Comments on: How Does A Recent Chinese Immigrant (And Comedian) See Us? Maybe More Clearly Than We See Ourselves …

By: Keith Cody

Keith Cody — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:17:52 +0000

Joe Wong (黄西, Huáng Xī) is a funny comedian. He follows many of the common rules are mainly timing, precision, synthesis, and rhythm. Get the most joke, with the least words. Use the words precisely.

His joke about running for president follows all of these.
What would your campaign slogan be. I spent 10 years in the past decade. (pause) Oh, you too.

If you listen, most of his jokes follow “omne trium perfectum”, or the rules of 3 in joke telling.

The fact that he’s not a native English speaker shows that the rules of comedy are universal.

By: Ashley Tyra

Ashley Tyra — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:42:33 +0000

Who Cares!

Joe Wong was absolutely hilarious. He did a great job of poking fun at America in an enlightened way. I love his campaign for president. He will cure natural causes of death – but it won’t be covered by health insurance because of preexisting conditions. I can’t begin to imagine speaking like Joe did in front of Chinese officials. It would take an extremely talented comedian to win over the Chinese like Joe won us over. I would love to see it if someone has already tried.

By: Fred S.

Fred S. — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:39:03 +0000

If you are going to tell to the truths that people avoid, you better make them laugh or expect to get some grief. Joe Wong was great at this. Hilarious! I wish he had kept going. He definitely made the people laugh about some sensitive material. I am glad they laughed about it. How is the humor in China? Would the leaders there get the same kind of kick out of an American comedian? “Who cares!”

By: Georgia

Georgia — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:48:16 +0000

I thought when he was joking about Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize he made some true and really funny points. I liked his punch at Sarah Palin, “I can see Russia from my backyard.” I thought his humor was current (with the text messaging jokes) but also hit truth. I think it is rare for comedians to have this mixture. Also when he ended with, “I wish my son knew what I was doing right now,” you could hear the pride in his voice for his accomplishment, which was very well deserved.

By: Jeffrey Brown

Jeffrey Brown — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:05:26 +0000

Joe Wong for President! That was hilarious, and very truthful in some regards even as well. I have a feeling an American doing this to Chinese officials would not go over as well, are there any videos of anyone out there daring enough to do so?

By: Charles Dornbush

Charles Dornbush — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:00:53 +0000

Very funny satire of some of the issues with America. Global warming, unemployment, the World Series, all topical and still funny. He made fun of the president and vice president but also himself and his home country. I can’t imagine anyone from America comedian going to China and doing this. If someone did I would imagine it being more mean-spirited and not executed as well as Joe Wong did.

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:22:28 +0000

I think it was great to see Joe Biden have to laugh at his own expense. I don’t know how old he is, but he has picked up on a lot of our subtle flaws. Yeah, why is it the world series when we’re the only ones playing? Pretty narcissistic.
The solution to global warming was priceless…

By: Daniel Fleek

Daniel Fleek — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:40:54 +0000

haha that was really funny. I liked watching how differently the attendees reacted to his jokes. Sometimes, some of the people looked annoyed, but overall, all of his jokes were pretty funny. I really enjoyed the text message jokes and the marriage jokes. I was especially impressed with Biden and his ability to laugh off a joke about him. If this scenario was flipped around and held in China, I feel like the crowd would not find most of the things he says as funny.

By: Vladimir

Vladimir — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:21:12 +0000

After watching the video, I can’t really tell how Joe Wong sees us. I was hoping to hear more jokes that could only have been written by a new Chinese immigrant, but many jokes sounded as though they could have come from someone else. He kept it light, but he had a difficult job to do – delivering material that he and the audience would find funny. I can appreciate how difficult it is to do a comedy show in front of the vice president of another country.

By: Kevin K.

Kevin K. — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:06:47 +0000

Hilarious. Obviously smart comedians like Joe are too few and far between. He had some great jabs at the president, America, and our relationship with China. When one thinks of China, I don’t imagine they imagine a country ripe with comedians, which makes what Joe did in his speech that much more amazing. I could not imagine myself speaking to Chinese officials in such a way … I just imagine I would never be heard from again …