The latest episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has admitted to a past wrongdoing.
In 2020, Netflix removed a season six episode titled “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth”, in which Rob McElhenney played Danny Glover in a fake sequel to action film Lethal Weapon.
The episode saw McElhenney use blackface while in character as Glover’s role in the film, Roger Murtaugh.
McElhenney used blackface again for the same reason in season nine episode “Lethal Weapon 6”.
The actor and writer of the show decided to address the decision in the latest episode of its 15th season, with the characters uniting to make a seventh Lethal Weapon film.
In the meta episode, the characters discover that their past Lethal Weapon “sequels” have been removed from the local library due to blackface.
Correcting their error, they decided to hire a Black actor to play Glover’s character.
“Hollywood has a very clear moral code on mistakes,” McElhenney’s Mac tells his friends.
“Woody Allen, Roman Polanski – one mistake and that was it” he adds, to which Dennis (Glenn Howerton) responds: “No, actually those guys continue to make films for the next 40 years.”
After “magnanimously” announcing he would not play Glover’s role in their next film, Mac remains silent.
“I feel like you’re talking really slow and taking a bunch of pauses – I don’t know what’s going on,” says, Charlie Day’s Charlie, with Mac stating: “I’m waiting for you guys to praise me because I’m doing something ant-racist and I think I deserve praise for that.”
The episode was written by Keyonna Taylor, Katie McElhenney, Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, weith Pete Chatmon directing.
