Inside Out’s Disgust and Mindy Kaling

Well, it happened again – I discovered another reason why Mindy Kaling should play me in a movie.

An IM with a co-worker started innocently enough, “You haven’t seen Inside Out, eh? The new Pixar movie…” then quickly escalated to “One of the characters reminds me of you … the green one, disgust!” (full IM snippet below)

As any curious, die-hard Mindy Kaling fan would do, I had to examine this “Disgust” and see where the true similarities lie in Mindy Kaling the person, her “Disgust” character and me.

Mindy Kaling defines her character “Disgust” in a Refinery29.com article, Mindy Kaling On The “Beautiful” Idea That Inside Out Is Not About A Princess, as “The thing about the character is that Disgust is so judgmental, and she’s a lot like my character Kelly from The Office, who is just incredibly impatient and judgmental about so many things and rarely has any solutions. So I think I played her as a little bit of an impatient adolescent girl.” Hmm, not a good start.
A positive description of “Disgust” can be found on this wonderful YouTube interview with Mindy Kaling, Meet Mindy Kaling as Disgust in INSIDE OUT. “Disgust’s” job is to be the watchdog, project manager of life as you will – making sure you don’t eat the wrong food – allergies?, wear the wrong outfit on an interview or date, or say inappropriate things in emotional situations. I love how Kaling says, “She has impeccable taste, so she can make the right calls so you don’t have to.” #Boss #Genius
My co-worker specifically noted that the character “Disgust’s” facial expression and looks were very similar to my own.
1. Stylish bob – check.
2. Automatic lip curl in reaction to outlandish shenanigans by [insert family member, friend, co-worker] – check.
3. Snappy comeback lines and save the day moments – check.
4. Obviously, I can’t post photos of “Disgust” in case there is a Pixar copyright infringement … but I can post screenshots of Mindy Kaling’s facial expressions via her Twitter feed (right?!). Below is just a sampling of similar facial expressions we share categorized by emotion.
Lastly, writing habits .. this one is obviously based on me and Mindy without a “Disgust” link BUT since writing can result in a screenplay (like Inside Out) I felt this last key linkage was not out of context.
1. Exhibit 1,001: Mindy writes in her bed with two pillows propping her up. (Source: Rack.com’s post as told in AdWeek magazine’s “Creative 100” issue) Since I’m literally sitting on the right-side of my bed, propped up by two pillows writing this blog post, I’m unable to prove this without a horrible pajama-clad photo.

I will take this “Disgust” connection as validation of my personal testimonial that Mindy Kaling should – without a doubt – play me in a movie version of my life. Thank you.

Image References: