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Broadway Bill Lee uses Asian stereotype on the air (Audio)

gr8oldies said:
Is it a story in the New York media, or did the bit fly by so quickly most people missed it?
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If it's in New York media, has anyone posted a link? I haven't seen one. All I see is an aircheck.

michael hagerty said:
But I think the only people who really have a say in where this goes should be the AAPI community. That’ll be a dialogue between them, Bill and Audacy management.
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Has a complaint been filed? I did a search, and from what I see, there is no complaint. Until a formal complaint has been filed, there will be no action. If you look at previous situations with radio talent, it begins with someone filing a legal complaint, either with the station or the FCC. People don't get fired over a discussion on an internet message board.
 
Tibbs4 said:
Did Bill get fired?

What Bill did was try to be funny. It was out of taste and wrong. In context for the humor he has been used too, especially from “his era,” it is no different than Jim Carrey and his Fire Marshall Bill in an Asian Restaurant skit from In Living Color. Today, things are different. For sure. What allegedly happened with Dan Taylor was multi-level issues that were not attempts at humor. Two different situations. Should Bill be fired? Make a public apology and use it as a way to bridge the communities hurt by things like this?
I know one thing. Bill did not intend to hurt anybody. He is known for thinking these breaks up in the minutes before he executes them. I have presented all the facts that I know on this break and Bill’s context. The comments above are all valid personal reactions. Would anyone on here stand up for Bill? Or are we at the point of one strike/out? Just wanted to put this out there for further discussion.
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I get it this type of stuff was from a different era. But the context has to be included here too if one party is going to verify the allegations.
 
michael hagerty said:
As I said, I think Bill is a tremendous talent and one of my favorite jocks.

I also noted his #StopAsianHate hashtag on his social media posts.

But I think the only people who really have a say in where this goes should be the AAPI community. That’ll be a dialogue between them, Bill and Audacy management.
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Hi Michael. Happy Saturday. I noticed the same hashtag with Bill. The man is one of the most loyal and kind hearted “kids” in the business. That is the real issue. He is a kid. Which is his winning attribute. Lovable and loved. There is zero chance he meant this as anything other than humor. Not at all a slam on anyone. It was just really, really a bad choice. He has to be feeling horrible. I know he is. I may reach out to him next week.
 
I haven't seen ANY coverage of this anywhere, even on social media where it usually spreads quickly. And CBS FM is a very popular station. Did an entire audience seriously not even notice it?
 
it's very tough to do any sort of content on radio these days, as the general public is way too sensitive! It doesn't matter what kind of humor is done, there is always someone who gets offended! Sad world we live in!
 
Radioman50 said:
it's very tough to do any sort of content on radio these days, as the general public is way too sensitive! It doesn't matter what kind of humor is done, there is always someone who gets offended! Sad world we live in!
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Calling out racist stereotypes for what they are is not being too sensitive. It is offensive, and if one can’t do humor without such tropes, they’re in the wrong line of work.
 
Radioman50 said:
it's very tough to do any sort of content on radio these days, as the general public is way too sensitive! It doesn't matter what kind of humor is done, there is always someone who gets offended! Sad world we live in!
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I agree that sensitivity is at a peak; some is warranted and some is exaggerated.

Another example: With so much of what we buy now made in China and so many of the instruction manuals written in very strange English, it is hard not to find humor in the mistaken word usages. I got a computer item today that had amazingly unintelligible instructions, and can see why this might be a source of humor. But there is the risk that bad English be construed as an offense towards Asians and making "Chingrish" jokes today might be very risky.

Heck, even using that term I put in quotes will likely offend someone. Nearly everything today offends someone.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I agree that sensitivity is at a peak; some is warranted and some is exaggerated.

Another example: With so much of what we buy now made in China and so many of the instruction manuals written in very strange English, it is hard not to find humor in the mistaken word usages. I got a computer item today that had amazingly unintelligible instructions, and can see why this might be a source of humor. But there is the risk that bad English be construed as an offense towards Asians and making "Chingrish" jokes today might be very risky.

Heck, even using that term I put in quotes will likely offend someone. Nearly everything today offends someone.
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I've seen examples of badly translated product labels like "tastes like Grandma". (never, ever use Google Translate for professional translations.)
 
gr8oldies said:
I've seen examples of badly translated product labels like "tastes like Grandma". (never, ever use Google Translate for professional translations.)
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One relative in particular buys electronics for all the kids in the family from Amazon without realizing much of it comes directly from Asian companies and manufacturers. It's always fun trying to put that stuff together or getting it to work considering the missing words, misspellings, obvious mistranslations and the like. Somehow we always get it all to work...At least the way we think it's supposed to.
 
I once worked at an ad agency that had the Electrolux vacuum cleaners account. The Readers Digest salesperson brought me an Electrolux ad that had run in Readers Digest. The headline was, "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux." We later found out it had run in the South African edition of Readers Digest. So yes, terms mean different things in different countries. I still have a framed copy of the ad in my office.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I once worked at an ad agency that had the Electrolux vacuum cleaners account. The Readers Digest salesperson brought me an Electrolux ad that had run in Readers Digest. The headline was, "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux." We later found out it had run in the South African edition of Readers Digest. So yes, terms mean different things in different countries. I still have a framed copy of the ad in my office.
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Hey, until the 60s, that ad could have run here.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I once worked at an ad agency that had the Electrolux vacuum cleaners account. The Readers Digest salesperson brought me an Electrolux ad that had run in Readers Digest. The headline was, "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux." We later found out it had run in the South African edition of Readers Digest. So yes, terms mean different things in different countries. I still have a framed copy of the ad in my office.
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Wow, there are two separate negative inferences in that one, the "sucks" meaning it's horribly bad.... and the other one.
 
boombox4 said:
Wow, there are two separate negative inferences in that one, the "sucks" meaning it's horribly bad.... and the other one.
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The first recorded usage of "suck" as in "this sucks" (horribly bad) wasn't until 1971, and like most phrases in the pre-internet age, it took a while to gain traction. You could probably have gotten "Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux" past Middle America until the mid-70s. Some of their teenage kids would have snickered, but they're not the ones buying the vacuum cleaner.

"The other one" has been around (the phrase, not the act) since 1928---but again, if June Cleaver ever thought of that while reading an advertising tagline, letting on that she got the reference was simply not done.
 
michael hagerty said:
The first recorded usage of "suck" as in "this sucks" (horribly bad) wasn't until 1971, and like most phrases in the pre-internet age, it took a while to gain traction. You could probably have gotten "Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux" past Middle America until the mid-70s. Some of their teenage kids would have snickered, but they're not the ones buying the vacuum cleaner.
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That ad campaign was actually used in the UK in the '60s and '70s, where the American slang meaning of "sucks" hadn't taken hold yet. But they kept using that slogan until the '90s, by which time the pun was intentional:

adland.tv

Nothing sucks like an ad myth

adland.tv adland.tv
 
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