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Outsourced: The TV Show

Having worked in call centers I was curious to watch the opening show of NBC's Outsourced, the new comedy about, you guessed it, a call center being outsourced to India.

Doing a comedy on this touchy subject may not go over well with unemployment at over 12% in the Bay Area.

There were lots of things wrong from the way the center is setup ( one big room with desks around) to silly one line zingers.

Oh and just in case anyone thinks outsourcing is a political subject, there was an ad for Barbara Boxer blasting Carly Fiorina for among other things, outsourcing jobs.

Let's see, if I knew absultely nothing about Indian cultute I learned that:

* Spicy curry will have you going to the bathroom for five days.
* Deroit is the home of Motors and Black People.
* Americans eat hamburgers all day long.
* Cows are treated with respect and can go anywhere.
* People in India wonder why Americans buy stupid products.

Among the one liners that came across are:

* A manager tells the training manager, your success is my success, and later your failure is my success.
* An Indian rep asks a customer who purchaes two of their novelty products, how do you want to pay for your vomit and poo?

Not sure how the ratings will be, the characters are likeable. There is one person who wears a turban and seems intent on giving a Dirty Harry stare to the training manager.

In this economy who knows what the moguls at the networks will come up with next.

A friend of mine Terri from Oakland, who worked in a call center that had it's jobs sent over seas thought the show was silly."It's hard to believe that they would put this type of show on, considering outsourcing is a major issue now," she said.

Maybe a show on the unemployed and how fascinating and funny it can be looking for a job.

Maybe a couple that is facing foreclosure on their house and all the comedy that can stem from that.

Meanwhile I will stick to watching the History Channel, CNN and ESPN. Real life still exists there.

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