By Ruth Bayang
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Numerous viewers condemned the recently revived TV series Roseanne over a scene in an episode last week.
John Goodman’s character, Dan Conner, tells Roseanne they “missed all the shows about Black and Asian families” because they fell asleep in between Wheel of Fortune and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, referencing ABC’s other minority-led sitcoms Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat.
“They’re just like us,” Roseanne Barr’s character responded. “There, now you’re all caught up.”
Among those who weren’t pleased with the joke was Kelvin Yu, a Taiwanese American and former Fresh Off the Boat writer. He wrote in a series of tweets that “at the very least, it’s reductive and belittling.”
“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,” Yu wrote. “That’s it. The stories, the humor, the characters … not important.”
He continued, “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 sh** sandwich of a joke that ABC allowed to be served in their own restaurant. It’s a big deal.”
Yu is largely correct. The joke may not have offended some people, but ABC aired the episode less than a month after shelving an episode of Black-ish, citing “creative differences” with the series’ creator Kenya Barris.
ABC previously praised the critically acclaimed series for its deft handling of controversial topics, but for some reason, they thought this particular episode — about kneeling athletes and political divide in the country — crossed the line.
Since then, Barris has tried to get out of his ABC contract, so he can move to Netflix.
But we all know the real reason ABC didn’t air the episode: It made white people uncomfortable.
And this particular joke aired on Roseanne because it was funny only to white people.
Ruth can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.
Nah man, y’all trippin. I’m black and you’re Asian. I didn’t see the actual show, but based on what the article here says, nobody should be mad.
The show is a situational comedy, so they mostly make fun of real life. Sit-com’s also throw in real subjects that aren’t meant to be a joke in most episodes of most shows.
Being black myself, my view is that they wanted white people, whom often have a racial bias, to understand and hear from their hero’s mouth “they’re just like us”
The target audience demographic probably are Trump supporters or whatever. They are targeting the overfed white hillbillys of middle america. Sure, some people of every nationality watch also, but that’s not who its made for.
The US is 13 percent black and idk how much Asian, but the rest is a lot of people who identify with the values of redneckism. The show is for that huge amount of people that aren’t black or Asian.
I honestly believe their point was to tell their target audience not to be judgemental because they’re just like us.
Whoever is mad about that just wants to be mad. There are people like that out there