The most racist segment to air on Fox News in recent memory—and that’s saying a lot—got The Daily Show treatment Thursday night. And there was no one better to deliver the blows than Chinese correspondent Ronny Chieng.
It was on the regular “Watters’ World” segment of The O’Reilly Factor this week that Jesse Watters piled as many Asian stereotypes as he could find into one five-minute field piece that was vaguely inspired by China’s role in the first presidential debate. In a non-apology after the video segment blew up online, Watters said his interviews are “meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek,” adding, “I regret if anyone found offense.”
“Let me get this straight, they say China in the debate, so you go to Chinatown in New York? So when they mention Mexico, do you send someone to Taco Bell?” Chieng asked. “That’s like if they brought up women’s rights so I sent someone to Fox News to get some opinions.”
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As “dumb” as Watters’s initial premise was, Chieng said it “was nothing compared to the idiocy that followed.” Before playing a short clip from the segment, he had to explain to viewers that it was not a parody but the actual video that aired on Fox News.
In that clip, Watters asks an elderly man who clearly did not speak English if this was the “year of the dragon.” Chieng shot back: “No, it’s actually the year of go fuck yourself!”
“What the hell was that?” Chieng asked. “How was that on the news? In fact, how was that even on TV?” During this election cycle, he said, “Everyone’s been wondering who would be the target of 2016’s worst racism. I didn’t even know Asians were in the running!”
“If you’re going to be racist, at least get the stereotypes right, you ignorant sack of shit!” Chieng said. He explained that Watters was doing karate, which is Japanese, in a tae kwon do studio, which is Korean. “You fucking jack-off!”
“If you want to come at Chinese people, make fun of China’s high pollution or the fact that they censor the internet,” Chieng added. “Which in this case may actually be good thing, since no person in China will ever have to watch your garbage attempt at comedy.”
Chieng went on to inform the “asshole” Watters that the people in his video weren’t responding because they don’t speak English. “It’s easy to make fun of someone when they can’t respond,” he said. “Look, I’ll show you. Douchebag, why do you look like a guy who carries around a pack of roofies just in case? Why do you look like you have a hooker on speed dial? And is it hard to fit Bill O’Reilly’s entire scrotum in your mouth?”
To prove his point, Chieng went to Chinatown himself and interviewed people about the election in their own language. Not only did they have intelligent thoughts about the candidates to share, but they had even tougher words than Chieng for Jesse Watters.
For more, listen to Ronny Chieng on The Last Laugh podcast.
