Penn Kid Offended By Mad Mex Menu

It’s been a pathetically long-sounding time since I graduated college (4 years). A year before even that, I edited 34th Street. Fortunately, I was the managing editor, and was therefore only responsible for the content in the magazine; the editor-in-chief dealt with all the people offended by the content I had allowed to run. Technically, he was responsible for it, too, but it was kind of a nice scam for me in some ways. Still, I think the situation was useful, in that it left one editor being overly cautious and one not being cautious enough.

Even though I think we struck a pretty good balance eventually, we still got frequent complaints from Penn students offended at a joke we had made or some photo we had taken without permission or some lead singer of AFI we had told to get a new PR person. (I actually answered the phone when that PR person called back. Also, ha ha: AFI? Really?)

All of this was really good preparation for running a blog, obviously.

It seems like things haven’t changed much since I left. For some evidence, let’s turn to a recent offering from The Spin, the DP’s blog:

Of all the restaurants on Penn’s campus, Mad 4 Mex is the by far the nicest. Craig Laban gave it, like, five bells. The restaurant is famous among local drunks for its Big-Azz Margarita, which is not only absolutely big ass but also contains roughly 99 percent alcohol, so no one remembers how it tastes.

Apparently our friendly DP opinion blogger here is a little upset at the menu, which stereotypes several groups:

Okay, I understand that Mad 4 isn’t the most family-orientated establishment, and that humor probably plays a role in catering to a predominantly college crowd. So I can look over the stereotypes they play up about hippies while describing their vegetarian “Angry Hippie Burrito”

Have your Birken stocks dropped? Your hacky been sacked? … Smell?

… and I can ignore the fact that they poke fun and exploit the celebrity culture while pitching something like their “Winehouse Fajita”…

Eat it quick - this crazy dish is set to self-destruct.

Yes, how dare they stereotype hippies and Amy Winehouse. Who ever would have expected it from a restaurant called Mad Mex???

… but the sentence that caught my attention was perhaps the most poorly conceived, which described their “San Francisco” hot wings as “lisp-smacking good” (See photo, or if you don’t believe it, check out the main menu).

Now, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether you find that offensive or not, but my question is this: what exactly was the management of Mad 4 trying to accomplish by citing a gay stereotype?

Ha, ha, the kids there still call it Mad 4. Anyway, right now I’m picturing a board meeting with a lot of very serious men in suits and ties, in front of a giant glass window overlooking the city. A fat man in a brown suit, possibly smoking a stogie, stands up, pulls on his suspenders and says, “Gentlemen, the menu is almost done. Just one question: What are we trying to accomplish by citing a gay stereotype in our ‘San Francisco’ hot wings menu item?” And, yes, he made the quotes with his fingers.

Did Mad 4 think that it would pander to the gay customers, who would then order the San Francisco wings to reward the restaurant for taking the time to think of them? Or was it instead intended to target the homophobe customer base, who would, inspired by the menu, laugh and joke about “those queers” while wolfing down their “Wingos?”

More importantly, did anyone at HQ even bother to proof-read the menu and realize that this might be deemed by some as slightly inappropriate?

Hey, looks like Tae Kim had the same thought I did! Only, um, I wasn’t really being serious. The best part of this blog entry is in the second graf here, though, where the word “some” links to his blog author page.

I don’t get offended easily, and I believe stereotypes can be funny if done well in the appropriate context. However, the idea that Mad 4 was making business by exploiting a generalization about the gay population left me confused and frankly, annoyed.

Yes, the man who was offended enough to point out Mad Mex’s mockery of Amy Winehouse and hippies is not one who gets offended easily. Oh, damn, I’ve been had again; this guy is clearly a columnist doing a parody of a Penn kid. I must admit, it’s extremely well-done.

Mad 4 Stereotypes [The Spin]