- Honestly, when I think about the fact
that I'm a comedian now, and people are always asking me,
"Oh, were you funny growing up?
"Why did you become a comedian?"
Like, no little Asian American girl was told
she should be a comedian.
But when I think back to how my mom saw the world
and how she would always share her observations with me,
I realize, "Oh, my mom is savage,
"and she 100% taught me how to tweet."
Hi. I'm Jenny Yang.
I'm a comedian, writer, actor, and host.
(upbeat music)
I was born in Taiwan, and I moved to Southern California
when I was five years old.
I had two older brothers and my mom and dad,
and we were just figuring out how to be American, y'all.
When I was a senior in high school, I got my first job ever
at this very cool clothing store at the mall.
I was so proud because I was finally gonna be able
to make money for myself.
When you walk into the store,
the cologne smells really strong,
and everything's kind of dark.
Tables and rows of every color polo you can think of
and piles and piles of expensive jeans.
It's an assault on your senses, like smells and sights.
It's like, things everywhere.
And it is like a cave of clothing.
I was so proud of working at this store.
I was like,
"Man, I just need to, like, invite my family to come by."
Because that's what you do, right?
You invite your whole family.
I mean, we're Asian, so we roll deep.
My brothers, my mom, my dad, they all showed up one day
to my store and just started to poke around.
I was a little nervous, but very proud.
Nervous because everything at the store
was way too expensive.
I know for a fact that my dad, the moment he walked in,
he was just flipping open all of the price tags
just to know what he was dealing with.
And he was the first person to come up to me and be like,
(speaking Chinese)
These are thick wool socks.
(speaking Chinese)
Yeah, my dad didn't understand the value
of a thick wool sock, I guess.
My brothers and I probably had a weird sibling rivalry,
so they didn't say much.
They just kind of looked around and went, "Uh, cool."
My mom is a garment worker.
We barely bought new clothes.
I was definitely very aware and sensitive to like,
"Ooh, I wonder what my mom's gonna think
"because she's the one who sews clothes all day."
Whenever we'd go shopping, she would be the one
to use her discerning eye to look at a piece of clothing.
She was very judgmental about clothing because of her work.
So I was watching her.
I was like, "Mom, what do you think?"
And so she kind of walked up to this pile
of perfectly crisply folded denim jeans.
And then she poked at it.
It was just like, "How much are these?"
And I opened the price tag, and it was $99.
She was like, "Oh my god, these jeans are $99?
"Are you kidding me?"
This is the moment I will never forget
because she looks at this pair of jeans
that has a bunch of distressed holes in 'em,
and she just said,
(speaking Chinese)
My whole world crashed upon me
because when I think about that, I was like,
"Wait, that's right. Holes are not good.
"Why would we pay so much money for holes?"
And in my heart, in that moment,
I was really disappointed
'cause I really wanted my mom to love what I was doing.
And for her to roast these jeans that I was selling
felt a little bit of a personal attack,
so my face got hot, and I was just like,
"Uh, well, you know, this is just the style.
"You know, that's just how it is.
"This is cool, okay? This is like, this is cool.
"It's a good brand."
That means nothing to my mom. I dunno.
She probably then continued to look around
and judge everything, but she had a point.
My mom didn't have a lot of freedom or power in the world
because she didn't drive and didn't speak English.
But when I was with her,
she would just be nonstop speaking in Chinese,
just commenting on things and commenting on people
when they're right in front of us because she just assumes
they don't understand Chinese, like,
(speaking Chinese)
Like, no shame.
(laughs)
She made me who I am.
(camera clicks)
I don't think my family really understood
how cool my first job was.
But now, as a comedian, I think they've come around
to understanding the value of what I'm doing.
I get to make people laugh,
but at the core of it, I get to tell stories
about people like me and the people that I care about.
I dunno.
I think my family's proud of me now.
(laughs)
At least they told me this, so that's good.
(cheerful music)