10 Extremely Uncomfortable Moments In Classic Movies

4. Short Circuit - We Are Standing Here Beside Ourselves At This White Actor In Brownface

There’s a great scene in Aziz Ansari’s recent Netflix comedy-drama Master Of None, in which Ansari’s character Dev reveals to his two friends that Ben from 80s’ movie Short Circuit is not played by an Asian actor. Completely stunned to learn that it was in fact white actor Fisher Stevens in brownface, one asks “is Mindy Kaling real!?”

It’s important to remember that this is not a ridiculous situation. As a kid, Ansari said that seeing an Indian character in a Hollywood movie “had a powerful effect [and he] realised what an anomaly it was. I rarely saw any Indians on TV or film, except for brief appearances as a cabdriver or a convenience store worker literally servicing white characters who were off to more interesting adventures.”

In Short Circuit, Ben is robot star Johnny 5’s creator, and the relationship between the two is actually quite sweet. But Ben is not only portrayed by a white actor, he also happens to be an Indian stereotype of the very worst kind. His whole character is based around his hilarious accent and his poor grasp of English, that leads to such LOLsome mistakes as “for the Pete of sake” or “looks like you have created another Frankfurter's monster”.

As an aside, I tried to find out Ben’s surname in Short Circuit, and I came across so many variations of it, that I decided to just leave it out. Presumably, the makers of the film decided that either a) “Indian names are funny and difficult, so let’s not bother to formalise it”; or b) “Ben is an insignificant character – just there for laughs – so he doesn’t need anything so humanising as a surname”.