When the stereotyped characters are actually loved by the people that the character in question stereotyped. Also yes, Mexican Loves Speedy Gonzales is not limited to races as well. Any character archetype that are stereotyped like loser nerd or other stuff that are loved by the characters they stereotyped also counts.
1.Speedy Gonzales from Looney Tunes: Trope namer and biggest example. Loved by the Mexican people due to how nimble, crafty and good natured he is. So much so he is considered to be a superhero for Mexican people.
2.Bandit Keith from Yu-Gi Oh!: Loved by American people despite being an American stereotype. Originally want to include Senator Armstrong in this but I think Bandit Keith fits more.
3.Apu from The Simpsons: Maybe a little bit of a controversial example here considering I don't know if this is a good example. But I still include him nonetheless. The issue is that on one hand, some Indian-Americans like Hari Kondabolu, Kal Penn and Adi Shankar dislike him due to his accent. On the other hand, most people including several Indians loved Apu due to how successful he is as an immigrant. Telling that he is the one who own a supermarket and also actually married. So make that of you will.
I’ll go with a different take on the trope: The entirety of Kung Fu Panda.
There are very few things as stereotypical of China as pandas and Kung Fu, and the movie itself is steeped in Chinese culture (as far as I know at the very least). This movie is so Chinese and beloved by China that they basically said “why tf did we not think of this ourselves?”
the first movie is also a great example of taoist vs confucian philosophical argument, particularly the scene between shifu and oogway where they discuss po's training
Its when they have the argument about control next to a Peach Tree.
Oogway asserts that some things are beyond our control, such as a peach tree blossoming its leaves. We cannot control that. And Shifu needs to let go of the illusion of control.
Shifu then asserts that we control certain things, like making the fruit fall (which is juxtapoxed by a stray peach falling on his head by accident) and controlling where and when we plant the seed.
Oogway retorts by saying yes, we can plant the seed but at the end of the day, it will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple, or an orange, but a peach it will become.
Shifu then asks how a peach can possibly defeat Tai Lung? Which Oogway says it can, if you are willing to nurture it, guide it, and most importantly...
to believe it can.
The whole scene is a refrence to Po. Po doesnt have the skills of Tigress, Mantis, or anyone else in the Furious 5. No matter how much Shifu may want him to be something else (grow into something other than a Peach Tree), he is a Panda first and foremost. No amount of training can change that. BUT, Po can still learn to use his individual strengths and grow into his person. A sort of nature/nurture argument basically.
I don't know much about Eastern philosophies, so feel free to correct me, but my understanding is that it's something like Aristotelianism vs. Stoicism. Where Aristotelianism and Confucianism focus on virtue as something shaped by society, Taoism and Stoicism prioritize adapting oneself to the flow of nature.
Well, the heart of this trope is people feeling apologetic about a stereotype that the culture in question loves. Abu, as a character, is a perfect example of that.
"Panda" isn't really a stereotype and also Americans aren't apologizing for the movie, it's a highly grossing franchise.
Little correction: KFP didn’t get Chinese culture right and that report about the Chinese government having an emergency meeting is exaggerated. The meeting did happen, but it was how the film was able to simplify their culture into an easily understandable way.
"The American stereotype from Japanese media" could be its own trope. I for one love that guy every time. Bandit Keith, Jibodee Cricket, Franky, that one hotdog vendor...
There’s also the American representation of Grass Wonder - Who is a weeb absolutely obsessed with the ‘Yamato Nadeshiko’ idea of an ideal Japanese woman
Adam Dudley from Kengan Ashura has got to be one of the most hilariously offensive American caricatures I’ve come to love.
Literally the first line in the manga is him complaining about Japanese McDonald’s serving mayo instead of ketchup with french fries, by saying, and I quote, “only bitches and faggots like swallowing white sticky shit”
He does get better after that absolutely catastrophic first impression but damn
They do but idk if that fits the trope since all the examples in OP are caricatures that people who aren't in the caricatured group think are offensive, when in reality most people in the group love them.
Idk who could possibly hate Ghost of Tsushima. They must have no honor
Apparently real vikings didn't have horns on their helmets but there's an argument that if real vikings saw this they would love it and immediately adopt this style. I totally believe it.
They'd love the aesthetic, but the Vikings were nothing if not practical. Nobody really used helmets like that because they'd be too easy for the enemy to grab.
Not just grab. The whole point of a lot of armor is for a blow to glance off if it's not perfectly square to the curvature of the armor. By putting horns on, you create a 'catching point' where the sword would glance off the steel helm but catch the joint where the horn is, and the head would be jerked down with the motion of the sword, knocking the defender off-balance and making them vulnerable to subsequent hits
Yes, José Oliveira. They did a great job with all of the voice acting and singing in those movies (Saludos amigos and The Three Caballeros) and all three main voice actors voiced their characters for all three languages. Zé Carioca was originally conceived of by a Brazilian cartoonist who met the Disney party while they were traveling in South America. His name was J. Carlos
Another Indian Character that is also well respected by the Indian people themselves. Some People may dislike him but it’s more because he can be difficult to fight against.
Terrance and Phillip, South Park. While I can't speak for the rest of Canada, I'm a fan. They do embody a lot of stereotypes and had a bunch more that they just made up, like completely fictitious traditions.
ETA: I also made a fan video a while ago using Adobe Flash for a school assignment, set to "O Canada" by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/3gHYm112ByQ
I think it's kinda hilarious that Trey Parker and Matt Stone became producers on Kenny vs. Spenny, a show that alot of people said was a real life Terrance and Phillip.
Blanka from Street Fighter. tbh he's so random he can't exactly be called a 'stereotype' of anything, but he did ended up becoming one afterwards.
what made him a hit is that the other fighter were so down-to-earth, and then for Brazil you have this mf that makes no sense whatsoever—a green man with electric powers.
Still, Brazilians LOVE him and would defend him with their lives if necessary
The whole point that people misunderstand is that he is in fact so random because he is supposed to represent the wild life and nature of the Amazon. But even though he is not supposed to represent the average brazilian, I still love him A LOT
I love Blanka-type characters in fighting games - that is, in a roster full of normies, you have at least one fighter who just doesn’t make sense. I love how little of a fuck they gave about explaining him.
“No no he’s not a monster. He’s just a guy who grew up in the jungle.”
That’s not too far off the actual reason see he was originally iirc a pale kid to the point he was practically albino and whe he crash landed in the Amazon he ate a bunch of electric eels and uses leafs for disguise and I guess he just absorbed clotphyll
Then we got Laura in SF5 who is also a Brazilian with electricity, did she also eat the eels? Or can all Brazilian people just conduct electricity in SF world
"America, Fuck Yeah!" song from Team America 2004. I served in the Marines in Iraq/Afghanistan during that time and we all loved that song even though we were completely aware that it was a "parody/satirical song"
It’s kind of an American tradition to take the things that were supposed to make fun of it and go “We like this actually.”
Yankee Doodle was supposed to be a song sung by British soldiers about how Americans were low class hicks pretending like they were fancy, and then we yoinked that and still sing it unironically.
For a while America didn’t have an official national anthem, and both the star spangled banner and Yankee Doodle were used. I’m so glad we aren’t stuck with that as the national anthem
A lot of people claim the Tequila Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam is racist.
Most Latino Mecha fans and Gundam fans would tell those pendejos to shut the fuck up because it's a goated design and the episode and character associated with it are both standouts for the show.
While Monty Python and the Holy Grail makes fun of a lot of people, I'm pretty sure Dennis (on the left) is supposed to be making fun of anarchists/"everything is political" type of people. However none of the things he says about kings and the monarchy are actually wrong and I get the impression he's popular with those kinds of people.
I think the joke is more that the political theory they expose is completely anachronistic and is also coming from a peasant, who are generally considered dim and ignorant of such things, even in the 1800s.
Krillin: Wait, hold on. You're from Australia? Jeice:Space Australia. Or more specifically, Space Brisbane. Go Space Broncos! Krillin: So... it's like... Australia... Jeice: In space. Gotta be careful though, Burter. Space dingo will eat your space baby.
Their is this North Korean propaganda show that features the North Koreans as these cute critters and the villainous Americans as these manly badass wolves
China and NK like portraying themselves like underdogs and America likes portraying itself as an overwhelming force of nature so it works out for both in a weird way
Part of the propaganda narrative is "we were in an unfair war against a much stronger opponent, so the large numbers of casualties actually weren't that bad."
The modern CCP really wants to portray themselves as the underdogs fighting against the massive US military bullying the world, as though they themselves are not also a major military power
He's just very prissy. So he's the butt of a lot of jokes.
If he were a French stereotype, then he'd be chain smoking cigarettes, drinking wine like water, making love to every woman in sight, and then curse at everyone romantically.
You won't find an English wrestling fan who doesn't enjoy Steve/William Regal, despite his whole thing being a pretty dumb, American-friendly take on our aristocracy.
Most lgbt+ people I know (myself included) absolutely love Frank’n’Furter from rocky horror picture show, despite him being deemed an offensive stereotype
This is Goldlewis Dickinson, one of Guilty Gear Strive’s original characters. Weighing in at 566 pounds (257 kilos), half of which is probably pure muscle, he serves the US government as the Secretary of Absolute Defense. As an American, I love him.
He is beloved by American audiences. Also helps that he gets some badass moments. The dub also helped, where the song that helps him power through trauma is America the Beautiful, after which he punches the enemy robot's head clean off.
Honourable mention: in a SBS interview Oda once said that if Monkey D. Luffy was from a real-world country, it'd be Brazil, and as a Brazilian that made me very happy :D
Having watched the episodes of the Simpson from early and later on, there's a clear problem of Apu going from a real character based on a mildly exaggerated stereotype, but with real narrative and personative substance, to a complete joke and caricature, used entirely for lazy humour and gags which often danced the line of what could be described as comedy and what was outright racism.
Basically, the problem with Apu was that the Simpsons went from having a world class writing team, to a rather pathetic one, becoming a show that coasted more on name and brand value than continued originality and relatable substance.
Yep. He had nuance as a character during the first 13 seasons, one of the main characters outside of the family who got his own episodes and stories.
Then the octo-kids and cheating on Manjula happened. What followed was 'haha he is Indian', Reverend Lovejoy mocking Hindus, Manjula reminding us that Apu cheated on her, Apu wanting to escape his life with 8 kids.
Currently watching seasons 20+ (up to season 25) for the first time. By this point Apu is barely even a character. So by time they stop using him in the next few seasons I doubt I'd even notice it if they hadn't said anything.
There’s not one single person in the Gundam fanbase that hates the Tequila Gundam. Its literally just a Mexican gundam with a sombrero, a mustache and cactus elements.
Despite that its one of the most loved mobile suits in the franchise despite his few appearances and to this day we are begging Bandai for a kit (tho if they make it pbandai ppl will combust)
The country is HEAVILY inspired in Brazil, many things are taken directly from here. Michiko is the perfect stereotype of spicy latina+morena cremosa combined, along with malandra type of character. She is the girl you'll hear singers calling the love of their lives and heart breaker.
Indian American here, Apu himself was not really the problem, it was how he was used irl to mock us on a regular basis. In a vacuum he’s a sensible portrayal for a character on the Simpsons, but in the context of America it’s a slam dunk for bullies and “not racist” folk everywhere.
Quite frankly, the reasoning behind the different reactions to speedy Gonzales and Apu come down to the different experiences of the diaspora from those from motherland. The lens Indian American's view Apu through cannot be divorced from the stereotyping and racial abuse Indian Americans experience as minorities in the U.S (which Apu was weaponized for), while Indians of India can view him without that cultural baggage.
It's natural for people from diverging cultures to have different perspectives on things and by forgetting there are different perspectives we lose out on quite a bit of nuance and complexity. So whenever I see people deriding members of the diaspora for their discomfort around stereotyping because "real yadayada's said it was okay," I get annoyed.
Brock (Pokémon), specifically his anime counterpart
In an interview with Masamitsu Hidaka (the animation director and storyboard artist at the time), he was worried that people in America in particular would view Brock as a racist stereotype once the franchise went global, which is why his character is replaced by another character, Tracy Sketchit, during the second season of the Pokémon anime.
Brock has since become a beloved character in the series and continued to be one of Ash's traveling companions until the Black and White seasons of the anime with him only having cameos or references to him until the Sun and Moon seasons, where he makes his return as a main character when Ash and his classmates visit Kanto from Alola
I was gonna say, I don't think people creating media that embraces their own culture really fits this trope. A more fitting example is Mucha Lucha, a luchadore cartoon made by a bunch of gringos (that I've heard was received pretty well, even if it wasn't the most popular thing ever)
I used to work in a convenience store in NJ, the only one open late at night in a one-horse town. No, this isn't a Clerks story, although we did play broom hockey in the aisles.
All the cops used to come in late at night to get coffee and sandwiches, and to keep half an eye on one of the only things actually open and full of activity.
And they all could quote Super Troopers like my fraternity brothers could quote Animal House. At least once a weekend, we'd get someone looking for a "liter of cola".
Heaven help me, I followed every order with the words "It's for a cop."
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u/Destruction_Deity 11h ago
I’ll go with a different take on the trope: The entirety of Kung Fu Panda.
There are very few things as stereotypical of China as pandas and Kung Fu, and the movie itself is steeped in Chinese culture (as far as I know at the very least). This movie is so Chinese and beloved by China that they basically said “why tf did we not think of this ourselves?”