Now I hate to disappoint you but in reality this is not some 411 on his next secret gig in LA or anything. Sorry. No instead this is a story about how I am bringing up my younger child to provide me with an endless supply of humor.
The thing about Russell Peters is that he gets not just accents but different cultures so well. And the one thing he has taught me is how to do a Cantonese chinese accent. You see, being a fifth gen American Chinese I just don't get how to do it. I didn't have anything against it, mind, it's simply that even though my mom is a naturalized citizen, my dad was a fourth gen from Sacramento. His family was part of that first Chinese diaspora from a little village in Taishan and you guessed it, they spoke taishanese.
Well that is the Chinese accent Russell Peters does sooo well. I can't do it. Well, actually, now I can. Because of him. He just gets it spot in. Embarrassingly sometimes when walking around Monterey park and I hear someone talking who sounds like him I bust out laughing. And then of course I rapidly walk away because I've just been an asshole. He does this routine--it's a 45 minute routine on YouTube that I highly recommend--where he pretends to speak Cantonese and later he has a bit where he is imitating a Cantonese guy speaking chinglish and telling a really bad joke. Well he and the joke are hilarious.
Now after that extremely diverting little background we're all set to proceed with how I've made my baby a source of comic gold. The joke, which I've adapted to fit the present circumstances--my fat baby--goes like this and you must simply imagine a Cantonese chinglish accent because I can't reproduce it and do it justice in the written word: "This baby so fat, when she jump for joyyyyy, she get stuck. Ok, thank you." Now like I said, the punch line of the joke is the accent.
We have been repeating this to the Shaggy Fatty for several months now. And just like she had previously grasped and imitated both the tone and context of my irritated "Guyyy!" she's clearly been processing the context and hence humor of this as well. We enjoy recycling humor in our household, especially when it's been inspired by Russell Peters.
Afterimage of this she now thinks it is very amusing to hear this little routine which she a) clearly understands is a celebration of her and her fat, and b) that it is funny. Because upon hearing it she smiles.
Two days ago we also discovered she has been doing a little deeper processing. At five in the morning, she began babbling as she does. According to my husband--it was a night I "got" to spend with my older daughter in her twin bed--it went something like this: "babble, babble, babble, so fet (the accent here is absolutely necessary to fully understand the humor), babble, babble." It was five-thirty so initially he was going to try to remain in bed for as long as she didn't cry. The "so fet" however put an end to that and he was practically propelled out of bed. Either to celebrate of stop from laughing I'm not certain which because he didn't specify.
Well after hearing about this hilarious and adorable display of language acquisition, I began repeating that little routine to her. All day. You know, as a prompt.
It worked. That afternoon, in the middle if the routine, when I was about to say, "She get 'tuck'" she did it for me. And then she grinned.
Obviously she knows when to be proud.
Posts
