Margaret Cho



Stand-up comedian Margaret Cho was born Moran Cho in 1968 to a Korean family in California. Her routines often talk about her bisexuality, sexuality in general, Asian-American stereotypes and politics. She had a short-lived sitcom called All American Girl based on her life as a second generation Korean-American. The show is known for featuring the first Asian-American family on prime-time tv. She currently plays Terri on the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva. She also lends her voice to the stop-motion comedy Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. Was once on Dancing With the Stars, but was eliminated in the third round. She released a music comedy album, Cho Dependent, in 2010.

HUGE gay following. We're talkin' second Judy Garland here. It helps that Cho has been quite open about her love for gays for her entire career. She also makes no bones about being part of the BDSM subculture, and has been known to attend Hollywood functions Dressed All in Rubber.


 * All Asians Are Alike
 * Asian Baby Mama
 * Asian Store Owner
 * Race Tropes
 * Recycled Set

Tropes in her work:
""I want morning-after pills more than over-the-counter; I want morning-after pills with my check at dinner. I want morning-after pills on my pillow before I go to bed.""
 * All Women Are Prudes - In All American Girl, her character was written to turn down sex at pretty much every opportunity, even in cases where she herself would have consented. Cho found this annoying, as the show was based on her.
 * Ms. Cho herself averts this trope to hell and back. "Slut pride!"

"Yeah, I like to get fisted. It makes me feel like a Muppet!"
 * Asian Rudeness -- Her mother, but brought up in an affectionate manner.
 * BDSM: Is very frank about being in the lifestyle, and actually used BDSM-related material in her act during her early years.

""If you win a Grammy, you beat out, what, four, five people? If you win Worst Dressed, you beat out 15,000 people. I beat out Mary J. Blige! I beat out Lil' Kim!""
 * Beautiful All Along -- in the semi-autobiographical Bam-Bam & Celeste
 * Berserk Button: The "Hong Kong Phooey" font: that stereotypically Asian typeface used to advertise anything remotely Asiatic. She once yelled at a passing driver for having that on a bumper sticker, forcing him into the wrong lane.
 * Also, fat-shaming.
 * Bi the Way
 * Bilingual Backfire -- Inverted. While promoting All American Girl, she appeared on a morning talk show for a local station that was recently bought out by Disney. At the end of the interview segment, the host, in a Critical Research Failure, asked Cho to tell the people at home "in [her] native language" that they were changing over to an ABC affiliate. As Cho was born and raised in California, she simply looked at the camera and curtly said in plain English, "They're changing over to an ABC affiliate."
 * Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.
 * Dream Team - On Cho Dependent, Margaret collaborated with indie/alternative musicians like Fiona Apple, Tegan and Sara, and Ani DiFranco.
 * Dressed All in Rubber: Was one of the first celebrities to attend Hollywood functions in latexwear.
 * Fag Hag - or more accurately a Fruit Fly since she's not unattractive.
 * Fluffy Fashion Feathers - Inspired by Cher and Bjork, Cho once wore an outlandish peacock dress to the Grammy Awards. While she didn't win the Grammy she was up for, she considered it a point of pride to be named Worst Dressed by various fashion magazines.


 * Reality Is Unrealistic - Her biggest bone of contention with the producers of All American Girl was how she was forced to lose weight for her role. To play herself.
 * Sit Comic - her sitcom, All American Girl
 * Stop Being Stereotypical: She's gotten this from (many non-Asian) critics. Also, inverted by some conservative elements within the Asian/Korean American community who would actually prefer a more "traditional" image of Asians in the media. This was the reason the "Asian Consultant" was hired and manages to be a topic of great ire for her today.
 * Twofer Token Minority - she is a bisexual Korean-American woman.
 * Yandere - her song "I'm sorry." Actually a Gender Flip of a Real Life male example.

Tropes she deconstructs in her comedy routines:

 * Asian Airhead
 * Asian Baby Mama
 * Asian and Nerdy
 * Asian Rudeness
 * Brains and Bondage
 * Dragon Lady
 * Drag Queen
 * Hollywood Pudgy
 * Me Love You Long Time
 * Queer As Tropes (all of them)
 * Sassy Black Woman