as a sports commentator on an international broadcast, then culturally insensitive renditions of any accent are unlikely to be a good idea. Think about it... However, I am sure you will be fine doing your hilarious version of a French or Spanish accent to your friends and family.

If it's not funny than don't laugh, it's your right to laugh, sneer or shun or change the channel.

It's not your right to cancel people nor to declare their speech "hate speech" because you don't like them.

This is not a simple freedom of speech issue as you insinuate here. This guy is a paid broadcaster with responsibilities to not be culturally insensitive. He should have had the brains and forethought to realise it would be stupid to even try what he did.

How would you feel if Japanese people made fun of your English?

Why would Japanese people make fun of my English?

Now, my Japanese is a different matter. When I first came to Japan my Japanese was, shall we say, basic. I pronounced words wrong, used the wrong words, messed up the intonation.

And folk sometimes laughed at me for it, a few mimicked me and that pinpointed to me what I was getting wrong.

No one makes fun of my Japanese now.

Back to making fun of the English.... nothing wrong with jovially/hilariously imitating a North American, Scottish, Irish, Aussie, Kiwi, Welsh, RP accent, if you're willing to also be on the receiving end.

And look at all the comedians that make a living imitating/ridiculing the accents of people like Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, GW Bush, Michael Gove.

Maybe Mr. Wheeler did commit a faux pas, after all he's not a comedian... but surely not something to get all het up about.

How would you feel if Japanese people made fun of your English?

I’ve come across Japanese people making fun of English pronunciation from native speakers quite a few times. Many seem to find English speakers stressing sounds in words quite amusing. I saw this on comedy TV shows in the past. I can remember a TV commercial exaggerating sticking out your tongue for the ‘th’ sound. The pronunciation of ‘McDonald’s’ can cause amusement.

I don’t think this stokes more hatred of the minority of native English speakers living in Japan.

My snobby wife sometimes mocks and imitates ( very well ) my accent and I mock her boring, flat, lifeless middle-class accent. She did agree not to use ‘loo’ in my presence.

I can't see how anyone would think it's okay to mock the way someone speaks when speaking a foreign language. It's not even a little funny. How is that funny and not just insulting and disrespectful?

Just someone speaking a foreign language? How about mocking accents within a language? This is very common in the UK and the US in my experience. I know some Aussies who mock or look down on the Ocker accent.

Is this now out of order too? Isn’t some of that the ‘punching down’ thing? It could be seen as insulting and disrespectful.

People from my background often mock the upper-class English accent. I’m quite good at that one. Can we ‘punch up’?

Thank God that the Aussies and the Americans I work with with don't get offended when I take the p**s out of them. But then... I have to take it back the other way too (and more than happily too)

The question is why, in the first place?

I often find that those doing the mimicking are often under-educated, monolingual people who are either lost outside their own country or expect everyone else to speak their language. It's a bit like how most people who criticize other people for being vegans are usually overweight or have some underlying health problems.

Burning Bush: "Simpsons is getting get cancelled and erased because of the Kwiki Mart guy."

Simpsons should have been retired about 30 years ago, when it stopped being funny and every episode became a sob story of a third rate character's dad and Bart or Lisa no wanting their childhood hero to feel bad. As for erasing the past episodes, should no be done.

Cleo: Bang on.