''Mr. Wong'' is an American

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

web series which debuted in 2000 and lasted 14 episodes (an unaired 15th episode was made available for the DVD release). It centers around the misadventures of Wong, an elderly Chinese American butler, and the wealthy socialite

WASP A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

he works for (and endures racial abuse from), Miss Pam. He previously worked as a butler for Bing Crosby and often mourns him. It developed a cult following whilst being hosted on the website

Icebox.com icebox.tv was an animation company founded in 1999 by Jonathan Collier, Howard Gordon, Rob LaZebnik, Scott Rupp, and Tal Vigderson. The founders stated that the company was created to capitalize on the inherent "freedom of the medium" which th ...

. The cartoon also drew fierce criticism from the Asian American community, who viewed it as racist. ''Mr Wongs creators,

Pam Brady Pam Brady is an American writer and television producer, best known for her work with '' South Park'' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Career Pam Brady first met Parker, Stone and Jason McHugh while working under Brian Graden at the Fox ...

and Kyle McCulloch, also write for the television series '' South Park''. The DVD was released under the " National Lampoon's Presents" banner. The music for ''Mr. Wong'' was composed and performed by Fuzzbee Morse. The theme song was sung by former

Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

lead singer Davy Jones.

List of episodes

Film

In September 2000 a direct to video film adaptation of Mr. Wong called "Crap Attack" was in negotiation between IceBox Incorporated and

Artisan Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until ...

, however, when the film was publicly announced by Artisan president

Bill Block William Hunt Block (born April 2, 1954) is an American film producer who has been CEO of Miramax since April 2017. His producing credits include '' W.'' (2008), ''District 9'' (2009), '' Fury'' (2014), '' Bad Moms'' (2016), '' Dirty Grandpa'' (201 ...

the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans initiated a letter-writing campaign that successfully convinced Artisan to drop the project. The Coalition later took out an advertisement in Daily Variety criticizing the cartoon and thanking Artisan for abandoning the movie project.

Reception

The series had a negative reaction from critics in the mainstream media and Asian American groups, yet maintained a limited cult following. Scott Bass of ''Streaming Media'' described the comedy of ''Mr. Wong'' as "so edgy" that he could not "imagine seeing it on TV."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mr Wong (Cartoon Character) 2000 web series debuts 2000s American adult animated television series Television characters introduced in 2000 Fictional Han people Asian-American issues Asian-American culture Fictional servants Ethnic humour Stereotypes of Asian Americans Stereotypes of East Asian people Animation controversies in television Race-related controversies in animation Race-related controversies in television Mr. Wong American flash animated web series American adult animated web series National Lampoon (franchise) Television series created by Pam Brady