Is 'Roseanne' Revival Racist?
by EG
The revival of Roseanne has drawn big ratings, but it's also waded into big controversy. Some critics are arguing that the show is pandering to conservatives on the right by mocking progressives and minorities, and given that the show's star, Roseanne Barr, is an outspoken Trump supporter, it doesn't seem like an outlandish accusation. But one joke on this week's episode crossed a racial line, some are suggesting.
Via Us Weekly.
Roseanne has ruffled feathers once again. During the Tuesday, April 3, episode, a joke was made that raised a lot of eyebrows. After falling asleep in front of the TV, Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Dan (John Goodman) awoke to realize they slept for hours.
“We slept from Wheel to Kimmel,” Roseanne tells her husband. Dan responds, “We missed all the shows about black and Asian families.” However, it was her response that upset many: “They’re just like us. There, now you’re all caught up.” The assumption was that the shows referenced were ABC’s sitcoms Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat.
Kathy Griffin was fired for posting a fake picture of Trump missing his head.
— TOᑭ ᖇOᑭE TᖇAViS 🇺🇸 (@TopRopeTravis) March 30, 2018
Why is Roseanne not being fired for posting a picture of gingerbread Jews going into an oven while she was dressed as Hitler?@ABC - We're glad to watch the competition until you do the right thing! pic.twitter.com/Qs7Tvm2kbQ
Kelvin Yu, a Taiwanese-American actor, writer and producer, took to Twitter on Thursday, April 5, to express his disappointment with the punchline. In a thread of nine tweets, he called out that the joke is much more than offensive.
“Here’s why the Roseanne joke about ‘missing all the shows about Black and Asian families’ matters. At the very least, it’s reductive and belittling, as if to say those shows are nothing more than ‘Black’ and ‘Asian’ in their existence. But the real kicker is when Roseanne says: ‘They’re just like us. There, now you’re all caught up.’ Which implies that the point of any show about a minority family is simply to normalize them. That’s it. The stories, the humor, the characters … not important,” Yu, who previously starred on Master of None, wrote.
“Then you take ALLLLLL of that and put it in the mouth of an avowed Trump supporter (not the actress — the CHARACTER of Roseanne) and you have one stinky little shit sandwich of a joke that ABC allowed to be served in their own restaurant. It’s a big deal,” he continued. “Do I think the characters Roseanne and Dan watch Black-ish or Fresh Off the Boat? Of course not. Do I think they’d say something PC about them? Probably not. But the point is, they didn’t HAVE to say ANYTHING. They didn’t have to write that joke at all. It’s not even a joke.”
Get the rest of the story at Us Weekly.
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