Fresh Off the Boat: Fajita Man

March 4, 2015 10:47 AM - Season 1, Episode 6

As Jessica searches for a job for herself, Eddie starts working at the Cattleman's Ranch to get enough money for a video game (Shaq Fu) he wants.

Songs from this episode:
Kool Moe Dee - I Go To Work - 1989

Minor anachronism: Shaq Fu actually came out in October 28, 1994 in North America, before the show is set (sometime in 1995).

posted by filthy light thief (8 comments total)

I googled it, and apparently there is not a 9 to 5 video game.

I hope porpoise sees this episode and reports back on the real estate aspect.
posted by tofu_crouton at 10:52 AM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Shaq Fu has an interesting after-life, from Shaq Fu.com, the site that documents the effort to "LIBERATE all the copies of Shaq-Fu from existence by buying them from anyone who owns the game and then destroying them," and it's counterpart, Save Shaq Fu.com, plus the successful IndieGoGo pitch for the new sequel, Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn. If you want to give the game a try yourself, there are plenty of places to play Shaq Fu online.

But you can understand the kids enthusiasm for the game:

Me and the kids at school didn't always get along, but the things we could agree on were hoops, hip-hop, and Nintendo. So when we heard Shaq combined all three in a video game, we lost our damn minds.

It's called "Shaq Fu."

It's like "mortal kombat," but with Shaq.

From this transcript of the show.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:53 AM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I googled it, and apparently there is not a 9 to 5 video game.

Give it time - the internet will make this happen, I'm sure of it.

That little thread in the show was GOLDEN, especially the ending: "Equal pay for equal work! You can have it all, ladies!" Little Dave is really growing on me.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:55 AM on March 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

Last note: I was going to balk at the supposed $50 pricetag for Shaq Fu, but this IGN article on the price of games and gaming systems states "An NES game in 1990 cost, on average, about $50."
posted by filthy light thief at 10:59 AM on March 4, 2015

I watched this almost accidentally when it was on last week and was pretty well enamoured. It may be a sitcom with parents who grew up in a different culture than I did, but stingy parents who won't adjust the thermostat are universal.

I knew the 9 to 5 game wasn't real, but still somehow I was disappointed when I also Googled it. The tag at the end made me long evern more.

Remembering that NES games cost $50 also reminds me what I didn't have a NES growing up.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:24 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, totally, I remember games (and PC games) being $50-60 back in '90. Games are still $50-60. Crazy. A decent desktop (gaming) computer seemed to be constant at about $2000 from '90 (or before) to about '02-04, then plummeted and are converging with console prices.

If they were going to keep blonde alpha-kid, I'm glad they changed the actor from the absurdly tall kid to the shorter one. New kid seemed less actively mean and more just clueless/advantaged. Or did the tall kid just shrink because he got knocked down a peg or two?

(Thanks tofu_crouton)
The real estate agent thing, especially "taking charge" and "feeling boss" with the victory was pretty darned spot on! Especially in response to being in a lower social station because getting a meaningful job as a visible minority foreigner can be tough. Feisty savvy high-energy Asian woman taking names and moving homes. The money is a surrogate for respect, but it's like law - sure "lawyers" make tons of money, but the average (say, public defender) lawyer doesn't make an incredible amount based on the amount of work and the education/certification required.

But the women (and men) who got in this way, whom I knew (Asian immigrants mostly and some of mom's colleagues), usually ended up struggling and wasting their time. There's a lot of driving around, tedium, drudgery, paperwork, extraordinary efforts to improve "face," driving around some more, and just plain wasted time/effort/money when brokering real estate.

My mom got involved by informally bringing a few private parties together, got addicted to the rush from the finder's fees, then decided to take the real estate course and licensing exam. That was really stressful (and could be a good plot point for laughs). Even after getting her license, it was pretty much all down except for narrow peaks of euphoria every time she closed a deal. When times were good, it was a savage rollercoaster ride day-to-day and even hour-to-hour. Also lost a couple of close family friendships (and cost me whom might have been my first girlfriend), brokering for said friends. Family, too, but that's been smoothed over.

I wonder which way the show will take it, if they continue this arc.

Are there any TV comedies that revolve around real estate agents? Gold mine for black humour, but a show like that would probably just piss people off these days.
posted by porpoise at 7:07 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

The change in alpha-blonde actor - I'm liking that the show's making everyone a target. I guess there are visible-minority-preying bullies from my past that I can't forgive, but there were also the bullies who would treated me the same way regardless of what I looked like - and I barely remember those.

Good looking little blonde boys aged 4-9 still intimidate me.
posted by porpoise at 7:43 PM on March 4, 2015

Really loved this episode. I'm generally more interested by the parents' storylines over Eddie's. I mean, I guess his attitudes towards girls is pretty age-appropriate, but it is so similar to how creepy so many grown men look at women it was a real turn-off in the first few episodes. But the 9-5 video game runner was hilarious, and the father-son emotional arc was really sweet.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:06 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]