It had all the makings of why I hated these type of genre movies. Teen comedies with guy trying to lose their virginity seemed to be beat to death by the Sixteen Candles stuff, only to be resurrected by Scream and the movies that followed after (which didn't seem to have the knowing "wink" at the audience that Scream did). I never saw myself in these comedies. Long Duk Dong in 16 candles came close (hey, there's an Asian guy. but he's such an idiot. but he's Asian!). I could appreciate these movies by being an American, but I couldn't find people who were like me that weren't stereotypes.
My brother had me rent the movie yesterday, and I have to admit that I really liked it. It didn't cop out with the stereotypes...hell it even showed why certain Asian stereotypes were there in the first place. The previous movies I saw with notable Asian Actors was Yellow and American Adobo (not to mention the very fun but short lived Margret Cho Show), and I really liked that, for a mainstream movie like this, that they would acknowledge 1) why these stereotypes exist 2) why these stereotypes are funny and 3) why these characters don't necessarily prescribe to these stereotypes. Both Harold and Kumar come from second generation families. Even though Kumar's speech was a little over the top, it highlights the right idea of how the first generation sees the second generation and how it's the job of the second generation to change traditions (for a very similar speech, check out Yellow which has an immigrant father telling his son's girlfriend why he only believes in work instead of ideology).
This movie also works well in the realm of comedy because it blends the general idea of a "comedy of manners" from British comedy and a "comedy of teens" from American comedy into something that really works. Race-comedy is America's bread and butter, and to have a comedy about race that deals with the idea of "model minorities" really made this movie for me.
I was a very big fan of this Asian-American theatrical troop when I was younger (their name escapes me right now) from San Fransisco and Harold and Kumar remind me why I liked that troop in the first place: Asian people aren't just an object of comedy and ridicule, they have emotional experiences that are tragic and funny and are relatable to different people.