Mindy Kaling on Accents and Apu

Sylvie Kim
August 4, 2008

Scroll to 1:24 to hear Mindy's amusing take on not knowing how to fake an Indian accent and using Apu from "The Simpsons" as her coach.

Much love to Mindy Kaling. In addition to acting on "The Office," she's also a writer and producer on the show and back in the early 2000s co-wrote and co-starred in the off-Broadway play "Matt and Ben", a send-up of the her fellow Bostonians' rise to fame.

I also stand with her in solidarity as another Asian American who is unable to imitate her parents' voices. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. 'Tis better than sounding like this:

Categories: 
TV
Contributor: 

Sylvie Kim

contributing editor & blogger

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.

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Comments

Comments

helloimcat wrote on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 1:46pm
Man, I am SO EXCITED that she writes for the show!!I always hated her character (maybe cuz she reminds me of girls I know), but I can get so excited for her now.
lisalee wrote on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 2:48pm
man, what was the context of that second video? why were the cameras focused on all these people that were just not amused?
erin wrote on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 1:58am
that was Dat Phan on (i think the first season of) Last Comic Standing. which is amazing, b/c he WON. how the hell? that was awful--and clearly even the white judges thought so. he does get better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isXuFTGtYvIbut seriously, how did he manage to make it to the next round 1st season? i didn't watch, so anybody know?
Asiana wrote on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 10:44am
I love Mindy's character on The Office and she's extra dope for being a comic writer, a position that is difficult for any women to be in. Kelly is a cool character because she's such a girly girl- not the token Asian girl or the foreign girl. She's just an American woman, who's Valley Girl tendencies make her wonderfully unbearable. Thanks for the clips, it's cool to see Mindy talk about issues that other Asian American actors may shy away from in fear of harming their career.
momo wrote on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 5:09pm
re: Dat Phan. i remember watching this season. i didn't think he was that funny but at the same time i can see why he won. some of his jokes are kinda funny. he does the whole parents-with-an-accent thing but not in an offensive way, at least not to me. what happened to him? i think other contestants on the show hated on him because he was totally not funny off stage.