3 ms·
Your comment actually serves to highlight how inappropriate it is to suggest it is racist. 1. The character was originally written as Iranian, then rewritten t
by stevenjohns 8y ago
Your comment actually serves to highlight how inappropriate it is to suggest it is racist.
1. The character was originally written as Iranian, then rewritten to be Jordanian. He is not Indian. I don't see why the name would be easy in India. They hired an Indian actor to play him, which is probably the only questionable thing in all of this.
2. The name isn't a real name. You can try to search ناجحينانجر (Nagheenanajar), ناجحينانذر (Nagheenanadhar), ناجحين النذر (Nagheen al-Nadhar) or ناجحين النجر (Nagheen al-Najar) and see that you won't have much luck. At best it is a full name (both first and last) in and of itself. It's clearly written to be difficult to pronounce. I imagine the actor sat in a room and practiced for a couple of hours to be able to say it as easily as he did.
3. I'm from that region of the world, my first language is from that region of the world and I can tell you whole heartily that that name is extremely difficult to pronounce. I tried about four times and gave up. It's only when writing it in Arabic script that I was able to make sense of what I was reading. At best, the Latin spelling used is a butchering of the Arabic spelling.
Anybody with a name like that would know it's difficult to pronounce as well, I don't think they'd be upset - and I don't think they should have a right to suggest that others are being offensive when they have difficulties as well.
There are real applications when people are being dicks (some people would intentionally mispronounce my father's first name, which is pronounced as it reads and is four letters long..) but the Office Space name was intentionally made to be ridiculous.
- Robin_Message 8y ago(long time since I saw the movie) From what I'm reading here, the audience and characters don't know and aren't expected to know that. The name is hard for them because it is foreign to them. To turn the name into a joke that they are 'never gonna work here anyway' explicitly links the racist prejudice against them to their name. The name was probably especially ridiculous because they wanted to make the pun above, but the point is the racism surely, not the everyday humour in linking a foreign person's name to their non-employment?
- jayd16 8y agoYou're really focusing on the idea its a joke about his name and that makes it racist. That's not what is being implied in the film. Instead, realize its a joke about not being in the boys club because he's not like the leadership, he's different and yeah he has a silly name so fuck 'em.
- lunchables 8y ago>he's different and yeah he has a silly name so fuck 'em. He wasn't being fired for his name. Because he was being fired no one cared about his name. That's the joke.