The 2018 Culture Night emcees Eli Harris and Rebecca Rodrigues, members of the Seaside Jesters Comedy Troupe, faced a backlash following their debut performance Friday night. According to the two, the duo received threats after their jokes were perceived by some community members and students as racist or culturally insensitive, though not all of the criticisms were threats of violence.
The backlash on social media focused on the way the emcees introduced clubs. For example, comments included complaints about when introducing the Cook Islands, the two talked about the pink mayonnaise the country has; for Taiwan, they talked about its garbage trucks that play music; for Africa, they impersonated accents from the Marvel movie “Black Panther”; and for New Zealand, Rodrigues impersonated the “Lord of the Rings” character Gandalf with a wizard hat and staff.
Rodrigues, a sophomore from Iowa studying marine biology, said there was a mixed response to their performance that “at the best made people laugh and at the worst, unfortunately, resulted in threats of violence against us. We were two students ... who got shamed for trying to reach out to 25 cultures and cause a smile.”
Sullivan Quinn, a sophomore from Utah studying mathematics who used to be in Jesters, said of the emcees, “To be perfectly blunt, I thought it was sad. There was a lot of division that was happening over silly things, and at the same time over serious things. It goes without saying that some of the [jokes], while not intended, were taken racially, and I feel bad. I feel that Eli and Rebecca got way more hassle than actually needed, but I feel some criticism was needed to avoid any future damage.”
During and after Friday night’s performance, audience members were visibly and audibly frustrated with the emcees, with some of them quietly booing when the emcees came on stage. At one moment, Harris joked about the crowd being tired of the emcees and one person in the crowd was heard projecting, “You have no idea!”
Tonga Tonga, a sophomore from Tonga studying information technology, said he didn’t think the emcees did a terrible job, but he didn’t get the jokes. “It’s a different sense of humor and I felt left out. They did their own thing, and they did it for us, but we’re not involved – that was the insensitive part. For me, I served in New Zealand, and [the emcees] used a wizard when they talked about the Maori people. The Maori people aren’t wizards, they are warriors. Polynesian people feel hurt and that’s what it takes for someone to stand up.”
However, Ringo Pulini, a sophomore from Tonga studying biochemistry, said the emcees did “fantastic” and had their own style. “They were a little awkward. I think it was their personalities and you can’t change that. They were trying to show people what they can do. They weren’t trying to offend anybody.”
Prince Owusu, a senior from Ghana studying political science, described the way the emcees introduced Africa Club as “disappointing.” He said, “I looked at my African friend and said, ‘What is she saying? Does she know what she is talking about?’ I wasn’t mad, but I took it as she’s not well connected with the cultures.
“Being at BYUH where we are all from different cultures, we can all step on each other’s toes sometimes without realizing it. I felt it shouldn’t have gone to that extent. It wasn’t the right thing and it wasn’t funny, but I was okay with it. It was just lack of knowledge with what she was trying to say. However, she could have been corrected in a better way rather than people threatening her and being so harsh on her.”
Other viewers took to social media to voice frustrations or disapproval of the emcees. On the official BYU-Hawaii Facebook live stream, commentators called the performers “boring” or “unfunny.” A compilation video was posted on Saturday that received more than 4,000 views that highlighted what the user described as the emcees’ “cringiest moments,” which made fun of the emcees’ jokes with GIFs and photos of confused faces displayed after clips of their jokes.
After being tagged in comments and posts about the event, Lehi Falepapalangi, who emceed Culture Night the previous four years, posted on his Facebook: “I think these two did the best they could with what they were given. … you cannot be mad at them for sticking to what they knew.
“... It’s not fair to judge a fish by their ability to climb a tree. But if you put that fish in front of a group of tree climbers, you can’t not expect to receive negative feedback or criticism. These two are not professional MC’s by any means, nor do they have much stage experience, but my hat is off to these two for having the courage to step in front of hundreds of people and put themselves out there.”
The Emcee Experience
“We knew there was going to be some backlash,” said Harris, a junior from Missouri studying English and education. “We didn’t know how much.” On Saturday, one person said they would throw a shoe at the emcees. He said he saw several comments saying if the emcees said anything disrespectful on Saturday night, people would throw a tomato or shoe at their face. “That’s not a joke. That’s someone threatening me,” Harris stated.
The emcees said their script was pre-approved by SLS staff, who were in charge of Culture Night. They had also contacted each club president to ask how their club would like to be introduced, but only one responded.
“Rebecca and I very easily put in about 30 hours of work into this because every one of our scripts we wrote had to go through [SLS],” said Harris. “It had to go through our own team. At the same time, we wanted to make sure we were accurate.”
“Everything that was our own script was approved for appropriateness, non-derogatory, non-disrespectful, and it was still good. Everything we went through was a lot.”
Rodrigues concluded, “We were not out to offend. I am so sorry to those we did. It was never our intention. I am even more sorry that we were the focal point of negativity during one of the most beautiful events on campus.”
For Saturday night, the two “had to scrap the whole” script, said Harris. “We scratched everything two hours before the event.”
The emcees were escorted by Security personnel and had to read straight from a script written by SLS on Saturday night. “It was a long process and wasn’t easy to let go of. Did all of our jokes land the way we wanted them to? No. For that, I am sorry,” said Harris.
Learning from it
Student Leadership and Services told the Ke Alaka‘i the scripts the emcees prepared for Culture Night were approved twice. SLS Director Alison Whiting said the script was seen to be all fun trivia and had no intention to offend or hurt people. “It was a disappointment to witness some students react in way that were uncivil, mean, and unsupportive, especially on social media. The Jesters’ response to the situation was truly admirable and a representation of cool, true leadership.” She added since Culture Night is for the clubs, when the Jesters expressed interest in participating, they should be given the opportunity.
Harris said he thought emceeing would be a great opportunity to represent the Jesters and bring the campus together. “I imagined it would be a good way to unify everybody. Jesters is one of the smaller clubs on campus, and this was a big event where everyone comes together. I hoped that we would celebrate and be on the same team but what happened was contrary to what we expected to happen.”
Despite feeling hurt, Harris said he and Rodrigues decided to emcee again the second night. “It broke Rebecca’s heart. It broke my heart,” he said. Harris concluded, “The fact that I have to look over my shoulder and worry about getting home safely, that’s not a good thing. It’s going to take a little bit of time before that goes away.”
Writer: Dani Castro & Josh Mason