South Asian stereotyping meets SNL
A review of Bollywood Shenanigans’ I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Chicken.
By Kyle Benning
[news editor]
What do you get when you mix Russell Peters with Saturday Night Live? You get a show like the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Chicken series. The latest installment, The Butter Chicken’s Back . . . Alright!, focused on having a comedic perspective on a number of social stereotypes in the South Asian community.
The performance was put on by South Asian Arts and Bollywood Shenanigans and was written by Leena Manro and Munish Sharma, two key players in all of the sketches.
From raging aunties who harass their nephew’s girlfriend with questions, to a Surrey jack who puts on a different personality to pick up women, Manro and Sharma covered a variety of characters that are identifiable in the average Indian family.
The situations that Manro and Sharma had set up were clichéd, but the drunken CBC studio audience seemed to appreciate the effort they put into it.
Personally, it looked to me as if the actors and actresses were trying a little too hard for a laugh.
However, it was a local act and considering the ticket was only $20, I didn’t have very high expectations.
But you get what you pay for, and I’m sure Bollywood Shenanigans will be back for another edition of this series.
