Asian Americans: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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Published on June 7, 2021

John Oliver discusses the large and diverse group of people who fall under the term “Asian American”, the history of the model minority stereotype, and why our conversations on the subject need to be better-informed.

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85 comments

  • Kamil Krupiński 3 years ago

    So… The American dream moved from “Give me your tired, your poor…” to “Give me your well-off and educated (often on state-funded universities in countries of origin), and let us use them to pretend it`s not our fault that our tired and poor stay tired and poor”.

    Reply
  • Remer714 3 years ago

    9:38 – big oof.

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  • superkjell 3 years ago

    I’m not an American, but I still know a bunch of Asian-Americans. Off the top of my head: Olivia Munn, Jerry Yang, Justin Lin, Sung Kang, Nikki Hailey….

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  • CoronelPanic 3 years ago

    missed a perfectly good Joe Mama joke there

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  • Shashwat Srivastava 3 years ago

    Or we could just start calling the other white people as European Americans to bring balance to America. Nobody gets to be called Just-American… Oh wait, we call them Native American already

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  • Imperial Officer 3 years ago

    Does it matter what you identify as though

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  • Will Not 3 years ago

    One experience is the political one where you fight for even harsher punishments for weed users whilst using weed yourself

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  • Jahn Alexander 3 years ago

    Instead of doing countless episodes on the difficulties of different minorities, why not just do one on the seeming need to oppress of whites?

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  • Bob bobson 3 years ago

    1:53 white people on TV? Maybe own that British accent a bit more, white people on TV didn’t rape India for 150 years and use illicit opium to accidentally engineer the bloodiest civil war in human history.

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  • Shed Show 3 years ago

    ItS aLmOsT LiKe We ShOuLdNt uSe RaCe aS IdEnTiTy

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  • ZER0 C00L 3 years ago

    What if people considerd their vicepresident not as “asian-american” but simply as american?

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  • Tyler Keller 3 years ago

    I watch Jon Oliver and Watch Mojo so YouTube recommended a top 20 Jon Oliver moments on Watch Mojo.

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  • Ar Jay 3 years ago

    Leave it to a white guy to bring up Andrew Yang, the one person who’s been smashing Asian stereotypes left and right, breaking the bamboo ceiling in multiple places, achieving things no other Asian American ever has, including outlasting sitting senators, congressmen, and other career politicians in a presidential run and raising tens of millions of dollars from a broad spectrum of small donors in every state of the union, and only mention this tiny, to most people fairly insignificant side of his personality. Not to mention that you gave his historical presidential run exactly zero attention, outside of a denigrating comment here and there. You were one of the first people, John, to ever make me aware of Asian racism, and it wasn’t with this piece. #AsianErasure #StillDoingIt

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  • Dephside 3 years ago

    last years it seems the only thing we are talking about is about race , its getting annoying
    we are all fcking humans on the same fcking planet

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  • Joshua Crawford 3 years ago

    Asian American is bad because because it is so broad…but African American is 100% fine even blacks who did not come from Africa. JOHN OLIVER IS A RACIST IMPERIALIST

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  • Mehul Koshti 3 years ago

    Lmao to the Upper Caste Indians who discriminate against lower caste and play victim in America. (Not mentioned in the video)

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  • Ajinkya Bhushan 3 years ago

    it is funny that I get this lesson from a British American citizen which ruled over India.

    to be honest everyone everywhere is racist it is no white people are bad or black people are bad.

    infact you see in all Asian countries we have discrimination against each other. Chinese hate Japanese / Indian hate Pakistani.

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  • 2wolodja 3 years ago

    In case you were looking for the purposely wrong fact: 22:22

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  • Elan Morin Tedronai 3 years ago

    US: Work hard and become something someday
    AA: *exists*
    US: You’re working too hard, you’re making white guys look bad

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  • Weltfenos 3 years ago

    As the son of a Vietnam veteran, all I have known was stereotypes of asian Americans (among others).

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  • Sheriff Saliu 3 years ago

    The first Asian that came to my mind was Kumail Nanjiani, but I guess that’s because I am currently watching Silicon Valley.

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  • PaperiLiidokki 3 years ago

    Ahh America true country of the free and the brave…

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  • Enrique J. Beltran 3 years ago

    Who’s a well known joe?
    Joe momma.

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  • abcshime 3 years ago

    Props to you John Oliver for shedding light on this

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  • PARAGON_916 3 years ago

    shoulda said Joe momma

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  • EcchiRevenge 3 years ago

    Ironic, John Oliver is part of the problem by regurgitating white supremacist message of “muh uyghur genosyd.”

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  • Isaiah Pinkerton 3 years ago

    As an AAPI going into medicine, I hate the assumption that I want to be rich or that my parents pushed me into it, making me feel disingenuous or that I’m making feable excuses to live the “good life”. Those things do happen, but those are the wrong reasons to go into medicine.

    I love my country, community, and want to serve low SES and POC, because its the right thing to do. Because medical workers should emphathize with patients and know what their going through. We need representation for the right reasons.

    If you want to be rich, go into business or get a CS degree.

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  • Dr.Gaming98 3 years ago

    The dislikes were from people who still think T**** is president

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  • Lauren Doe 3 years ago

    Any label tends to be overly board – such as the term “White American.” This White American could come from almost anywhere in the world; Europe of course, but Russia, South Africa and Australia also come immediately to mind.

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  • Colechamdiceman 3 years ago

    To make points that 93% of the people need to pay ‘proper’ attention to 7% of the people in 2021 he’s forced to play clips from literally almost 40 years ago… Yeah >.>

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  • Commander Appo CC-1119 3 years ago

    Why did he not make a Joe Mamma joke at the beginning

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  • pepperjack77 3 years ago

    About 10 years late on that assessment

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  • Vardek Petrovic 3 years ago

    I hope this show never goes back to having an live audience. It is so much better without the morons interrupting the flow. Also the bombastic and flamboyant end of show ceremonies added nothing to the old format.

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  • Dennis Barnes 3 years ago

    Can you just be american!
    Whats the problem with that?
    If we want every american to equal to each other maybe we should stop categorizing people.

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  • FIrst Last 3 years ago

    so is he going to revisit his words regarding the lab leak hypothesis? has he done this already? in 2020, he was aggressively dismissive.

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  • yfs 3 years ago

    There needs to be an episode about company logos and their oversimplification

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  • caranorn 3 years ago

    John, you should know better than to use the term race for human beings. Scientifically there is no such thing. Race in relation to humans is the very basis of racism and discrimination.

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  • Hawkenwhacker 3 years ago

    America, does indeed, say a lot about how Asian’s look very similar. While at the same time, many Americans actually go out of their way to pay money for plastic surgery in order to look exactly like someone else. Now that is a distorted image.

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  • Samuel Mueller 3 years ago

    Is it obvious Kamala Harris is part asian? Because I definitely wasn’t aware.

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  • Chris meets west 3 years ago

    The Joe Rogan clip is from episode #1135 with Ari Shaffir. Discussing Asian discrimination at Harvard. Look it up for context and stop trying to cancel Joe.

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  • T Mc 3 years ago

    “those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.” This country was founded on prejudice and racism with minute improvements, followed by bloody periods of fear and hatred. We may focus on the treatment of Black Americans as the most horrific, but that should not negate the murder, exploitation of all the others.. For every “self made man” in our past there are thousands of corpses under his feet.

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  • Hand Bannana 3 years ago

    As always an incomplete story. Who is committing the current string of anti asian hate crimes? We hear a united message from the media that orange man said china virus so slack jawed white racists are assaulting asian people but all you have to do is track down the videos to see the trend. Videos that the media is not going to show you because they do not support the narrative. The whole point of this coordinated campaign by the propaganda arm of the democratic party is to cast all minority groups as victims and use that designation to secure a greater percentage of the votes in that group. Interesting that they are focusing on asian americans while simultaneously denying them access to the most prestigious of their reeducation camps like Harvard simply because of their race. The real insult is that they think Asians are stupid enough to fall for it.

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  • DJ Ash 3 years ago

    Americans a history of Racism

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  • Eli Wolkenstein 3 years ago

    25:49 he complains about how it’s unfair Asians are out into a general box yet spend the entire episode complaining about “white people”- the biggest box there is

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  • Marrothefirst 3 years ago

    Sometimes I think last week tonight is too liberal

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  • spectorofcomm 3 years ago

    I stan Kareem. It would be awesome if they found a way to include in every episode for the rest of the season now.

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  • George Wu 3 years ago

    Thank you John

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  • Naganachiketh Chinnamuttevi 3 years ago

    thanks for including indian americans as asian americans. we are often overlooked when thinking about asians. we happen to be a part of asia too.

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  • Jesse Moneyhun 3 years ago

    Does anyone have the source video for the clip at 25:11? Amazing explanation and delivery

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  • Hans Lain 3 years ago

    “Give me knowledge, so I may have kindness for all. ” Native American Proverb

    Something that should resonate will everyone.

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  • Fylas 3 years ago

    I might not know who the bhutanese are, but i sure as hell know one thing. I have absolutely no clue who those 3 guys shown after them were!

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  • Impuritan 3 years ago

    What is it with John and mascots? He thinks they’re all so f*ckable and I’m just not seeing it! Besides this thirsty bee of course

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  • The Krucifix 3 years ago

    Hey John, what about American American … you know, those who are BORN in the US, which makes them AMERICAN, not (Race/Nation) American!

    I absloutly dare you to do a piece on the use of the term (SOMETHING) American instead of just American.

    I believe if one has to try to include some other country/region/race with being an American, that is being racist!

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  • J Mer 3 years ago

    The music for the clip at six minutes was full of racist tropes

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  • Xeno christ 3 years ago

    this shit is the funniest goddamn shit i have ever seen in my fucking life.

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  • trueherbsman 3 years ago

    who comes up with
    that shit they say
    term coiners on a path
    of deliberate wordplay
    changing parlance
    inventing new slang
    means to identify
    which bitches allowed
    to hang by the gang

    Reply
  • Clemence Kopeikin 3 years ago

    While this video makes a lot of excellent points, no mention of the colonization of Guam and the Philippines is totally unacceptable. You’re contributing to the white-washing of history.

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  • Galactis 3 years ago

    Americans know all about how to terribly treat Japanese Americans 1942.

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  • Odio 3 years ago

    Anyone else remember only a year ago when it was okay to attack Asians because they were considered by the Left to be the Republicans lap dogs? What about when the Left, responsible for creating the clan, blamed the Right for their actions? All I’m saying is as long as we’re attacking one another we’re never going to take out the people, who on several occasions, supported, funded, and bused a bunch of domestic terrorists (Antifa and Burn Loot Murder), and have already stated in advance that they want to destroy America. Still, by all means, please do continue to blame whitey for everything…just like every Socialist/Communist will tell you, once you eat the rich, whoever is next in line becomes the new rich to eat until everyone is equally poor and starving ie. when whitey is gone Asians are going to be the next ones on the chopping block.

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  • bacchusacolyte 3 years ago

    Um, so saying asians are the best etgnic group is white supremacy but attacking the first serious Asian candidate for NYC major is totally ok… hmmm.

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  • Chris Sabal 3 years ago

    “Good” stereotypes are still stereotypes and therefore have very real consequences. These consequences are usually much more nuanced and hard to understand than those that result from negative stereotypes.

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  • My Quarantine Life Crisis 3 years ago

    Were any of my cousins going to tell me that there was video footage of Jollibee twerking to Fifth Harmony?

    Or was i supposed to find out from a white man?

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  • Eric Saxon 3 years ago

    10:26 John Oliver speaks about how each group of Asian Americans felt this behavior but fails to remember that the Poles, Italians, Irish, Hungarians, Jews, Russians, went through the same bullshit in the East as the Asian Americans went through in the West.

    Immigrants get such shitty treatment in EVERY country, so much so, that it isn’t much of a discussion anywhere outside of Europe and North America. The only difference is that White Europeans and White Americans give a shit about the abuse of their immigrants more than people in East Asia, Mid-East and Africa, where racism and abuse are just normalized and not deemed worthy of a discussion or ethical consideration.

    So, if your complaint of being a minority in America is such an emotional burden, do understand that your valid complaints don’t compare to the degrees of being a minority in China, Japan, South Korea, India, Quatar, Nigeria, Ethiopia or Zimbabwe.

    And yes, I know what being a minority and an immigrant is like, I’ve got a chance to experience it.

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  • Reagan Kohler 3 years ago

    When I looked at covid stats, it broke up by the kind of asian, and it showed chinese people below the american average infection rate, but pacific islanders as about double the national average

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  • Phrasing : 3 years ago

    so 38% of people said something else in the survey? so 58% of americans can name a famous asian american? you guys left out more than a third of the survey.

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  • Santiago Mejia 3 years ago

    its so sweet to see john tryin to explain to americans that asians are from all of asia, to a country that thinks america refers only to them xD

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  • Matthew Magda 3 years ago

    “reductive and superficial” is the best description I’ve heard.

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  • Colin Daly 3 years ago

    While your jokes and historical context are lovely: How in the fervent hell did you forget Joe Exotic for the Joe bit?

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  • eb103 3 years ago

    The carrie bradshaw joke is in poor taste. Really writers that’s the best you can do?

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  • Big Shev 3 years ago

    This fucking show is always right on with so many different topics! See yall at the john Oliver shit plant!

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  • Jimi Lee 3 years ago

    I spent my teens in Hawaii in the 70s. Not a lot different than Philadelphia, where I was, and other northern cities in the 60s, only with a variety of Asians rather than Europeans.

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  • WalmyMiltone 3 years ago

    I stopped it at 10:11. Need to find out about those surviving Chinese men from the Titanic and the racist bastards that kicked them out of the country. #WTF #ThereIsNoRacismInAmerica

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  • Ñate-o 3 years ago

    I didn’t even set foot in American but this gave me chills

    But damnnnnnnnnn Jollibee drizzle me with your ketchup and gravy

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  • dennisjcny 3 years ago

    I’m so glad John is around to let me know who I have been racist towards every week. Im sorry asians for being such a racist to you! Please tell me who i should donate some money to.

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  • Salman Khan 3 years ago

    would have gone for “Joe Momma”

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  • 7 Time YouTube Outlaw 3 years ago

    Now, is John going to be honest about this violence? Or is he going to scapegoat “wht supremacy” and or “Trump” instead of the people actually responsible? Hmm. I know my guess.

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  • Jeo3l 3 years ago

    Add to the Japanese concentration camp: When they were sent to the camps, their houses and possessions were taken by their white neighbors

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  • Sam Oliver 3 years ago

    You forgot the most important Joe.

    Joe mama

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  • nicholas schoonbeck 3 years ago

    I gotta say, in highschool, one time a year, the seniors would donate a car to be destroyed by students. You’d pay like 3$ to hit it & it was pretty fun. No racism tho of course.

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  • 7 Time YouTube Outlaw 3 years ago

    No one will pretend internment camps were the right choice. HOWEVER, when more came out than went in because their lives weren’t being threatened, and this is directly compared to the same period were we legitimately did have one of the most disturbing atrocities in recent human history, well its very easy to put into focus. Oops, I meant, “wahahaha murica!! Listen to this foreign immigrant whos made his whole career from the opportunity he has in the US cry about how awful the US was decades ago so must be today.”

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  • J Cook 3 years ago

    Back towards the center, Oliver. Never dive too deep with collectivist nonsense.

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  • Denny Maple 3 years ago

    Love one another the same as your self

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  • Dermatillomaniac 3 years ago

    Clicking on the video like, ok, what am I going to learn enough about to be outraged today?

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  • Joe Jazwinski 3 years ago

    you left out Joe smoe, and cup of.

    Reply
  • jay wang 3 years ago

    I’m asian american and I didnt even know an asian american from the us lmao

    Reply

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