Mindy Kaling Predicted The All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Outrage In Her 2011 Memoir

The Mindy Project - Season 2
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Do you watch The Mindy Project? If not, you should. It’s a very funny show for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is because of how sharply it observes the state of our culture, both in the present and in the past.

Mindy Kaling, star and creator of the show, is as responsible for the show’s purview as anyone, so when presented with something that she wrote five years ago that almost perfectly predicted a current cultural trend, it’s hardly a surprise. Such is the case regarding a passage from her 2011 memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), in which she basically called the lashing out toward an all-female Ghostbusters reboot by angry, trolling dudes.

I always wanted the reboot of Ghostbusters to be four girl-ghostbusters. Like, four normal, plucky women living in New York City searching for Mr. Right and trying to find jobs — but who also bust ghosts. I’m not an idiot, though. I know the demographic for Ghostbusters is teenage boys, and I know they would kill themselves if two ghostbusters had a makeover at Sephora. I just have always wanted to see a cool girl having her first kiss with a guy she’s had a crush on, and then have to excuse herself to go trap the pissed-off ghosts of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire or something.

Pretty spot-on, wouldn’t you say? The whining over next month’s remake of the 1984 classic has sadly gone beyond just teenage boys feeling put out. Stars Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, along with director Paul Feig, seem to have to do some sort of damage control in nearly every interview they do or appearance that they make, which is a major bummer, especially considering that all five have found a great deal of success being hilarious in various milieus up to this point, making it feel pretty nonsensical to assume that the new Ghostbusters will be a lousy movie simply because it revolves around four women as opposed to four men.

But aside from that, let’s give it up for Mindy Kaling, accomplished actor, producer, comedian, writer and now, it would seem, clairvoyant as well.

(via Indiewire)

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