Selena Gomez took to social media to call out the makers of The Good Fight for an episode that referenced her 2017 kidney transplant. In a tweet, she called jokes about organ transplants ‘tasteless’.
"I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently," she tweeted.
"I hope in the next writer’s room when one of these tasteless jokes are presented it’s called out immediately and doesn’t make it on air".Selena Gomez, Singer-actor
In an episode of The Good Fight, a spin-off to The Good Wife, the show’s characters brainstorm jokes for Wayne Brady’s character. During the discussion, they come up with topics that can’t be joked about after Jay DiPersia (Nyambi Nyambi) says that comedians “need a permission slip” to tell jokes.
One of the characters reveals ‘joke permits’ about topics like ‘feminist’, (Barack) ‘Obama’, ‘Kamala’ (Harris), and Republicans. While talking about taboo topics, the group names ‘necrophilia’, ‘autism’, and Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant. A source close to the production told Variety that the scene was being taken ‘out of context’.
“If you watch the episode in full, the reference to Selena Gomez is part of a discussion the characters are having about topics that are not okay to make fun of and the idea of cancel culture and being canceled for telling a bad joke. The reference is that Selena Gomez’s transplant is not something you can joke about,” Variety quoted the source.
Earlier, the makers of the Peacock show Saved by the Bell had apologised for a joke about Selena’s procedure. In the scene, two students speculated the donor’s identity. Peacock’s statement read, "We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health," and the scene was removed from the episode.
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