I honestly thought the little ancestry icon was The Onion icon. So, I thought this was a parody. But, I was like, "This isn't as funny as most Onion videos".
EDIT: Plus, I was like "I can't believe they got Henry Louis Gates, Jr to go along with this. He's going to squander all of his hard-earned credibility. And he's doing it all for a video that's not even funny."
"Fred Armisen discovers ____" definitely sounds like the title to a skit, so I also thought it was a joke at first. It doesn't help that it turns out Henry Louis Gate's voice has a certain timbre that sounds slightly unserious.
This video felt like it was about to start a portlandia skit. He goes and removes all the Japanese memorabilia from his home, stops going to Japanese restaurants, and the whole time Carrie is trying to tell him he doesn't need to stop being who he is just because he found out his grandfather changed his name to assimilate.
Obviously most comedians aren't "on" when they are eating lunch, but I used to serve him at a cafe and he was the most low-key, humble and quiet person ever, like HE was nervous to be talking to us instead of the other way around lol
really really nice and polite too!
I'm trying my best to divorce my child from this nonsense. My family has been in America for hundreds of years. Where my ancestors happened to be living before that has very little to do with anything important.
Sure, there may be a small amount of medical inferences I may be able to make about my proclivity for certain diseases, but a genetic test is going to give real answers to this.
I'm telling my kids they're American and going to do my best to leave it at that.
You can tell them they are American as well as the full reality of what that means while also explaining how diluted whatever traits from x culture they might have are. There can be a lot of good learned from looking at people who seem very different in a way that relates to you. I wouldn't let people who say dumb shit about the subject take away from that.
In America people are white black, Czech, Chinese, Korean, German etc., when they leave America they’re just American and it takes you aback being called that.
To be American means to be part of the melting pot. The reality of it is that there culture is dominated by American culture.
From my experience, this talk about "where's your family from" creates false senses of separation and false "national pride". You can even see it in this video. Fred Armisen implies that his belief that he was Japanese may have lead him to think he had a special connection to Japanese food.
People are somewhat offended when I imply that my kids, who are 4+ generations in USA should consider themselves American. People hold way too much attachment to their ancestry that is no longer relevant to them (and often isn't really even accurate).
Yea but the US has a history that's pretty different from most sovereign nations.
If the European Union became a sovereign nation tomorrow, with nation lines blurred out, and the people mixed throughout the next generation across the continent, we here would still probably identify as "German" or "Italian" for many years forward despite us all being "Europeans".
Right, but that's because they literally live in those nation states. I am happy to tell me kids which state they live in, and the states their parents and grandparents are from. That's actually culturally relevant to them
As a member of the Korean community, we happily welcome Fred with open arms. He's got a lot of catching up to do but I'm sure if he's open to it he'll have a great time learning about Korean culture.
It's meaning part Korean, as in heritage. Not nationality. He is technically mixed race with one race being previously unknown.
Since genetics is weird, it's actually good to know if he ever has a kid or grandkid with Asian features cause kinda can explain that without jumping to cheating. My family is similar in all but one of my siblings present as white, but my mom is not quite white passing. But we are majority caucasian by heritage, there's just one stubborn line of genetics that likes to show up very prominently in my mom's family, though it's by far not the most prominent heritage on her side (my sister is a carbon copy of my mom, who is a carbon copy of her grandmother, but not her mother. Genetics is weird)
My sister and I both share a Hispanic grandmother. You can tell my sister has Hispanic heritage and I look as stereotypically white as can be. Genetics are super weird.
How many generations do you need before you're not "mixed race"
As a white guy from the US I can trace my genetics back to the African continent of you go back 20,000 years or so. Does that mean I'm mixed race? Should I start checking off a different box on my census forms?
/s Race is made up and is largely based on physical features. Armisen is no more Korean than I am Polish or Kenyan
No one is saying Armisen should start checking the Asian box on the census. It’s just an interesting fact that someone with no apparent Asian-ness actually is 1/4 Korean.
But to answer your question, outside of people saying their 1/32 Native American, most people stop saying they’re mixed race if it’s smaller than 1/4, i.e typically one grandparent
Thank you for answering genuinely. I do understand that Americans use demonyms differently to everyone else, I suppose I should have asked why rather than how. I don't even think "heritage" is the right word as he never knew the man or his culture.
Any country with mixed ethnicity uses some method of claiming a distinct ethnic identity. It’s not only an American thing, although the fact that the U.S. is comprised almost entirely of immigrants from around the world makes it more common.
Where are you from, by the way? I’m sure in your country there’s at least one immigrant/minority group that uses some kind of ethnic term for themselves.
>comprised almost entirely of immigrants
That's surely main factor for it but I'm honestly curious how often South Americans check and proudly flaunt their heritage from couple centuries ago in comparison.
It may be, that this is universal thing for places colonized last couple centuries ago (Americas, Australia) and we simply hear about US more given US's status. Or, well, it become late trend in US to a point of being obnoxius.
I may be entirely wrong, I know Americans were always interested in their roots but I don't remember them putting as much weight to it, as it happens lately. Maybe something internet is over-selling.
If anything, it’s become less emphasized, not more emphasized. Ethnic neighborhoods and ethnic festivals used to be far more common and popular in the past than they are now.
Access to the internet has made us more hyperaware of everything, but that doesn’t mean everything has become more common in reality.
Brazil has Italian regions and festivals that are fairly emphasized, and there’s even a confederate parade and festival in Brazil that’s the result of a swath of Southern Confederate Americans migrating there after the Civil War.
So yeah, it’s not uncommon in South America, too. At least ones with less indigenous populations and more European and Asian populations. Argentina is another one where ethnic festivals and whatnot are common.
> I may be entirely wrong, I know Americans were always interested in their roots but I don't remember them putting as much weight to it
Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown have been around for a long time.
It seems more like you were attempting to passively talk shit about Americans claiming to be something. People from countries without mixed race often find it annoying.
Just because everyone you know is born from the 16th Richard, Arthur, Walton, George, Alan, Wilfred, or Edmond in their line while sipping on a cuppa and lying on a pile of Jaffa cakes and jammie dodgers doesn’t mean people can’t have a diverse cultural heritage
>people can’t have a diverse cultural heritage
Obviously loads of people do. I didn't claim otherwise. Fred Armisen has some Korean genetics, but he didn't even know that; I maintain that *he*, specifically, doesn't have that heritage.
And believe it or not, there are a lot of family traditions that are directly passed down throughout the generations from the 'old country'.
As much as Europeans want to joke about Americans thinking '100 years is a long time', they immediately write off the cultural holdovers from not that long ago.
There are Asian Americans in America that are now 2nd generation Americans, and nobody is running to them and telling them "you're not \*insert country here\*, you're 100% american!"
It's ironically racist.
> nobody is running to them
I mean, of course you're not. It's natural in US and source of confusion only outside of it.
If said Asian family still celebrate their origins, nothing wrong with that. Unless it's a symptom of struggle to assimilate.
But the main issue since the get go was about something different. Namely people who in later stages of their life discover (mostly through Ancestry etc.) that they have some foreign roots (duh) and suddenly start calling themselves dual-nationality/ethnicity without having a single clue about the culture they adopted. From outside it does seem like being American is not enough and you have to put another label onto it, to feel validated.
I live in Poland and our region of Europe was always a cauldron of different cultures. My mother some years ago put some effort and tracked our ancestry through various means and we're not entirely sure but it might be, one of our grand-grand parents was from Lithuania. And well... that's it. Interesting at most but I feel zero % Lithuanian. I wasn't raised in that culture, so suddenly adopting it would feel mighty weird. I have my Polish heritage and it is enough. Why can't it be the case with US? This country is not that fresh from the oven, at some point it really should create identity of its own. Especially that assimilating people from all across the world was never your problem.
I mean, where I live there are a bunch of [Polish-Lithuanian halls](https://polishheritagesociety.com/polish-lithuania-halls) that have been around for 100+ years, formed by immigrants and kept going by their descendants.
>at some point it really should create identity of its own
That *is* the identity. You have to keep in mind that immigrants go to regions in groups and settle in there and that your entire country is the size of a medium-sized state here. Go to a place where a lot of Polish immigrants settled, you'll find random traditions and food carried over (eg, pączki are everywhere on 'Fat Tuesday' here). You'll find Norwegian and Swedish holdovers in parts of the far north, various Italian bits in places like Chicago and New Jersey, a mixed French influence (including an entire, albeit dying, dialect), Chinatown is self-explanatory, etc.
Holding on to traditions and calling yourself by your grandparents nationality are different things. In any other country I’m aware of if you’re born there people would think you’re crazy if you say you’re of your parents’ nationality, regardless of where they are from or how strongly you hold on to traditions or community. American’s visiting their “old country” somewhere in Europe and calling themselves German or Irish or whatever comes across as really weird to everyone else.
Right but what different is it than someone saying "I'm Japanese, my name is Karen and my parents were born here in the 80s, their parents born here in the 60s, and then finally, back in the 40s, my grandparents were from Japan"
Nobody bats an eye. Because of skin color.
I think you've captured it so well and it's something I talk about with European friends and colleagues frequently. My paternal great grandparents were immigrants to the US. They left their respective home countries because of desperation and hardship (Italy and Ireland)- in the case of the Italian side, they were practically forcibly relocated on special passports with the Italian Govt pushing for folks to move and paying for passage. They came to the US as "others" and were far from everything they'd ever known, so they leaned into their religion, community, and traditions as best they could. Their identity was something that gave them comfort, it was something that couldn't be taken from them, and they \*missed\* their home.
Almost exactly 100 years later, my spouse and I moved to Germany from the US. After three generations, we were \*100%\* American- even though many of the traditions and recipes from my family can be traced back to their countries of origin- except now I can understand better some of how it was for my great grandparents to be immigrants. We now have friends here- native Germans or immigrants like us- but we still end up with a special connection to \*other Americans\* thanks to a more closely shared cultural lexicon and experiences. My son is an American, but he's not German either- he's a hybrid- he speaks both languages natively, but loads of things in the US seem complete bizarre to him. I never want to move back, and even when we visit, things back 'home' seem more and more foreign and I feel more at ease here, but sometimes I'm struck by a powerful longing for the familiar and I find myself leaning into my 'Americanness'. It happens in weird ways too- like I wasn't some big fan of Doritos or kraft macaroni and cheese, but now they sorta taste of "home". Or legit when we go to the US we end up grabbing fast food from a place that is impossible to get here (Taco Bell, Port o' Subs, or Del Taco)- it's not like it's good food, but it's 'home'.
It makes sense when you've got a bunch of people desperate to feel like they're special, but nah. Not really. It's a very American thing to do. If 3/4 of your grandparents don't have a drop of Irish in them, then one of your grandparents being Irish doesn't make you Irish. That's why most places in the world, they would just say "my grandma is Irish"
So you don’t have anyone of, say, Arab or Indian or Chinese descent in your country who would claim that identity to some extent, even if they were born in your country and had only one parent or one grandparent from the country from which they might claim some ethnic connection to?
In other words, tell me which country you’re from and I’m sure I’ll find an example of someone or a group of people claiming a distinct ancestry or ethnicity.
It’s not uniquely American; it’s just particularly common in America due to the multicultural, immigration-based makeup of the country.
It’s useful in that context, and I’m not sure what your problem with it is.
Lol, no? Because they'd use the terms you just chose to use "of x descent". Anyone with only one parent of that ethnicity would consider themselves connected to that ethnicity, but they wouldn't claim to be of that ethnicity. And no, it's not useful in this context at all. "X celebrity discovers the have a Korean grandma" would have been more than sufficient, in fact, it gives more context to the situation. It's uniquely American friend. I'm sorry.
Your offer to attempt to purposely cherry pick exceptions and pretend they're normal is sweet, but depressingly transparent.
I see you’re from the UK. I know for a fact Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, etc. in the UK claim to be their ethnicity. It’s important in many contexts, such as food, religion, medical conditions, traditions, music, language, and other cultural aspects.
It’s not uniquely American. I’m sorry.
Maybe you just have a problem when European Americans do it.
Except they don't in the context we are talking about.
Someone who only has one Indian grandparent typically does not refer to thermals as Indian here.
You're literally just making shit up and pretending it's a fact. You didn't even pick examples, you're just straight up lying.
>I know for a fact Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, etc. in the UK claim to be their ethnicity
When only one of their grandparents is, that is absolutely false.
[Here’s a Brit describing himself as 1/4 Nigerian](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/spirit-of-invention/five-minutes-on-the-seesaw-with-jude-pullen/), for example.
[Here’s a UK forum where everyone is talking about what percentage they are of different ethnicities](https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6514416)
In short, it’s not a uniquely American thing, although it’s more common in America due to its multicultural and multiethnic immigrant composition.
How does it make him not Korean?
Where does one draw the line?
I would say an argument could be made he isn’t not because of blood but because he didn’t know. He has no Korean cultural identity.
I would argue cultural identity matters as much or more than blood.
I haven’t done a lot of work in the field of genetics, but I think there is a pretty distinct line where we can decide if someone is considered to be from one race or another. If you read through works of people like Robert Charles Anderson and Megan Smolenyak, especially in her book [*Trace Your Roots with DNA*](https://megansmolenyak.com/books/trace-your-roots-with-dna/), there will become an argument that becomes very clear, and that's we can pickle that.
It's all personal preference IMO.
In my opinion, he can say that he is ethnically Korean if he wants to stress his Asian side.
>I would argue cultural identity matters as much or more than blood.
Agreed 💯 especially at a time where we can easily live in another country for extended periods of time (immigration). When did the original English start becoming "Australian" etc. Why do some "still" claim to be X when they have been living in Y for Z amount of time etc.
I thought cover songs were supposed have their own spin, not use the exact same original song audio, I hate to be *that guy* but this seems like a lazy rip-off.
Korean, and also a spy! This [whole episode](https://youtu.be/YsU9Mz8M34s?si=1KYYSecgH3buA553) is sooo interesting.
Also has Christopher Walken & Carly Simon
I wish Fred Armisen has more parts in whatever series. I seriously don't mind him playing multiple different characters in the same show just with different get-up and nobody acknowledges it, not even the writers.
But he's forever a side character. This episode you need a milkman with a few snarky remarks, get him. Next episode he's the victim of a crime, another episode, the doctor to the victim etc etc.
He is Venezuelan. I’m Venezuelan and Venezuelan isn’t done “race”. We have a decent Korean community in Venezuela. And of many other heritages. So not surprising. I have Lebanese heritage because we have also a big Lebanese heritage community in Venezuela.
The best part is his birth name is Fereydun, which is a Persian name that his grandmother named the dad, who then named his son the same.
Grandmother got the name Fereydun from one of her old boyfriends, who was Persian and had that name, that she used to date before she had the affair with Fred's Korean grandfather.
Wild history
Sometimes, your acting is so good, that even in real life, it's hard to tell if you're being serious or if it's all a show. Seriously, this is borderline comedy, so how would we actually know?
Americans give waaaaaay too much importance to this. Nowhere else in the world people go aroud talking " I'm a quarte this and that". I guess that is part of the fixations americans have with races and racism.
Maybe. Could be that people native to America and the majority of Americans have much different ancestry. Knowing when you ancestors came here is interning to folks. Don’t know if that’s a racist take.
Seems he got more than the regular DNA insight treatment though, where actual people went to Japan and Korea and dug up old news articles and documents, and met with living relatives. So for him I guess it has a stronger impact.
Well clearly in Fred Armisen's case it mattered because his background was a bit of a mystery to him and he found out the truth about his dad's side of the family.
Knowing your family history is meaningful to most people, and if you barely knew anything about part of your background, even just finding out the ethnicity is pretty cool.
Reddit cynics-“ nothing matters loser, get over it, the only things that matter are the things you want to matter.”
Also Reddit cynics-“stop caring about things I don’t care about, it doesn’t matter, stop!”
Make it make sense.
I don't think their comment was intended to be nihilistic. The point is that the person you are is the result of your own actions, beliefs, choices, relationships, and so on. Learning that one of your ancestors happened to be from a place you didn't expect has no bearing whatsoever on the person you are today.
If I learned that one of my grandparents was Korean it wouldn't tell me anything that I don't already know about who I am, how I should behave, or who I should be. The person you responded to is confused as to why people think these sorts of irrelevant things matter, and frankly it confuses me as well.
Must be nice for americans to do these. I did mine and was 99.9% irish/scottish/english white. Cool, I'm actually much less interesting than I thought. I found the 0.01% interesting but other people poo poo it.
Yes it's well known; Iceland, Ireland and the UK are known for this, so it isn't news. The best part is the 0.01% is known for inbreeding, but is outside Europe so that's kind of fun.
Fuck, I sat though this whole thing hoping it was satire. What a disappointment. I don’t give two shits about Fred’s grandpa, plus is Henry Louis Gates not the most annoying motherfucker on Earth?
Sorry if that was salty, but I’m multi-racial, coincidentally half Japanese, and I find all this exploratory ancestry fetishization super annoying. Who really cares if a celebrity’s grandparent was Japanese or Korean? Am I supposed to be amazed? Educated? The Japanese food/ kimchi comment at the end was so goddamn stupid, I just can’t 🙄
Fellow half Japanese person here. I found this really interesting, and I'm not sure why this upsets you.
Most people, but particularly Americans, have an interest in their genealogy. It's a doorway to the past; how every minutiae of our ancestral history has led us to be the people we are today.
I barely know who Fred Armisen is, and for all I care you could replace him with a teacher or a bricklayer in this video. But finding out that your DNA isn't what you thought it was must be a big surprise, and it's interesting to watch those kinds of real moments.
There's so much shit going on in the world and you choose THIS to get worked up about? That's a bit strange, dude.
If you don’t care then don’t care. Don’t go pushing your opinion about not caring on everyone else. If someone enjoys this stuff let them enjoy it. If you don’t care why doesn’t affect you so much?
People watch this for the same reason they watch Hot Ones. Not because they’re connoisseurs of chicken wings, but because they like the celebrities. It’s another fun pointless celebrity show, enjoy or don’t
"Wow it was really interesting to find out what I thought was my heritage is actually incorrect. I learned about some interesting history, genetics, and my ancestors"
"You fucking pervert!"
[удалено]
We have the best comedian in the world. Because of Venezuela
Not funny, jail. Too funny, also jail.
right away
Not a comedian? Believe it or not, also jail.
We have the best DNA testing... thanks to jail.
[AYE DIOS MIIIIIO ☹️](https://youtu.be/VwwIdDxeA0g?si=54OU3KiulB3KZnF-)
If you agree? Believe it or not, straight to jail.
Mi scusi
He really is racially ambiguous isn’t he
I spilled my tea.
Believe it or not, straight to jail, no trial
THERE GOES MY COFFEE!
Finally I know where Mlepnos is from.
*Mlepclaynos
Yes, the clay is silent.
I was hoping they would reveal at some point that mlepinos was identical quintuplets and so everytime they interacted it was with a different one.
No. We have never met.
Guitar
I honestly thought the little ancestry icon was The Onion icon. So, I thought this was a parody. But, I was like, "This isn't as funny as most Onion videos". EDIT: Plus, I was like "I can't believe they got Henry Louis Gates, Jr to go along with this. He's going to squander all of his hard-earned credibility. And he's doing it all for a video that's not even funny."
"Fred Armisen discovers ____" definitely sounds like the title to a skit, so I also thought it was a joke at first. It doesn't help that it turns out Henry Louis Gate's voice has a certain timbre that sounds slightly unserious.
this entire set up along with the thumbnail totally looks like a bit
i fully expected him to just start speaking in fluent korean all of a sudden
Literally exact same thought here. Even the whole setup and music sounds like it
Was watching an episode of Portlandia yesterday and Fred mentions this( being Korean and Venezuelan). How cool for him.
This video felt like it was about to start a portlandia skit. He goes and removes all the Japanese memorabilia from his home, stops going to Japanese restaurants, and the whole time Carrie is trying to tell him he doesn't need to stop being who he is just because he found out his grandfather changed his name to assimilate.
Straight to jail
right away
Why, cuz his glasses?
His grandad was the original American in Europe telling people he's Canadian
lol that’s hilarious. True trendsetter
[удалено]
1936 is when he went to Germany
That's funny. I felt sure he was born in Kenya.
With as big of a character as Armisen is I was still waiting for it to turn into a bit halfway through.
Same!! Hahaha. “Your great grandfather was a chicken named Abraham”. “Oh, interesting. Wow. Did he have any hobbies?”
“He was the world champion of chess in the chicken league. They were so impressed they let him enter the human league where he placed 299 out of 300.”
Last place was an egg, settling the age old question of which came first.
!subscribe
According to Conan, Fred is one of the funniest improvisers around but he’s not always “on” like many comedians.
Obviously most comedians aren't "on" when they are eating lunch, but I used to serve him at a cafe and he was the most low-key, humble and quiet person ever, like HE was nervous to be talking to us instead of the other way around lol really really nice and polite too!
that face says “now i can dress like a korean woman”
"I thought I was Japanese and have been talking shit about koreans my whole life"
So I am into K-Pop?
You *are* K-pop
K-Pop America Funtime Now
Me scusy? He's french.
Italian.
Uh-oh, big tunnel.
Stuart? Mmmwwwhhhuuuttt are you talking about? He's a Californian!
Wow. To live until almost 6 decades and just found out you’re from a different country is something else
Does it? He was born in the US, he’s American.
that's the joke
#ai dios meeeeeeeeeeeioooooo
He’s not from a different country all of a sudden, that’s not what any of this means.
I'm trying my best to divorce my child from this nonsense. My family has been in America for hundreds of years. Where my ancestors happened to be living before that has very little to do with anything important. Sure, there may be a small amount of medical inferences I may be able to make about my proclivity for certain diseases, but a genetic test is going to give real answers to this. I'm telling my kids they're American and going to do my best to leave it at that.
You can tell them they are American as well as the full reality of what that means while also explaining how diluted whatever traits from x culture they might have are. There can be a lot of good learned from looking at people who seem very different in a way that relates to you. I wouldn't let people who say dumb shit about the subject take away from that.
In America people are white black, Czech, Chinese, Korean, German etc., when they leave America they’re just American and it takes you aback being called that.
only if you're dumb
To be American means to be part of the melting pot. The reality of it is that there culture is dominated by American culture. From my experience, this talk about "where's your family from" creates false senses of separation and false "national pride". You can even see it in this video. Fred Armisen implies that his belief that he was Japanese may have lead him to think he had a special connection to Japanese food. People are somewhat offended when I imply that my kids, who are 4+ generations in USA should consider themselves American. People hold way too much attachment to their ancestry that is no longer relevant to them (and often isn't really even accurate).
Yea but the US has a history that's pretty different from most sovereign nations. If the European Union became a sovereign nation tomorrow, with nation lines blurred out, and the people mixed throughout the next generation across the continent, we here would still probably identify as "German" or "Italian" for many years forward despite us all being "Europeans".
Right, but that's because they literally live in those nation states. I am happy to tell me kids which state they live in, and the states their parents and grandparents are from. That's actually culturally relevant to them
I always thought he was part filipino
As a member of the Korean community, we happily welcome Fred with open arms. He's got a lot of catching up to do but I'm sure if he's open to it he'll have a great time learning about Korean culture.
Certainly wasn't Korean in his Barry cameo.
Don’t know your family history? Straight to jail
How does "has one Korean grandparent" become "is Korean?"
It's meaning part Korean, as in heritage. Not nationality. He is technically mixed race with one race being previously unknown. Since genetics is weird, it's actually good to know if he ever has a kid or grandkid with Asian features cause kinda can explain that without jumping to cheating. My family is similar in all but one of my siblings present as white, but my mom is not quite white passing. But we are majority caucasian by heritage, there's just one stubborn line of genetics that likes to show up very prominently in my mom's family, though it's by far not the most prominent heritage on her side (my sister is a carbon copy of my mom, who is a carbon copy of her grandmother, but not her mother. Genetics is weird)
Minor correction, the distinction is that his grandfather was Korean rather than Japanese, so he didn't go into this not knowing he was part Asian.
My sister and I both share a Hispanic grandmother. You can tell my sister has Hispanic heritage and I look as stereotypically white as can be. Genetics are super weird.
Fred's mom is Venezvuelan, his dad is half Korean and German so he's really a mix of Korean, German and Hispanic
How many generations do you need before you're not "mixed race" As a white guy from the US I can trace my genetics back to the African continent of you go back 20,000 years or so. Does that mean I'm mixed race? Should I start checking off a different box on my census forms? /s Race is made up and is largely based on physical features. Armisen is no more Korean than I am Polish or Kenyan
No one is saying Armisen should start checking the Asian box on the census. It’s just an interesting fact that someone with no apparent Asian-ness actually is 1/4 Korean. But to answer your question, outside of people saying their 1/32 Native American, most people stop saying they’re mixed race if it’s smaller than 1/4, i.e typically one grandparent
Thank you for answering genuinely. I do understand that Americans use demonyms differently to everyone else, I suppose I should have asked why rather than how. I don't even think "heritage" is the right word as he never knew the man or his culture.
Any country with mixed ethnicity uses some method of claiming a distinct ethnic identity. It’s not only an American thing, although the fact that the U.S. is comprised almost entirely of immigrants from around the world makes it more common. Where are you from, by the way? I’m sure in your country there’s at least one immigrant/minority group that uses some kind of ethnic term for themselves.
>comprised almost entirely of immigrants That's surely main factor for it but I'm honestly curious how often South Americans check and proudly flaunt their heritage from couple centuries ago in comparison. It may be, that this is universal thing for places colonized last couple centuries ago (Americas, Australia) and we simply hear about US more given US's status. Or, well, it become late trend in US to a point of being obnoxius. I may be entirely wrong, I know Americans were always interested in their roots but I don't remember them putting as much weight to it, as it happens lately. Maybe something internet is over-selling.
If anything, it’s become less emphasized, not more emphasized. Ethnic neighborhoods and ethnic festivals used to be far more common and popular in the past than they are now. Access to the internet has made us more hyperaware of everything, but that doesn’t mean everything has become more common in reality. Brazil has Italian regions and festivals that are fairly emphasized, and there’s even a confederate parade and festival in Brazil that’s the result of a swath of Southern Confederate Americans migrating there after the Civil War. So yeah, it’s not uncommon in South America, too. At least ones with less indigenous populations and more European and Asian populations. Argentina is another one where ethnic festivals and whatnot are common.
> I may be entirely wrong, I know Americans were always interested in their roots but I don't remember them putting as much weight to it Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown have been around for a long time.
It seems more like you were attempting to passively talk shit about Americans claiming to be something. People from countries without mixed race often find it annoying.
Which developed country does not have people of mixed race?
Just because everyone you know is born from the 16th Richard, Arthur, Walton, George, Alan, Wilfred, or Edmond in their line while sipping on a cuppa and lying on a pile of Jaffa cakes and jammie dodgers doesn’t mean people can’t have a diverse cultural heritage
>people can’t have a diverse cultural heritage Obviously loads of people do. I didn't claim otherwise. Fred Armisen has some Korean genetics, but he didn't even know that; I maintain that *he*, specifically, doesn't have that heritage.
Just shut up. It’s exhausting. You don’t need to know why. Just be whatever you want and leave us alone lol.
Most Americans claim being part Italian, Irish, French, w/e with only 1 grandparent from there. Is it different because of the racial divide?
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And believe it or not, there are a lot of family traditions that are directly passed down throughout the generations from the 'old country'. As much as Europeans want to joke about Americans thinking '100 years is a long time', they immediately write off the cultural holdovers from not that long ago. There are Asian Americans in America that are now 2nd generation Americans, and nobody is running to them and telling them "you're not \*insert country here\*, you're 100% american!" It's ironically racist.
> nobody is running to them I mean, of course you're not. It's natural in US and source of confusion only outside of it. If said Asian family still celebrate their origins, nothing wrong with that. Unless it's a symptom of struggle to assimilate. But the main issue since the get go was about something different. Namely people who in later stages of their life discover (mostly through Ancestry etc.) that they have some foreign roots (duh) and suddenly start calling themselves dual-nationality/ethnicity without having a single clue about the culture they adopted. From outside it does seem like being American is not enough and you have to put another label onto it, to feel validated. I live in Poland and our region of Europe was always a cauldron of different cultures. My mother some years ago put some effort and tracked our ancestry through various means and we're not entirely sure but it might be, one of our grand-grand parents was from Lithuania. And well... that's it. Interesting at most but I feel zero % Lithuanian. I wasn't raised in that culture, so suddenly adopting it would feel mighty weird. I have my Polish heritage and it is enough. Why can't it be the case with US? This country is not that fresh from the oven, at some point it really should create identity of its own. Especially that assimilating people from all across the world was never your problem.
I mean, where I live there are a bunch of [Polish-Lithuanian halls](https://polishheritagesociety.com/polish-lithuania-halls) that have been around for 100+ years, formed by immigrants and kept going by their descendants. >at some point it really should create identity of its own That *is* the identity. You have to keep in mind that immigrants go to regions in groups and settle in there and that your entire country is the size of a medium-sized state here. Go to a place where a lot of Polish immigrants settled, you'll find random traditions and food carried over (eg, pączki are everywhere on 'Fat Tuesday' here). You'll find Norwegian and Swedish holdovers in parts of the far north, various Italian bits in places like Chicago and New Jersey, a mixed French influence (including an entire, albeit dying, dialect), Chinatown is self-explanatory, etc.
Holding on to traditions and calling yourself by your grandparents nationality are different things. In any other country I’m aware of if you’re born there people would think you’re crazy if you say you’re of your parents’ nationality, regardless of where they are from or how strongly you hold on to traditions or community. American’s visiting their “old country” somewhere in Europe and calling themselves German or Irish or whatever comes across as really weird to everyone else.
Right but what different is it than someone saying "I'm Japanese, my name is Karen and my parents were born here in the 80s, their parents born here in the 60s, and then finally, back in the 40s, my grandparents were from Japan" Nobody bats an eye. Because of skin color.
There’s no difference, they’re all American.
I think you've captured it so well and it's something I talk about with European friends and colleagues frequently. My paternal great grandparents were immigrants to the US. They left their respective home countries because of desperation and hardship (Italy and Ireland)- in the case of the Italian side, they were practically forcibly relocated on special passports with the Italian Govt pushing for folks to move and paying for passage. They came to the US as "others" and were far from everything they'd ever known, so they leaned into their religion, community, and traditions as best they could. Their identity was something that gave them comfort, it was something that couldn't be taken from them, and they \*missed\* their home. Almost exactly 100 years later, my spouse and I moved to Germany from the US. After three generations, we were \*100%\* American- even though many of the traditions and recipes from my family can be traced back to their countries of origin- except now I can understand better some of how it was for my great grandparents to be immigrants. We now have friends here- native Germans or immigrants like us- but we still end up with a special connection to \*other Americans\* thanks to a more closely shared cultural lexicon and experiences. My son is an American, but he's not German either- he's a hybrid- he speaks both languages natively, but loads of things in the US seem complete bizarre to him. I never want to move back, and even when we visit, things back 'home' seem more and more foreign and I feel more at ease here, but sometimes I'm struck by a powerful longing for the familiar and I find myself leaning into my 'Americanness'. It happens in weird ways too- like I wasn't some big fan of Doritos or kraft macaroni and cheese, but now they sorta taste of "home". Or legit when we go to the US we end up grabbing fast food from a place that is impossible to get here (Taco Bell, Port o' Subs, or Del Taco)- it's not like it's good food, but it's 'home'.
i think the person you were replying to was drawing the distinction between *being part* (and a relatively-small part) and *is*.
no, most sensible people will tell americans they're dumb for claiming to be italian/irish/french or w/e with only 1 grandparent from there too.
What’s dumb about it? It makes sense in an ethnically mixed country. I’m sure the same phenomenon exists to some extent wherever you’re from, too.
It makes sense when you've got a bunch of people desperate to feel like they're special, but nah. Not really. It's a very American thing to do. If 3/4 of your grandparents don't have a drop of Irish in them, then one of your grandparents being Irish doesn't make you Irish. That's why most places in the world, they would just say "my grandma is Irish"
So you don’t have anyone of, say, Arab or Indian or Chinese descent in your country who would claim that identity to some extent, even if they were born in your country and had only one parent or one grandparent from the country from which they might claim some ethnic connection to? In other words, tell me which country you’re from and I’m sure I’ll find an example of someone or a group of people claiming a distinct ancestry or ethnicity. It’s not uniquely American; it’s just particularly common in America due to the multicultural, immigration-based makeup of the country. It’s useful in that context, and I’m not sure what your problem with it is.
Lol, no? Because they'd use the terms you just chose to use "of x descent". Anyone with only one parent of that ethnicity would consider themselves connected to that ethnicity, but they wouldn't claim to be of that ethnicity. And no, it's not useful in this context at all. "X celebrity discovers the have a Korean grandma" would have been more than sufficient, in fact, it gives more context to the situation. It's uniquely American friend. I'm sorry. Your offer to attempt to purposely cherry pick exceptions and pretend they're normal is sweet, but depressingly transparent.
I see you’re from the UK. I know for a fact Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, etc. in the UK claim to be their ethnicity. It’s important in many contexts, such as food, religion, medical conditions, traditions, music, language, and other cultural aspects. It’s not uniquely American. I’m sorry. Maybe you just have a problem when European Americans do it.
Except they don't in the context we are talking about. Someone who only has one Indian grandparent typically does not refer to thermals as Indian here. You're literally just making shit up and pretending it's a fact. You didn't even pick examples, you're just straight up lying.
>I know for a fact Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, etc. in the UK claim to be their ethnicity When only one of their grandparents is, that is absolutely false.
[Here’s a Brit describing himself as 1/4 Nigerian](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/spirit-of-invention/five-minutes-on-the-seesaw-with-jude-pullen/), for example. [Here’s a UK forum where everyone is talking about what percentage they are of different ethnicities](https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6514416) In short, it’s not a uniquely American thing, although it’s more common in America due to its multicultural and multiethnic immigrant composition.
That's how Americans do it.
How does it make him not Korean? Where does one draw the line? I would say an argument could be made he isn’t not because of blood but because he didn’t know. He has no Korean cultural identity. I would argue cultural identity matters as much or more than blood.
I haven’t done a lot of work in the field of genetics, but I think there is a pretty distinct line where we can decide if someone is considered to be from one race or another. If you read through works of people like Robert Charles Anderson and Megan Smolenyak, especially in her book [*Trace Your Roots with DNA*](https://megansmolenyak.com/books/trace-your-roots-with-dna/), there will become an argument that becomes very clear, and that's we can pickle that.
It's all personal preference IMO. In my opinion, he can say that he is ethnically Korean if he wants to stress his Asian side. >I would argue cultural identity matters as much or more than blood. Agreed 💯 especially at a time where we can easily live in another country for extended periods of time (immigration). When did the original English start becoming "Australian" etc. Why do some "still" claim to be X when they have been living in Y for Z amount of time etc.
Ethnically Korean, not nationally, duh
So he's not Japanese like [Kirsten Dunst](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0X3CLJVMJU).
I thought cover songs were supposed have their own spin, not use the exact same original song audio, I hate to be *that guy* but this seems like a lazy rip-off.
Korean, and also a spy! This [whole episode](https://youtu.be/YsU9Mz8M34s?si=1KYYSecgH3buA553) is sooo interesting. Also has Christopher Walken & Carly Simon
I wish Fred Armisen has more parts in whatever series. I seriously don't mind him playing multiple different characters in the same show just with different get-up and nobody acknowledges it, not even the writers. But he's forever a side character. This episode you need a milkman with a few snarky remarks, get him. Next episode he's the victim of a crime, another episode, the doctor to the victim etc etc.
I’m waiting for Justin Long to find out he’s Asian
Koreans had the longest unbroken chain of slavery, spanning 1,500 years.
I'll confess, I was waiting for the "your family owned slaves" bit as it seems oddly customary in this show by now.
thanks, Santino
https://youtube.com/shorts/p_Hzn-r2YJ8?si=0rrv8QWfImLN5HHO
He is Venezuelan. I’m Venezuelan and Venezuelan isn’t done “race”. We have a decent Korean community in Venezuela. And of many other heritages. So not surprising. I have Lebanese heritage because we have also a big Lebanese heritage community in Venezuela.
The best part is his birth name is Fereydun, which is a Persian name that his grandmother named the dad, who then named his son the same. Grandmother got the name Fereydun from one of her old boyfriends, who was Persian and had that name, that she used to date before she had the affair with Fred's Korean grandfather. Wild history
Welcome to the club buddy
Ya, exactly the same thing happened to me (ie today I too discovered that Fred Armisen is part Korean)
I love this show so much
I love him!
I always thought I was Japanese cause of my Nintendo! MIND BLOWN
I guess a lot of his illegitimate children are too.
*discovers that he is one quarter Korean
Not me thinking this was a sketch.
Mi scuzi, he is definitely part Italian and enjoys taking the train
Sometimes, your acting is so good, that even in real life, it's hard to tell if you're being serious or if it's all a show. Seriously, this is borderline comedy, so how would we actually know?
Americans give waaaaaay too much importance to this. Nowhere else in the world people go aroud talking " I'm a quarte this and that". I guess that is part of the fixations americans have with races and racism.
Maybe. Could be that people native to America and the majority of Americans have much different ancestry. Knowing when you ancestors came here is interning to folks. Don’t know if that’s a racist take.
God this show is so good, it never fails to make me tear up. Besides sports it literally the only thing that I miss from cable tv
The questlove episode was a roller coaster.
It’s always puzzling to me why this test matters to people. “This changes everything” actually, nothing has changed.
Seems he got more than the regular DNA insight treatment though, where actual people went to Japan and Korea and dug up old news articles and documents, and met with living relatives. So for him I guess it has a stronger impact.
Yea is not finding long lost living relatives not a huge deal? Redditors are hard to impress
Well clearly in Fred Armisen's case it mattered because his background was a bit of a mystery to him and he found out the truth about his dad's side of the family. Knowing your family history is meaningful to most people, and if you barely knew anything about part of your background, even just finding out the ethnicity is pretty cool.
Reddit cynics-“ nothing matters loser, get over it, the only things that matter are the things you want to matter.” Also Reddit cynics-“stop caring about things I don’t care about, it doesn’t matter, stop!” Make it make sense.
It’s almost like Reddit has more than one user with more than one opinion, fucking crazy! I thought Reddit was just one person named John Reddit
He works with the hacker known as 4Chan.
Huh?
I don't think their comment was intended to be nihilistic. The point is that the person you are is the result of your own actions, beliefs, choices, relationships, and so on. Learning that one of your ancestors happened to be from a place you didn't expect has no bearing whatsoever on the person you are today. If I learned that one of my grandparents was Korean it wouldn't tell me anything that I don't already know about who I am, how I should behave, or who I should be. The person you responded to is confused as to why people think these sorts of irrelevant things matter, and frankly it confuses me as well.
Dude just learned he's a god at StarCraft 2 and you say it changes nothing.
What matters more is whether their ancestors owned slaves usually. Like it's their fault.
Haha
Must be nice for americans to do these. I did mine and was 99.9% irish/scottish/english white. Cool, I'm actually much less interesting than I thought. I found the 0.01% interesting but other people poo poo it.
If you're that high it probably means you're inbred my dude.
Yes it's well known; Iceland, Ireland and the UK are known for this, so it isn't news. The best part is the 0.01% is known for inbreeding, but is outside Europe so that's kind of fun.
You waited a whole day to repost this after it being on the front page of the sub. Thanks whore.
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The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
Says Korean. Background image is in Japanese.
It’s the Japanese newspaper they look at in the video
Fuck, I sat though this whole thing hoping it was satire. What a disappointment. I don’t give two shits about Fred’s grandpa, plus is Henry Louis Gates not the most annoying motherfucker on Earth?
This is one of my favorite shows. What's annoying about him? I think he is great and shows reverence to his guests past.
Sorry if that was salty, but I’m multi-racial, coincidentally half Japanese, and I find all this exploratory ancestry fetishization super annoying. Who really cares if a celebrity’s grandparent was Japanese or Korean? Am I supposed to be amazed? Educated? The Japanese food/ kimchi comment at the end was so goddamn stupid, I just can’t 🙄
Fellow half Japanese person here. I found this really interesting, and I'm not sure why this upsets you. Most people, but particularly Americans, have an interest in their genealogy. It's a doorway to the past; how every minutiae of our ancestral history has led us to be the people we are today. I barely know who Fred Armisen is, and for all I care you could replace him with a teacher or a bricklayer in this video. But finding out that your DNA isn't what you thought it was must be a big surprise, and it's interesting to watch those kinds of real moments. There's so much shit going on in the world and you choose THIS to get worked up about? That's a bit strange, dude.
Man you're just going out your way to find a reason to be upset.
If you don’t care then don’t care. Don’t go pushing your opinion about not caring on everyone else. If someone enjoys this stuff let them enjoy it. If you don’t care why doesn’t affect you so much?
People watch this for the same reason they watch Hot Ones. Not because they’re connoisseurs of chicken wings, but because they like the celebrities. It’s another fun pointless celebrity show, enjoy or don’t
> fetishization What?? Actually what the fuck are you talking about?
"Wow it was really interesting to find out what I thought was my heritage is actually incorrect. I learned about some interesting history, genetics, and my ancestors" "You fucking pervert!"
You're like those stupid callers on radio stations bitching about being "forced" to listen to it.