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2 Broke Girls under fire for casual racism

"She's part Aboriginal but has a great personality" says a punchline in US sitcom.

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2015-02-20_1221An episode of Two Broke Girls has attracted headlines after a punchline was deemed ‘casual racism’ towards Aboriginals.

The episode “And the Fun Factory,” included a male character chatting up an Australian woman online before explaining, “She’s part Aboriginal but has a great personality”, to a friend.

It aired in Australia on Tuesday night.

Social media sites criticised the line, which has now attracted media headlines.

Nine declined to comment.

 

 

https://twitter.com/benpobjie/status/568551697800249344

Via; Fairfax

21 Responses

  1. What is ‘casual’ racism anyway? Can one be casually homophobic? You either are racist or you’re not. Using the word ‘casual’ feels like a way of minimising the effect it has on those affected by it.

  2. The saddest thing about the “joke” is that it simply wasn’t funny. Even the laugh track could barely raise a giggle at it (watch the show and you will see that the joke gets a decidedly lower volume/amount of laughter than the jokes preceding it).

    Although the show is known for its low brow humour, so one could barely call this a surprise…

  8. I’ve never seen this show so can’t really comment about it. But the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about this was the Red Faces blackface controversy during a Hey Hey Reunion show a few years ago, and the huge uproar over it that followed in America. Now, I would be surprised if there was even one American who would still even remember that story… but isn’t it funny how it seems no one over there considered this 2 Broke Girls line to be in the same category… Having said that, I personally think both instances are a case of people overreacting to a touchy subject in a world where it is (justifiably) easy to accuse someone of racism when racism was never the intent.

  9. Yes it’s in poor taste, but so is the entireshow…and while we’re at it, let’s call an end to South Park and Family Guy too. I can’t believe people who watch 2 Broke Girls which is full of gutter humour what with all the vag-china jokes would get their knickers in a twist over this.

  10. More ‘crying wolf’ from the wilfully offended who undermine and devalue genuine cases of racism. It was a joke! Remember them? I get my leg pulled about my ethnicity all the time but give as good as a I get because I possess a characteristic that is all too rare these days; a sense of humour, which is much more disarming and empowering than crying “racism!” at the drop of a hat. What’s more, people respect me for not being a whinger.

  11. I do wonder hoe many viewers even picked up on the joke until it was pointed out?

    I watched this episode last month and right now I can’t even remember at what point the line was said.

  12. Every second line on that show is racist – not trying to defend the comment, but why are people only bothered by it when it’s a comment relating to an Aboriginal person, the show makes racist remarks about every other culture on a weekly basis.

  13. Americans use the word Aboriginal as some kind of generic term referring to ferals or undesirables. Despite having it explained to them repeatedly that the word refers specifically to the Indigenous people of Australia, they continue to use the word in that way. I’m not surprised they are once again in trouble because of this.

    1. I hope you are joking, Aboriginal does not refer specifically to indigenous australians. The word aboriginal simply means native to a certain place. The natives in Canada are referred to as Aboriginals. You are extremely misinformed.

      1. You beat me to it! I was going to write the same thing. Also, I have never ever heard it being used in a slang sense in the US, I don’t believe that is true at all.

  14. Makes a change from all the casual racism about Asians and Russians. The sitcom is solely based around the characters shouting out offensive comments, which the laugh track enjoys.

    They can defend it with the First Amendment quite successfully.

  16. Ah, the Low rent humour of the CBS sitcom. While this isn’t funny and shouldn’t have been written at all, surely someone at nine should have picked up on it and edited it for the Australian broadcast?

  19. And exactly how many people watched this at the late hour of 10.15? More people will have been made aware of this now than the actual number of viewers.

    As soon as it was said, I turned ro my partner and said t’hat’ll cause an uproar’.

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