Last Friday, the second season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was released on Netflix. The comedy series focuses on a woman who was imprisoned in a bunker for fifteen years learning how to live on her own, and has a varied cast, with many major characters being female or nonwhite. Naturally, this diversity has a vocal group of white men feeling left out, to the point of demanding “their own show.”
Self-proclaimed meninist and Reddit enthusiast Warner Stanley claims to be the first one to have brought up the point. “I was just watching Kimmy Schmidt, because everyone had told me that it was funny,” he said, “but then I realized that it had been five whole minutes since I last saw a character with the same skin color and gender as me. It was really troubling for me.”
“Where are young white boys going to look for white role models?” he added.
His views were echoed by many who watched the show, who began to petition Netflix for a show that was more inclusive of their desire to only see white people. “I don’t see why we need to have so much ‘diversity’ on TV. Why can’t there be like, different shows for different races?” read one comment on the petition’s change.org page. “I thought this was a man’s show since it didn’t have ‘Girls’ in the name,” read another.
Netflix has since announced that it would replace The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in its lineup. A recent press release indicated that we can expect The Unbreakable Jimmy Smith to be released in the coming months. “There’s nothing more important to Netflix than customer satisfaction, and some of our customers have clearly indicated that they want more white dudes,” read the release. “Please stop bothering us about this,” it added.
Rather than following a survivor of an apocalypse cult as she works through fifteen years of trauma, as Kimmy Schmidt did, Jimmy Smith will follow Jimmy Smith, just a normal guy with a lot of problems and a big, wacky family. Leaked scripts indicate that Jimmy Smith will have to deal with his in-laws and nagging from his wife, when all he wants to do is kick back with his buds and enjoy a few brews.
“No one’s seen anything like this on TV before,” said a Netflix representative. “Viewers really won’t know what to expect. One episode, Jimmy might have to invite his boss over for dinner, but his kids will make it complicated! In other episodes, his wife might nag him to help clean the house, or he’ll have to help one of his kids with a school play. No matter what’s happening, you can be sure that he’ll use his catchphrase a lot!”
“This is exactly what we wanted,” said Stanley. “Finally, a show written, directed and produced by white guys, starring white guys. I think this will bring a whole new perspective to television.”
