After a joke on “Roseanne” Tuesday night took aim at fellow ABC shows “Black-ish” and “Fresh Off the Boat,” some took to Twitter to in response.
In the episode, Roseanne Barr and John Goodman’s characters fall asleep on the couch, with Roseanne saying “we slept from ‘Wheel’ [of Fortune] to [Jimmy] ‘Kimmel.'” Goodman’s Dan responded that they “missed all the shows about black and Asian families,” to which Roseanne retorted “they’re just like us. There, now you’re all caught up.”
“Black-ish” and “Fresh Off the Boat” air during that time slot on ABC and each focus on diverse families, with some criticizing the line as offensive.
Kelvin Yu, a writer on “Bob’s Burgers,” was among the most vocal on Twitter, and in a nine-post thread said that the joke “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.”
He added, “Consider what exactly the audience is laughing at. What exactly is the punchline here? I’ll tell you what it is: it’s an endorsement of dismissiveness and disregard. It’s a familiarity and comfort with the culture of objectifying and demeaning people of color.”
Yu went on to call out ABC for hypocrisy after the network stopped an episode of “Black-ish” from airing a plot about kneeling during the National Anthem earlier this year “because of fear it would be divisive and alienating.”
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. 2/9
— Kelvin Yu (@InternetKelvin) April 5, 2018
Keep in mind, ABC was all too willing to bar Kenya Barris from airing an episode about kneeling during the nat'l anthem because of a fear it would be divisive and alienating. Blackish is one of only a handful of shows about Black families on the air. 6/9
— Kelvin Yu (@InternetKelvin) April 5, 2018
Here's my point: they rebooted a beloved 90s sitcom & updated the main character to be a Trump voter under the pretense that it was a realistic portrayal of the the white working class. Then in ep 2, they depict her LITERALLY SLEEPING through stories about people of color. 8/9
— Kelvin Yu (@InternetKelvin) April 5, 2018
Other Twitter users backed up Yu’s argument, with one writing, “ABC shelved an episode of ‘Black-ish’ citing ‘creative differences’ because it was about football players kneeling in protest. Yet they have ‘Roseanne’ coming back as a Trump supporter, taking shots at shows like ‘Black-ish’ and ‘Fresh Off the Boat.'” Some questioned why an ABC show would go after two shows on the same network, and emphasized that “Black-ish” and “Fresh Off the Boat” are some of rare shows on broadcast TV about people of color.
More tweets below:
ABC shelved an episode of Black-ish citing “creative differences“ because it was about football players kneeling in protest. Yet they have Roseanne coming back as a Trump supporter, taking shots at shows like Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat.
— Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) April 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/chrisjlarose/status/981324069181231104
the nerve of roseanne to take potshots at black-ish and fresh off the boat. we never needed another roseanne. we DO need diversity on television.
— zoë, flu shot enthusiast (@zoenone0none) April 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/kellyawallace/status/981596182861533184
I know enough about writers’ rooms to be pretty sure that now infamous Roseanne joke was intended as an affectionate dig to a couple of shows the series shares a night/network with. But in the context of the show, it didn’t play that way and shoulda been cut.
— 🦇 Batmily BatDerBat 🦇 (@emilyvdw) April 5, 2018
Roseanne's dismissive swipe at Black-ish and Fresh Off The Boat really just exemplifies how conservatives' cries for representation on TV is nothing more than desire to tell everyone else to sit down and shut up…
— Michael Scally 🌈✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽 (@FizzVsTheWorld) April 4, 2018
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