CWs: describes racist behavior that is offensive to the Asian community, discussion of anti-Asian racism, uses profanity.
Asterisks indicate speaker emphasis.
[Descriptive transcript: Multiple images/videos in one post.]
#1: Image. White background with black heading states, NextShark, written in all caps. The ‘N’ is stylized in a curved, purple font. Underneath the heading is a grey textbox with black, bolded text that reads, “Comedian gives a lesson in how not to be racist while dressing up as ‘Squid Game’ characters.” Below the textbox is a split-screen image. On the left is a photo of comedian, Youngmi Mayer. Youngmi is a Korean woman with light skin, blondish-green hair with pink highlights worn in a shaggy hairstyle, pictured wearing a white blouse, looking off to her left. To the right is actor, Lee Jung-jae, who plays Seong Gi-hun a.k.a. “Player 456” in ‘Squid Game.’ Lee Jung-jae is a Korean man with light skin, short black hair, a faint mustache, and pictured wearing a green-and-white athleisure jacket and looking straight ahead. Note: Both Youngmi and Jung-jae have expressions of disgust on their faces.
#2: Image. White background with purple borders. Bold black text reads, “As Halloween approaches, one TikToker (@ymmayer) voiced her concerns over possible racist interpretations of “Squid Game” costumes in a snarky skit. Next section begins with in bold, “Don’ts” followed by a colon and the following plain black text: “Last Thursday, comedian and “Feeling Asian” podcast co-host Youngmi Mayer posted a [underlined]13-second video [underlined ends] that touches on how non-Asian people might feel compelled to dress up as their favorite characters from the Netflix hit show.”
#3: Vertical TikTok video. White background with purple borders, black text. In the top left corner of the video, the saturated TikTok music note logo and brand name are visible. Underneath the brand name is the user’s handle, @youngmimayer. Youngmi is in a dimly-lit room, looking to her right. A centered white text box with black text is imposed over her chest and it states, “nonasian person.” Youngmi is wearing the same outfit as pictured in earlier, an off-white blouse that has Red Hot Chili Peppers logos on it in red and green.]
Video 1:
Youngmi (imitating a non-Asian person): I really wanna do Squid Game for Halloween, but I’m so scared that Asians will get mad at me.
[camera angle shifts]
[In the center of Yougmi’s chest, the white textbox with black text now reads, “me, Asian”]
Youngmi (as herself): [now looking to the left, brows creased in confusion] Why would Asians get mad at you?
[camera angle shifts]
Youngmi (imitating a non-Asian person): [now looking to her left] Oh, so it’s okay?
[camera angle shifts]
Youngmi (as herself): [now looking to her right] Of course it’s okay. I don’t even know why anyone-
[camera angle shifts]
[Youngmi imitating a non-Asian person. She is now wearing a curly black wig and has put clear tape over her eyelids to stretch them.]
Youngmi (as herself): [eyebrows creased downward in confusion] What the [camera angle closes in Youngmi’s mouth] fuck?!
[video ends]
#4: Image. White background with purple borders, black text. Section with four bulleted points. The first bullet point reads: In the video, she pretends to be a non-Asian person who says, “I really want to do ‘Squid Game’ for Halloween but I’m so scared that Asians will get mad at me.”
Second bullet point reads: Mayer then plays herself with the caption “Me, Asian” and says, “Why would Asians get mad at you?”
Third bullet point reads: After she gives her confirmation that it’s OK, the video quickly cuts to the non-Asian character in a cheap wig, taping their eyes upward to appear more slanted.
Fourth bullet point reads: Mayer’s video caption reads, “It’s totally ok to put on a tracksuit and wig just don’t get racist with it.”
#4: Image. White background with purple borders. Bold black text reads, “Not a Trend,” followed by a colon and the following plain black text: “The video currently has 5.3 million views and thousands of comments that support Mayer’s satirical approach. Some users said that it’s acceptable to cosplay without “Asian fishing,” and some begged people to just wear a green tracksuit or pink jumpsuit when dressing up as “Squid Game” characters.”
The next section is bulleted and states: One user said, “Dressing in clothes from an Asian show=fine. Pretending to have a feature that people get abused for having=not okay.”
#5: Image. White background with purple borders, black text. Section with two bulleted points. The first bullet point: The video touches on the racist connotations behind the “slant-eye gesture.,” On TikTok in 2020, slanted eyes were deemed “trendy” by makeup artists who stretched back their temples or elongated their eyes to get a narrow eye shape that is reminiscent of how Asian eyes appear naturally. It was called the [underlined] ”Fox eye trend,” [underline ends] and many Asian TikTokers criticized it as being in the same vein as yellowfacing in old Hollywood films.
Second bullet point: Mayer’s skit followed her mega-viral TikTok video from Sept. 30 where she explained some of the [underlined] questionable English translations [underline ends] behind “Squid Game.” That video has over 12.8 million views as of this writing.
#6: [Vertical TikTok video. White background with purple borders on both sides. In the center of the screen, a red textbox with white text reads, “Warning: Minor ‘Squid Game’ Spoilers.” In the top left corner of the video, the saturated TikTok music note logo and brand name are visible. Underneath the brand name is the user’s handle, @youngmimayer. Behind Youngmi is a black screen with white text.]
[Youngmi is a Korean woman with light skin, wearing a gold chain layered with a small necklace and a black sweatshirt with white, capitalized text that reads, Sunny’s Bar followed by the subheading, Red Hook Brooklyn, NY. Note: The video is mirror-versed, so the letters appear backward. Her pink and neon-green hair is worn in a braided side ponytail.]
Video 2:
Youngmi: Hi everyone! I just watched Squid Game and I’m fluent in Korean and I [gestures with hands] had the English subtitles on and I [holds up finger] noticed that [gestures with hands] you’re missing so much from the English subtitles. Here I tweeted about it earlier…
[Youngmi moves off-screen to show the black screenshot behind her, which is a Twitter thread in night mode with white text. To the left of the message is Youngmi’s profile picture, showing her drink a cup of water and looking off to her right; to the right is her name and Twitter handle, @ymmayer in white text. Below the profile is her tweet. The tweet is written in all lowercases and it reads: Not to sound snobby but I’m fluent in Korean and I watch ed squid game with English subtitles and if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show. translation was so bad. the dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved.
Second message: I want to do a screen breakdown on tiktok to show you what they could’ve translated to I might work on it today just so you can see what I mean and see what you missed. Such a shame. Translation is extremely important.]
Youngmi: …. pause to read. [Youngmi pops back into view, playing with the ends of her ponytail as she continues talking.] So, I thought I would make a little video just to show you. [gestures with hands] Sorry I’m a little busy today so this… [shakes heads] there’s better examples, but these are just the ones that I found in like 10 minutes. So [looks up] watch this, let me know if it’s interesting. If you like it, I might make more, but here is the first example.
[video jump to next scene]
[Camera is now watching the show, “Squid Game,” from a gold MacBook computer with a black-and-white keyboard. The scene shows several team members along with Han Mi-nyeo, top center, who is played by Korean actress Kim Joo-ryeong. The characters are wearing their green-and-white athleisure.]
I want to start with Mi-nyeo by the way, which her name [points to screen] translates to “beautiful girl” which I think is really interesting. Her dialogue [points again to screen] constantly gets botched. Like every little thing that she says is fucked up. I think it’s cuz she’s like, plays like a [makes air quotes gesture with hand] “low class” character and she’s a gangster [continues gesturing with hands] so she cusses a lot and it gets very sterilized and randomly like even things that like don’t even… aren’t even that bad like…
[Computer screen shows the show’s name and episodic information in white text, then fades out. In the scene, Mi-nyeo speaks to one of the game handlers wearing a bright pink jumpsuit.]
[Youngmi plays video. Mi-nyeo speaks Korean.]
[Youngmi pauses video]
She says like, “What are you looking at?” it’s turned into, “Go away” which [holds up finger] might seem arbitrary, but like everything she says is not really [gestures with hands] aligning and [points to computer screen] so you’re missing a lot of this.
[video ends]
#7: [Vertical TikTok video. White background with purple borders on each side of the screen. In the bottom right corner of the video, the saturated TikTok music note logo and brand name are visible. Underneath the brand name is the user’s handle, @youngmimayer. Youngmi is in a well-lit room, watching a scene from “Squid Game” on her gold-colored MacBook. A wall furnace and black bug zapper placed on the windowsill are visible in the background of Youngmi’s home.
Video 3:
Youngmi: [inaudible] and what she stands for. [White text pops up on the left side of the computer screen, relaying the show’s name and episodic info. Captions on the bottom of the screen read, “Go away.”] But here is the one part [holds up finger] that I think is a huge miss.
[video jumps to next scene]
[The scene features, left to right, actors Kim Joo-ryeong and Lee Jung-jae as their characters Han Mi-nyeo and Seong Gi-hun respectively, wearing their green-and-white athleisure. Joo-reyong is a Korean actress with light skin and wavy shoulder-length black hair. In the scene, Mi-nyeo’s eyes are wide with surprise, her mouth open as she talks to Gi-hun, who is looking downward, as if ashamed.]
Youngmi: Here she is trying to convince people to play the game with her, right?
[Youngmi plays video with the English captions on, appearing at the bottom of the screen in white text. Mi-nyeo speaks Korean.]
Youngmi: [point to words on screen] Right here.
[Camera angle shifts to view of Youngmi.]
[Youngmi is wearing a gold chain layered with a small necklace and a black sweatshirt with white, capitalized text that reads, Sunny’s Bar followed by the subheading, Red Hook Brooklyn, NY. Note: The video is mirror-versed, so the letters appear backward. Her pink and neon-green hair is worn in a braided side ponytail.
Youngmi: [tilts her head to the side] The translation says, [looks up, as in thought] “Oh, I’m not a genius but I can work it out.” [holds up finger, smiles] What she actually said was, [points to her head] “I am very smart, [holds up finger] I just never got a chance to *study*.” [holds up a clasped hand] That is a huge, like, that is a huge trope in Korean media. The [holds up finger] *poor person* that’s *smart* and *clever* and just isn’t wealthy. That’s a *huge* part of her character. And almost everything she says is like [makes gesture with hands to indicate talking] being botched translation wise, but you just missed… [holds up clasped hand] like the writers, all they want you to know about her is that. You know what I mean? Seems so small, but it’s like the entire character’s purpose of being in the fuckin’ show!
[frustratedly inhales]
Youngmi: [holds up finger] Here is one more thing that got me real fucking fucked up and then I’m, maybe I’ll do more of these if I have time okay?
[Camera shifts back to Youngmi’s computer and a different scene from “Squid Game”, featuring, left to right, actors Yeong-su Oh and Lee Jung-jae as their characters Oh Il-nam and Seong Gi-hun, respectively. They are wearing the green-and-white athleisure. Yeong-su Oh is a Korean actor with light skin and short, salt-and-pepper hair.]
[Oh Il-nam, talking to Seong Gi-hun, speaks Korean]
[The English captions on the bottom of the screen read as follows:
“I thought you said you played this before. Gganbu, come on, you know.
It’s a good friend.
One who you trust a lot.
You share things with them, you know?”
[video ends]
#8: Video 4: [Vertical TikTok video. White background with purple borders on each side of the screen. In the bottom right corner of the video, the saturated TikTok music note logo and brand name are visible. Underneath the brand name is the user’s handle, @youngmimayer. A computer screen is bottom center of the screen. The user is watching a scene from the hit Netflix show, “Squid Game,” featuring, left to right, Korean actors Yeong-su Oh and Lee Jung-jae as their characters, Oh Il-nam and Seong Gi-hun, respectively. Oh Il-nam is an older man with light skin and short, salt-and-pepper hair. Seong Gi-hun is a man with light skin and short, black hair.
[Oh Il-nam speaks Korean.]
[A backview of Oh Il-nam’s head is shown as he talks to Seong Gi-hun. The English captions, written in white on the bottom of the computer screen, read as follows,
- Ah!
- Your marbles, everything.]
[Gi-hun has a wide-open smile on his face. His English caption reads: A gganbu. I remember now, as he points to his head. English captions continue:
I had one in my town too.
Used to do everything with him.
Scene shifts back to Oh Il-nam, who is also smiling. Oh Il-nam speaks Korean to Seong Gi-hun. The English caption reads, “Okay, we are ggbanu.”]
[Oh Il-nam grunts]
[The English caption reads, Yes.]
[Youngmi pauses the video.]
[video jumps to next scene]
[camera pans to Youngmi’s face. Youngmi is a Korean woman with light skin and pink and neon-green hair worn in a braided side ponytail. She is sitting inside a well-lit room and wearing a black sweatshirt with white capitalized text, which is being mirrored, but reads, Sunny’s Bar, followed by the subheading, Red Hook Brooklyn, NY. In the background, there is a white wall with a blue painting hanging on it.]
Youngmi: [looking directly at camera] So they missed a really small line there, but it’s like literally the point of the whole episode.
[Youngmi repeats Oh Il-nam’s line.]
[Youngmi looks up, as in thought.]
[sighs]
Youngmi: What that translates into is “there is no *ownership* between [makes hand gesture towards chest] me and [makes outward hand gesture] you.” [shakes head] Not, “We share everything.” That is a *huge* miss. That’s like the entire point of this fuckin’ episode. Very, [shakes head] it’s a very small sentence, but now it doesn’t even make sense! Like why… what… it doesn’t make sense. Like that is such a [gestures with hands toward her head, doing an up and down motion] difference in ideology that the writer is trying to get across to you! Do you know what I mean? [gestures with hands] It’s making me so angry I have no idea why. I need to lay down.
[camera shifts]
Youngmi: Anyway let me know if you like this video. I can make [leans her head back, exaggeratedly] *more* if I have some time if it’s interesting. This, [shakes head] there’s so many more examples. It's like every other sentence is like messed up.
[video ends]