Selena Gomez Slams ‘The Good Fight’ For ‘Tasteless’ Kidney Transplant Joke
Selena Gomez is not happy with The Good Fight after it made a jokey reference to her 2017 kidney transplant.
The episode in question sees the show’s characters discussing joke ideas to pitch to a television executive. After noting that you “need a permission slip to tell a joke” these days, the group decides that certain topics are off-limits, specifically referencing necrophilia, autism, and “Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant.”
Gomez’s fans had taken to social media to call out the Paramount Plus show, and now the singer herself has responded. “I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,” she wrote. “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.”
I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently. 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 (@selenagomez) August 3, 2021
Peacock’s Saved by the Bell revival also referenced Gomez’s transplant back in November, which saw two Bayside High students speculating about the donor’s identity. Peacock, NBCUniversal, and the show’s producers later apologized and edited the scene out of the episode.
“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” their statement read at the time. “We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC.”
According to Variety, a source close to the production of The Good Fight said that the reference has been 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 source said. “The reference is that Selena Gomez’s transplant is not something you can joke about.”
Gomez also thanked her fans for having her back and encouraged people to sign up to become organ donors.
My fans always have my back. LOVE YOU. If you are able to please sign up to be an organ donor https://t.co/4GSEiHEfEf
— Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) August 3, 2021
The Good Fight, Thursdays, Paramount+
