New TV Show: OUTSOURCED
Outsourced is a new show on NBC, which will air on September 23 in the US. The show is a comedy based on the cross-cultural interaction between an American manager and his Indian staff in a Mumbai call center. If you haven’t heard of the show, watch the trailer below to get a sense for the humor, which amounts to serious yet hysterical intercultural disaster (you’ll have to wait for the obligatory ad to play first).
The cultural faux pas and critical misunderstandings laden throughout the show are unfortunately so common to most everyone who has experienced outsourcing in India, they’ve called the attention of the US mass media.
How do you see this show impacting viewers’ cultural awareness? Is comedy an effective way to disseminate cultural perspectives and values? Do you predict the show will be popular or offensive?
Sean
I will not watch this show at all. I know a lot people who are right now unemployed due to outsourcing, and I can tell you, it is not a joke for them.
I too know people who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing, and I don’t see a lot of humor in it. And the trailer full of lowbrow ethnic stereotype jokes doesn’t make the show any more appealing. I don’t understand how shows like this make it past the focus groups. what’s next, a sitcom about Muslims who want to build a mosque in Manhattan??
I am interested in watching this show to see how the topic is handled; it could be very humorous, if done well. I wonder, though, if the American ever learns from his experiences. In this clip he is the archetypical “ugly American,” and I fear he will not be allowed to become more culturally-savvy, as that might be seen as detracting from the humor.
Outsourcing is not a humorous topic to people who have been replaced by less expensive foreign labor, nor to the people who must depend on communicating with them in order to get help or information. American workers in the north, south, east or west of the USA have enough stress trying to understand the cultural and language differences within our own country. And then, there is always the difficulties in communication between management and the rest of the work force. Not sure this show will be a big hit even though there may be some humorous circumstances.
Outsourcing is not a humorous topic but then so are scores of other topics like what’s hppening in Afganistan and the oil spill but you see scores of TV shows and comics making fun of the situation.
I dont see the reason why making people aware how outsourcing has affected people on both sides of the shore cant be conveyed in a humuros way.
Looks like it could be quite fun, I wouldn’t think about it as a serious discussion about the pros and cons of Outsourcing, that’s just the MacGuffin for a standard fish-out-of-water comedy.
However India is giant economy with a rich and diverse culture, it would be good to see that examined more on US TV, though I think the earlier comment about crude stereotypes might be closer to the mark. The plot might be hard to sustain over the course of several episodes, the growth of each character might be a bit limited it might actually work better as a film.
Besides I think Reuters was originally a London company so it a way we’re all outsourced workers in a way : )
well, I guess such a show can make some noise (it looks deliberately controversial). I mean that kind of noise potentially attracting useful reasoning. Anyway, outsourcing, offshoring and stereotypes are already in-place and running up. Hopefully try to laugh at evil can address some useful thinking.
I think you should wait and watch the show before making comments.
As a “survivor” where hundreds of high qualified DP professionals were terminated and replaced with “outsourcing” labor I am sure that no jokes about this matter will make me laugh; The stupidities that will be expressed here will make me sick. A good show should be about those who are struggling to paid their bills and thinking that they never will be able to find a job again in their profession.
It is a shame for my company, and a shame to CBS that instead of trying to bring the jobs back to America are joking about.
This is the way in which the masses will be indoctrinated to accept outsourcing as something ‘normal’ and ‘necessary’. My friend Juan will said……I am questioning myself if this is part of the promise “change”?. I hope not.
I hope this show fails miserably. It’s in very poor taste to make a show, a comedy no less, that makes fun of outsourcing. It just rubs salt in the wounds of those people who have lost jobs to incompetent outsourced companys. Generally the service is so bad its easy to see why it’s a comedy target but when so many people are losing jobs to outsourcing it just plain ignorant. I fail to see how a major network could green light this show in light of the employment and economic situations in this country.
Well I know it is a sore subject but it is what is really happening out there and I think this show is pretty funny! I need a good laugh by Thursday night these days.
i know this show is about outsourcing jobs from usa to india. you know that the purpose is to save money. its not the peoples fault in india. sometimes in life, you just have to make the best of any situation. take it with a grain of salt.