James Corden faces cancel campaign over ‘racist’ segment mocking Asian food in 2016

The jokes made with Jimmy Kimmel encourage bullying and cause harm to Asian people, activist says

Jimmy Kimmel and James Cordon ‘encourage anti-Asian racism’ in this video, according to campaign to cancel the segment (YouTube / The Late Late Show)

TV presenter James Corden has been called out over a racially insensitive joke five years ago on The Late Late Show that mocked "horrific" foods like pig blood curds, chicken feet, and fish smoothies.

While the talk show host recently told Howard Stern his program would no longer use the foods in “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts”, the activist behind the cancel campaign is demanding an on-air apology and payments to Asian Americans.

Californian Kim Saira, 24, began #CancelSpillYourGuts after her TikTok video calling the 2016 segment with Jimmy Kimmel "racist af" went viral with 416,000 views and more than half a million likes.

"They’re calling Asian food disgusting on live tv. Huh. This is literally racist," she captioned the TikTok over clips of Corden and Kimmel discussing the "disgusting, horrific" food.

"Wow it all looks so terrible. And I know people can’t smell it, but it doesn’t smell good either," Kimmel said.

@kimssaira

ok but this is actual Asian food & youre going on live tv telling people how gross it is. thats cringe

♬ original sound - Kim Saira

In the truth-or-dare segment seen almost 28 million times on YouTube, Corden described Asian foods like the thousand-year-old egg and balut, "which I don’t even really know what that is”, Cordon said.

From the Philippines, Balut is a fertilized egg containing a partially developed embryo that is boiled and eaten directly from the shell. It has a pungent odour.

Ms Saira, who has Filipino heritage and grew up eating the country’s street food, started a Change.org petition that now has more than 45,000 signatures from people who agree the segment "amplifies and encourages" bullying of Asian Americans for their native foods.

"In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism," the petition says.

Ms Saira told CNN the segment perpetuates the "myth that Asian people are ‘disgusting’ or ‘horrifying’ because he’s taking foods that are so unfamiliar and telling other people that they’re disgusting." A spokesperson for CBS directed CNN’s request for a response to an episode of The Howard Stern Show last week in which Corden addressed the criticism.

"We heard that story, and the next time we do that bit, we absolutely won’t involve or use any of those foods," Cordon said. "As you said at the start, our show is a show about joy and light and love. We don’t want to make a show to upset anybody."

While Cordon made the comments on 16 June, Ms Saira didn’t find out about the response until recently being told during a media interview.

In an Instagram post, she said about 60 people showed up at a CBS TV lot in Los Angeles last week to drop off the Change.org petition but "were immediately denied by a bunch of men in suits at the gate".

"I have specifically asked for James Corden to publicly apologise on his show, and the reason why I was really specific about that was because I think that it is imperative for his hundreds of thousands of viewers to understand the harm that mocking these foods, rooted in Asian cultures, has on Asian people who still eat them," she told TODAY.

"Besides that, I still think he should be donating to Asian organizations as well."