The clip below is both very funny and a reminder for some of what it feels like to be on the other end of having a “funny name.” It comes from a hugely popular British TV comedy sketch series of the late 1990s —“Goodness Gracious Me”—in which almost the entire cast were British Asians (or “Hounslow Punjabis, to be precise,” as one of the cast members once said). The running gags were about the Asian migrant experience. Many thanks to David Patterson for bringing this clip to our attention.
I share it with you today, Christmas Eve for those of us who celebrate it, in the hopes that it might add some humor to your day, as well as serve as an enjoyable (yet insightful) clip to share with those uncles, cousins or other family members who, despite our love and affection for them, drive us crazy with their stereotypical (racist?) comments during family get-togethers.
This clip is a terrific complement to the video interview I conducted with Dr. Emmanuel Ngomsi on names. Below are the links to those two posts:
Cultural Detective Blog 
Hate to be pedantic, but Goodness Gracious Me isn’t from the 80s. Was late 90s / early noughties.
I like your blog, by the way….
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Yes, it was. Thanks for finding the typo!
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Despite the comical projection of this series – it did highlight some of the very cultures that exists today as British Asian. Those not familiar would look and laugh thinking ‘surely not’ but you see, the culture is hard to keep when you’re in a foreign country which you try making it a home for you and your future.
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I did not watch the series, British Asian, but from the programs I have seen, it seems to poignantly capture the reality of multicultural society and immigrant life. Thank you for joining us here and for sharing your insight.
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