I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn’t help us when it silences us.
Political correctness sometimes does great work when it helps equalize the playing field when it comes to language, but it does a great disservice when it tries to silence a person of color.
White fragility! White people are so sensitive about race and racial conversations. I feel like I’m always walking on eggshells when I’m around white people.
That’s the nature of comedy – you always want to be improving and growing and changing with what’s happening in the world. That’s when comedy is most effective.
People are so sensitive about race that they can’t hear someone speaking about their life in a very true way, or doing satire or political parody.
It makes it very hard to say what you believe in and not be attacked for it. And it’s not fair; I’m Korean, but I’m not supposed to talk about my experience and my life? It’s unaccepting.
As a comedian you are making yourself vulnerable in order to make others happy.
Homophobia is a tough one. In some places it’s actually very OK to be homophobic. Comedy clubs in general are very unsafe spaces for LGBT, for women, for Asian people. So my goal in comedy has sort of been to make this a safe space for people who were like me.
Comedy is a noble art. And every comedian who does anything is serving a noble purpose.
I’ve always wanted to have tattoos. I grew up around people who were very tattooed. It’s a self-expression thing; it’s also helped me claim my body as my own. So I think it’s really positive. It’s really joyful.
I’ve always been an ajumma, but when you get older, the culture we were brought up in works in our favor where aging is good, combatting the Hollywood idea that aging is bad. I’m very grateful for that.
Comedy is the only weapon I have to battle totalitarianism.
I love Wilco’s “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” Nels Cline has that weird guitar slide at the beginning and the song is whispered actually.
I voice my opinions on social media and I have people threatening me with violence. It is troubling but I can fight back, which is good.
I was about 17 or 18 and there were a lot of clubs and dancing. It was the beginning of rave culture and a lot of ecstasy. Because of all the drugs, there are certain songs that make me feel high.
This was an era where I was going out every night seeing Sparks, Berlin, Duran Duran, and Split Enz. Amazing acts doing really weird stuff, and I was very open to music and letting it transform me.
I get a lot from great ’90s artists like Juliana Hatfield, The Pixies, and bands like That Dog and The Breeders.
People have a lot of shame and suffering around it and I felt that the best thing I could do was to share my experiences, which I have been doing for a long time, and let people know that of all the things that I’ve endured.
Your goal is to write that masterpiece. Yello’s masterpiece was “Oh Yeah.” Whatever I say about the song doesn’t matter, because it has a huge impact on how we remember the era.
Christ’s purpose was to really show how everyone can be loved and how everyone should be loved and accepted.