Masi Oka Next Likely Addressee Of Angry Open Letter From Part-Asian Actor Rob Schneider
Despite having received the GLAAD Squeal of Approval™, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry has mostly underwhelmed critics, one of whom wrote, "[It] isn't just unfunny; it's racist, sexist and homophobic — and truly unpleasant to watch." (In fairness, we should mention that the Village Voice review declared it "as eloquent as Brokeback Mountain," and included the pull-quote ready, "This sodomite had a gay old time"— sure to become the centerpiece of the movie's print marketing campaign.) It's not just critics who find themselves offended, however: At a TCA week promotional party for NBC's fall slate, Heroes' teleporting office worker Masi Oka disapproved of Rob Schneider's turn as the fake-gay couple's slanty-eyed officiating officer. From the USA Today report:
Oka was less thrilled with the stereotypical Japanese character comedian Rob Schneider plays in the new Adam Sandler comedy feature, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, opening Friday.
"I didn't agree with that," said Oka. "It was very funny, but it wasn't smart funny. I don't understand why an Asian guy couldn't have played it. You didn't need to have the (slant) eyes and the buck tooth trying to be a 'yellow face,' as we call it."
Despite Oka's best diplomatic efforts to buffer his pointed accusations of racism by inaccurately describing the performance in question as "very funny," we doubt that will be nearly enough to discourage the legendarily hot-headed comedian from firing off another of his infamous open letters, in which he'll remind the Heroes star—as he did the NY Times after they published an editorial condemning his "leering Hawaiian" character in 50 First Dates—that being 50% Filipino gives the actor free reign to make his comic creations as bucktoothed and slanty-eyed as he wants them to be.