I know this is coming fairly late, but this video recently resurfaced from the Internet depths a couple of days ago.

In an attempt to parody Beyonce's "Single Ladies", the Mixed Company of Yale University made its own music video titled "Single Asians". Beyonce fans out there will testify that "Single Ladies" is a song about female empowerment and sexual independence. Even I feel like slipping on a pair of heels and strutting my stuff when I hear this song.

However, Yale's attempt at satire fails pretty miserably. From the get go, "Single Asians" invokes every stereotype about Asian and Asian American culture.

Hypersexualizing and mystifying Asian womyn as the white man's geisha girl? Check.

Desexualizing Asians that pursue academics instead of sex/relationships? Of course!

Wrongfully likening the Asian body to Asian food (especially when a vagina doesn't look like sushi?) Why not?

Lining an entire stanza with ridiculous Orientalized acccents? You bet!

I must admit that the Mixed Company of Yale was pretty robust in their research. In a mere two minutes, these womyn were able to hit several different stereotypes currently held against Asian Americans. Now, I know what you're thinking: perhaps I'm taking this too seriously. Maybe I should lighten up and try to see the good in this. Maybe Yale was trying to dispel these stereotypes by showing off how ridiculous they are.

After all, Dave Chappelle made fun of black people. Why can't Asian Americans from Yale make fun of themselves and their cultures?

Well, the difference here is that Dave Chappelle is a professional comedian and this video is subpar at the very most. More to the point, this video offers no resolution in regards to understanding and deconstructing racist Asian stereotypes. Call me the odd man out, but I believe that we live in a media society where stereotypes just can't be left alone. Simply placing a stereotype on display for humor's sake is so passe.

What do the authors of this video expect us to do with this cavalcade of racist lyrics? There's nothing to really glean from this video. The stereotypes invoked here have been in circulation for over a century now. Any American that has been exposed to mass media has also been exposed to Asian American stereotypes. These stereotypes are easily recognizable and can be linked back to their perpetuation in American films, TV shows, advertisements, and songs.

As suggested earlier, maybe the authors want us to recognize the ridiculous nature of each stereotype. In doing so, people will refrain from invoking such stereotypes in the near future. Yet, I have to argue that this video doesn't offer a means to do just that. The stereotypes are never visualized or parodied hard enough to illustrate their fraility.

Humor and satire is a funny thing. In order to be good at satire, you have to push your concept to the brink of absurdity. True satire is able to take a concept and flip it completely in order to show its weaknesses. If you fail to do that, the satire never takes full effect. Instead, your efforts simply highlight the concept for what it is. In regards to racial humor, comedians that are terrible at satire simply come off as being racist. This is the primary argument that is held against Dave Chappelle. Is he being absurd enough not to be racist?

In regards to the Mixed Company of Yale, their portrayal of Asian stereotypes is not absurd at all. When I watched this video over and over, I realized one thing: the singers are just telling me about the stereotypes. There's nothing really clever going on here. When you take away the song and dance, the womyn in this video are just running a laundry list. What about Asian womyn and the geisha girl image? You may have referenced it, but you have done nothing to show why it's a terrible stereotype. Unless you know the hystories behind each stereotype, these lyrics can be easily misinterpreted at face value.

Also, the parodying of Beyonce makes no sense here. Why did the Mixed Company of Yale choose "Single Ladies"? What is the logical bridge here that makes us believe that by parodying a song about female empowerment, we will better understand the racial and gender obstacles Asian womyn face on a daily basis? Why not highlight the positive features Asian womyn have while using Beyonce's song?

Beyonce's song is powerful because it focuses on the liberation of womyn from the patriarchal notion of females as property.

When individuals suggest that this video be taken lightly, what exactly are we taking lightly? There is no humor in this video. Apart from the song and dance (which are mediocre replicas of Beyonce's work), the lyrics aren't nearly clever enough. The compression quality of this video is poor and the editing is even off kilter. Everything about this video is pretty bad.

Mixed Company of Yale, this wasn't funny.