With all the talk about China during last week’s first presidential debate, Bill O’Reilly decided to send his senior trolling correspondent (title I just made up) Jesse Watters to New York City’s Chinatown to “sample political opinion.” Ha ha ha, just kidding, he sent him to make fun of Chinese people. If you’re unfamiliar with his shtick, Watters conducts smug man on the street style interviews — usually at places he’s not wanted, from a NOW conference to a gay pride parade — which are punctuated with stock video footage and movie clips in an attempt to humiliate his subjects. Like what The Daily Show does, only devoid of cleverness.
So how did Watters’ foray into Chinatown go? Well, right off the bat, he asks two women if “he’s supposed to bow” when greeting them, before cutting away to ask a street merchant if his goods are stolen property. Yeah, that went well! To his credit, Watters did go on to ask people legitimate questions about Donald Trump and the upcoming election (even if it was mostly to ridicule his interviewees’ broken English), among hard-hitting questions such as “Do they just call Chinese food in China just ‘food’,” and “Do you know karate?”
Later, back in the studio, Watters told his boss that it was all in good fun, although O’Reilly dismissively admits that “they’re going to get letters.” Hey, he said it, not us.