The heightened social and racial tensions around the world have made the calls for change louder than they’ve been for a while, and one of the ways that Hollywood has reacted is by removing movies and TV shows from circulation that could be seen as either insensitive or offensive when viewed through a modern lens.
The heavy use of Confederate imagery in The Dukes of Hazzard may see the series dropped from streaming entirely, while even classics like Gone with the Wind aren’t safe. However, one of the more contentious decisions has been Netflix’s call to pull an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia that features white characters using blackface.
While you can understand why it was done given the current climate, It’s Always Sunny has always had a reputation for being one of the smartest and most subversive comedies of the modern era, and one of the show’s hallmarks is having Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank’s reputations as generally terrible people act as a way for them to use potentially offensive material for satirical purposes.
Fans quickly went online to vent their frustrations at Netflix for pulling the episode in question without viewing it in the proper context, and you can check out some of the reactions below.
So @NetflixUK have removed the lethal weapon episodes of Its Always Sunny because of the presence of blackface, in a brave display of completely missing the point of those episodes!
— Ben Sampson (@bdsampson) June 16, 2020
Multiple episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have been removed from Netflix because people can't understand the context of the show. Yes there's blackface but IN the show they call it out and say how terrible and not OK it is.
— Chloe (@likamotownbeat) June 13, 2020
@NetflixUK how can you remove It's always sunny ep? Just because the episode depicts blackface you remove it despite it literally just asking in a satirical manner 'when is blackface okay?' even though concludes that it isnt ever. If this episode was ever relevant it's now.
— chardee macdennis (@fishmannbd) June 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/Jhomsie/status/1271827406131810305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fentertainment%2Fits-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-fans-lash-out-netflix-twitter-deleting-episodes-featuring-blackface
For me the whole point of always sunny is to condemn actions through comedy. None of the actions portrayed on the show are meant to be repeated and are shown to be vile things done by vile people. If anything I would imagine this would make people see black face in a worse light.
— kaywayz (@kaywayz) June 16, 2020
@NetflixUK you understand that the entire point of Its Always Sunny is to take the piss out of bigots? And that the episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" is MOCKING people who think blackface is funny? It's satire, plain and simple, and it's more relevent now than ever.
— fraser 🐙🦜 (@frasercampbell_) June 15, 2020
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Blackface Episode Gets Pulled from Netflix U.K.
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IDT #Netflix really understand the series. Almost every episode is offensive, that's the humor and tone of the show. They also did an episode where the same guy comes out to his dad.. pic.twitter.com/EYdNNu0wBn— Jcrdy (@jordyxcollins) June 15, 2020
gotta say. i don't massively care that the blockage episode of Always Sunny has been removed. I'm J saying u missed the WHOLE point of that the episode is showing how stupid and ignorant black face and ignorance is. But u don't care so fine I'll J pirate it
— baolo (@lewzealandlover) June 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/LaurenPatters/status/1272297996743557132
The thing about It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is that the characters are appalling people. The humour is derived from their inability to function as empathetic human beings. We are not celebrating black face with them, we are laughing at how unaware & awful they are.
— Stephen Knight 🎙️ (@GSpellchecker) June 14, 2020
The episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia that uses blackface incorporates it into the story in a similar fashion to Robert Downey Jr.’s role in Tropic Thunder, in that it directly calls out the practice as a terrible and hugely insensitive idea, but there’s been no calls for the latter to be stashed away in a vault somewhere despite recent cries from people that hadn’t even seen the movie. There’s a fine line between acting in folks’ best interests to remove offensive material and simply hiding something away in the hope that they’ll eventually forget about it, and it looks like the industry will be continuing to walk that tightrope for a while yet.
