‘Last of the dinosaurs’: Citizen Khan as institutionalisation of Pakistani stereotypes in British television comedy

Abstract

In the summer of 2012 the BBC aired the situation comedy Citizen Khan. In spite of its popularity the show received various criticisms from a range of audiences who felt that the programme negatively caricatured and stereotyped the Pakistani patriarch in British society. It is argued that this misrepresentation was a function of the structural characteristics of the workings of a large organisation which has become out of touch in relation to the diverse communities of Britain. The character of Mr Khan was modelled on the archetype of the Pakistani community leader of days gone by, reinforcing the notion that the community is stuck in the past and therefore reinforcing its position as a dysfunctional ethnic minority group. While the first series has its shortcomings, there is the potential for an improvement in the second series which is to be aired later in 2013.