Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Racial stereotyping

Unlike other films in the teen comedy/stoner genre (see Dude, Where's My Car? and Dazed and Confused), Harold and Kumar also heavily deals with the issues of racial discrimination and stereotyping, particularly as applied to Asian males in modern day America. The movie was praised by many for featuring minorities in the lead roles without stereotypical accents or nerdy qualities. In fact, the lead characters are distinct from most leads in "stoner flicks" by being intelligent young professionals.

Related Topics:
Stoner - Dude, Where's My Car? - Dazed and Confused - Stereotyping - Asian - America - Nerd

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Harold is an extremely intelligent Korean investment banker whose current job impresses even the Korean population at Princeton University. He is constantly faced with the stereotype of the intelligent and nerdy Asian guy, but at the same time, fears being called a Twinkie by his Korean friends. It's explained that a Twinkie is, like the snack food, yellow on the outside, white on the inside.

Related Topics:
Korea - Princeton University - Stereotype - Nerd - Twinkie - The snack food

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Kumar is of Indian heritage, who like his friend Harold is extremely intelligent, especially within the field of medicine. Unfortunately, Kumar also has the fear of becoming a living stereotype and, despite having incredible MCAT scores, refuses to attend medical school offering the explanation "Just because you're hung like a moose, doesn't mean you have to do porn."

Related Topics:
India - Medicine - MCAT - Medical school

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To juxtapose the serious-yet-subtle undertones dealing with racial tolerance, we also have Harold and Kumar's Jewish equivalents and across-the-hall friends, Rosenberg and Goldstein who couldn't be prouder of their heritage. Rosenburg wears a yarmulke, they smoke pot from a shofar and even speak like old Jewish men, despite being in their early 20's.

Related Topics:
Jewish - Rosenberg - Goldstein - Yarmulke - Pot - Shofar

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