My Canadian friend told me to check out Russell Peters because he was really funny. However not knowing him at all it just wasn’t a priority for me. Until one night my friend came to my apartment and we started watching part of his show. In the end we watch almost all of it (minus some parts with swearing, to avoid my son hearing them at 3).
He was right, he’s the funniest comedian I’ve ever seen (though I don’t know that many comedians). His particular type of humor though, is perfect for my sensibilities. He is a Canadian of Indian origins, so his jokes revolve around non-American people, their language and culture.
But he doesn’t just invent jokes to make fun of us, he learns about the many different cultures and contrast it with American culture. For example, he talks about how Asian parents beat their children whereas American ones don’t. Or about how cheap Indian people are.
He also has a talent for imitating other languages and accents. His Indian accent is obvious, but never fails to make me laugh. His Cantonese accent is my favorite though, anything he says in that accent just makes me laugh hysterically. He can also imitate other languages, even though he doesn’t speak them. His Italian sounded very good, as did his African. All of these appealed to my family (between my wife and I, we know Italian, Chinese, English, a little bit of African languages).
Here are the shows we’ve watched.
- Comedy Now (2004): the first one we watched, one of the funniest. Much about different races and many good accents. South Africa, Italy, Hong Kong, Indian… Asian parents beating their kids…
- Show Me The Funny! (1997): this being an older show, he had a few good jokes, but he wasn’t totally focused on multi-cultural jokes, and the other jokes weren’t that funny.
- Outsourced (2006): this one repeats a few of the good jokes from Show Me the Funny, but it has many more funny ones. Definitely as funny as Comedy Now.
- Red, White and Brown (2008): this is the most recent show, and it might be the funniest yet. It’s long, but he keeps the laughs coming.
If you’ve never seen Russell Peters, I suggest to watch it as soon as you can.
Rating: 4 Stars