That is to say, the bit's satirical focus depended on being offensive to Asians. Risky. I'm not sure where I myself come down on the question of whether one is warranted in offending one minority in satirical service to another. Dicey.
I hope other people read this, because this is essentially the entirety of the discussion. I would daresay that, most people here on this forum, in a vacuum, would not repeat what Colbert said, for reasons that are fairly clear. Taken out of context, I'd imagine most people here would call it racist, stupid, etc. Some people, obviously, would give it protection as a piece of satire that they wouldn't give to it if it was not a part of an attempt at humour, such as is the case with Colbert. I would also say that, most people on this forum would never say the n word even under the guise of satire, not out of some feeling of self-preservation, but because of a moral stance. Everyone certainly has a sort of 'grade scale' of risqué material, where one's limits are, etc., but I do have to wonder if, like cybrxkhan says, there is a tendency to accept jokes about Asians out of the constant "model minority" narrative that people - mostly white America - can't seem to drop once and for all.
The point Colbert was making certainly could have stood well on its own before the Asian line. He had pretty well ripped into Snyder's "generosity" and ignorance with regards to his efforts to stymie outcry over the Washington Redskins name.
Like Gori the Grey, I'm not sure I have a good answer. I think there is a tendency to jump to quick conclusions here, especially by fans of the show, and not take a step back and view the entirety of the discussion around it. Many fans of the show being white males in their 20s and 30s. I also find it hard to see it as a reason to entirely cancel a show (and, thus, have many people lose their jobs as a result), but I am not really in a position of authority to speak on discrimination in America, seeing as how I'll pretty much never have to deal with it.
I guess, mostly, I wrote an superficially long post that boiled to an argument that we shouldn't casually dismiss the complaints levied at Colbert's joke, which seems pretty reasonable.
