Plot
John Cho plays Harold, a young Korean-American man working at his first job in banking, sick of his white co-workers' assumption that, as an Asian, he surely must love to crunch numbers. Kal Penn plays his friend Kumar, a second generation Indian whose family assumes he will become a doctor like his father and brother, though he does not want to. The two simply want to smoke marijuana and put off making adult decisions.
While smoking some marijuana in their apartment one evening, they see a TV ad for White Castle and decide to make a trip for some hamburgers. Finding a White Castle ends up being more difficult than they imagined, and they find themselves on a chaotic road trip full of drug-fueled, politically incorrect philosophy.
During their quest for a 24-hour White Castle their trip becomes more and more bizarre. They eventually are attacked by a raccoon and attempt pass themselves off as surgeons (in the hopes of finding access to medical marijuana).
A hideous but helpful tow truck driver later proves to have an unbelievably attractive wife. Their excitement when she propositions them, however, is short-lived; when it turns out she expects her husband will join in.
Buying drugs from a college hippie ends up being a mistake. It turns out he is self proclaimed "business hippie" who grossly overcharges them.
They blow off what they think will be a boring, highbrow gathering with an ethnically-identified collegiate club for "some fun" with two promiscuous college girls. The pair discovers, though, that their hot dates are gross and their intellectual friends really know how to party.
They also run into Neil Patrick Harris (playing an alternative-reality version of himself), who is strung out on ecstasy and hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. Harris plans to use his child star status to get laid. Harold and Kumar later see Harris flying down the road in the car he stole from them while snorting coke off the buttocks of a partially naked hooker.
Stealing a truck from a stupid, macho jock allows them to uncover the jock’s secret love of cheesy ballads.
Happening across Harold’s unrequited crush, they discover that she shares his love of John Hughes’ 1980s Americana films.
After being arrested by a racist cop for looking different, the two encounter an African-American man, arrested, of course, for being black. The pair break out of jail and steal a huge bag of marijuana from the police before returning to their on-going quest for fast food nirvana.
In the end, the duo gets their "Sticks and Sliders", find a small measure of revenge against Harold’s co-workers and have their car returned by a repentant Harris. As they dine on their burgers, Kumar observes that there are many kinds of “burgers” in America, and all he really wants is the right to enjoy them all. (wikipedia)
John Cho plays Harold, a young Korean-American man working at his first job in banking, sick of his white co-workers' assumption that, as an Asian, he surely must love to crunch numbers. Kal Penn plays his friend Kumar, a second generation Indian whose family assumes he will become a doctor like his father and brother, though he does not want to. The two simply want to smoke marijuana and put off making adult decisions.
While smoking some marijuana in their apartment one evening, they see a TV ad for White Castle and decide to make a trip for some hamburgers. Finding a White Castle ends up being more difficult than they imagined, and they find themselves on a chaotic road trip full of drug-fueled, politically incorrect philosophy.
During their quest for a 24-hour White Castle their trip becomes more and more bizarre. They eventually are attacked by a raccoon and attempt pass themselves off as surgeons (in the hopes of finding access to medical marijuana).
A hideous but helpful tow truck driver later proves to have an unbelievably attractive wife. Their excitement when she propositions them, however, is short-lived; when it turns out she expects her husband will join in.
Buying drugs from a college hippie ends up being a mistake. It turns out he is self proclaimed "business hippie" who grossly overcharges them.
They blow off what they think will be a boring, highbrow gathering with an ethnically-identified collegiate club for "some fun" with two promiscuous college girls. The pair discovers, though, that their hot dates are gross and their intellectual friends really know how to party.
They also run into Neil Patrick Harris (playing an alternative-reality version of himself), who is strung out on ecstasy and hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. Harris plans to use his child star status to get laid. Harold and Kumar later see Harris flying down the road in the car he stole from them while snorting coke off the buttocks of a partially naked hooker.
Stealing a truck from a stupid, macho jock allows them to uncover the jock’s secret love of cheesy ballads.
Happening across Harold’s unrequited crush, they discover that she shares his love of John Hughes’ 1980s Americana films.
After being arrested by a racist cop for looking different, the two encounter an African-American man, arrested, of course, for being black. The pair break out of jail and steal a huge bag of marijuana from the police before returning to their on-going quest for fast food nirvana.
In the end, the duo gets their "Sticks and Sliders", find a small measure of revenge against Harold’s co-workers and have their car returned by a repentant Harris. As they dine on their burgers, Kumar observes that there are many kinds of “burgers” in America, and all he really wants is the right to enjoy them all. (wikipedia)
MY THOUGHTS
I think this movie was a great choice for my media blog because it dealt with a lot of different racial issues that wasn’t about blacks and whites but about many different races and stereotypes we have about each other. The things that Wu talked about in his article about Asian Americans not being treated like they are Americans but from other countries and that they are stereotyped like he said when the little boys were doing karate chops at him. In this movie there are different moments that are stereotypes for both characters but one in particular relates to what we discussed in class about how we can stereotype other races in negative ways with knowing it like saying all blacks love rap music. In the scene that I picked that stood out for me in the movie was the beginning when Harold is finishing up his work ready to go home, and chill and hang out with his friends but two of his white co-workers go up to him and traps him into doing their work for them making up lie why they couldn’t do it themselves. Then once outside one guy makes that comments that Asians love to do a lot of work its fun for them. That white guy clearly stereotypes Harold and made him look as if he didn’t have a life like he did and didn’t want to go out and have fun like that were planning to do.
The character Kumar who in the movie is clearly an intelligent guy and very knowledgeable about being a doctor doesn’t want to do that. And what I found funny is that their behavior is usually stereotypes as how blacks would act because they were acting lazy and wanted to smoke weed and do drugs all day every day. The reason I say its usually stereotyped as black traits is because when you think of a guy who smokes a lot of weed a lot of times a blacks guy with dreads will probably pop in people heads not a Asian and a Indian guy. The movie proves that everyone is different that we shouldn’t judge people and their actions because of their skin color but we should judge based on their personalities. If the two white men in the beginning of the movie took the time to get to know Harold and actually hung out with him they would see that he and Kumar are just like them. And maybe they would have a lot less rude and did their own work or took responsibilities of their actions. Also another scene I thought was great was when Harold and Kumar went to a Ivy League school and Harold met with a group of Asian students who was interested in his job and basically fit the stereotypes of how Asians acted and were. They were nerdy and eager to work and do what Harold was doing. They held him on a pedestal and even Harold had his own stereotypes about his own race because this young Asian student that liked Harold invited him to a party that they were throwing and of course he wasn’t going to go because to him a group of nerdy Asian students couldn’t throw a great party. But as him and Kumar was leaving the school they run past this wild party and coincidently enough it was the Asian student being all crazy, drinking, and partying hard. That scene was also great because although Harold was subjected to those guys at his job stereotyping him he did the same to his own race which we all do. The movie was great because both Harold and Kumar didn’t fit the stereotypes of their respective races and wanted to step out of that box they were both put in.
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