TV globalized

After our discussion in class and reading Chiara Ferrari’s article “Dabbing The Simpsons: How Groundkeeper Willie List His Kilt in Sardinia” which discusses how TV shows such as the Simpsons are altered to fit specific cultures to appeal to a particular audience, I couldn’t help but think about last year’s show “Outsourced”  on ABC.  It is about young man who had his whole company outsourced to India, so he would wither have to be without a job or go to India.  He ends of going and slowly adapts to the culture.  Even though this is a network trying to multicultural for the sake of advertising revenue, reputation, etc., the show is very Americanized.  I do not feel liking I am watching a Bollywood film, or learning about Indian culture.  The main character is Todd  and all of his workers speak perfect English, laugh at American jokes which would be unlikely to understand, and worst of all, brings to light the outsourcing problem here in the U.S. which is doing nothing but hurting the economy, and putting Americans out of work.  Besides that, the main character is American and if there is an issue it is concerning him and nobody else.  Which makes me think if the character was Indian, would that attract a large audience here in the U.S?  Would the Simpsons be popular in Italy if Homer was Black for instance, or if Duff Beer in the Arabized meditation of the Simpsons was a bottle of Vodka supposed to ordinary pop.  This author argues that in order to appeal to the audiences, it needs to appeal to the pop-culture of that particular society.  This may include the stereotypes in our society that brings to light the otherness of some characters.  Here in America is isn’t hard to find a drunk and therefore in our version of the Simpson, the drunk, or Barmy in this case burps and slurs his words often.  This same concept across cultures, people has interest in laughing at otherness and singling out others by stereotypes which is the cream of the crop for pop-culture.