"Sickest Buddha"

Note: this video may be explicit to some viewers

I found this video on CollegeHumor.com.  It's somewhat Jon Lajoie-esque, and features a guy rapping about being the "Sickest" Buddhist. The comedian in the video is Arj Barker, who is of Indian descent. To my knowledge, he is not Buddhist, and his wikipedia page says his father is of Sikh heritage.

The video shows Arj as an American in what looks like a Buddhist meditation retreat. He depicts every Americanized Buddhist stereotype that I can think of, and then makes it even more exaggerated and extreme. For example, in the beginning of his video he talks (raps?) about being required to do a "45 minute meditation" and that he "nailed it in 10."  Brad Warner mentions this way of thinking in his book, "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate."  In chapter 5, he writes about scam artists claiming they have "instant enlightenment" secrets, and charging a ton of money for something that is unattainable.  Warner explains that "one of the worst [trends in Western Buddhism] is the idea that there are ways to speed a person to enlightenment" (27). With Americans' need to get everything quickly, it makes sense that these scam artists can easily fool Westerners.  In this video, Arj is one of those Americans, thinking he can gain enlightenment quicker than everyone else. He says "I opened my third eye on my first try," yet chats away on his cellphone during a time of serenity, and looks oh-so American while doing so.

Throughout the video, there are "background dancers" (I don't know how else to describe them), and they seem to be very infatuated with Arj. Rightly so, since he claims to be the "Sickest Buddha" and more enlightened than anyone else. At one point, Arj says "Never heard of Kama Sutra? Let me introduce."  Now, as we know, Buddhists are not to "'misuse sex'" (97). This includes wanting too much of it, having sex for the hell of it, etc.  We often think of the Kama Sutra as something naughty, but it was really just made to make love-making enjoyable for all parties.

Arj makes a lot of references to a couple of people who we generally associate with Buddhism. The first is Deepak Chopra, who has written books on Buddha and Buddhism. The next is Eckhart Tolle, the author of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth." Tolle does not consider himself a Buddhist, but does derive a lot of his teachings from Buddhism as well as many other religions. The last is Siddhartha, who was obviously Buddhist because he was the Buddha.  Chopra and Tolle may often be associated with Buddhism, but that's also stereotypical because while they are spiritual leaders, they are not Buddhists.