People in Australia are pissed after a particular episode of 2 Broke Girls aired over there on Wednesday night. “And the Fun Factory,” which originally aired in the U.S. in early January, featured a joke made at the expense of Aboriginal Australians. In the episode, the character Han said: “I’m in a casual flirtation with a woman in Australia! She’s part Aboriginal, but has a great personality!” The Sydney Morning Herald wrote:
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit have been swamped with angry people, and those defending the racial slur joke. “How dare you make such a racist disgusting joke about Aboriginals. If it had been said about an African American it would never have made it to screen. Not impressed!” wrote an Adelaide-based fan posted to the show’s Facebook page.
“So, I like your show, but as an Aussie viewer, I was a little shocked by the ‘she’s half Aboriginal, but she has a great personality’ line. Being politically incorrect for the sake of comedy is one thing. But the only punchline of THAT joke is ‘aboriginal women are all ugly’. It was racist. It was clearly intended to be ironic, or ‘so racist it’s funny’. But it was not funny,” wrote another.
Not to split hairs or anything, but the people up in arms over the Aboriginal joke seem to be forgetting that the line was recited by a character who also happens to be an arguably offensive Asian stereotype. If you’re easily offended, you probably shouldn’t watch 2 Broke Girls in the first place, which is honestly not the least of reasons why you shouldn’t watch 2 Broke Girls.
