Fans of tv show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” have flooded Twitter with complaints directed against Netflix UK, after the show’s episode featuring two characters wearing blackface got deleted from the British streaming service. Netflix has not immediately commented on its decision.
The fury emerged as the episode in question, titled “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth” from season 6, actually condemned the practice of wearing blackface.
“Not sure what Netflix think taking that Always Sunny episode down will achieve. It's pretty clear the episode takes the piss out of people who think blackface is ok, they've even kept a later episode up that features blackface without satirical context”, one of the users commented.
Many were speculating about the move before the episode got deleted as earlier the Little Britain sketch show got removed from BBC iPlayer, BritBox Netflix and NOW TV, for featuring characters with blackface. The show’s actors, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who also starred in the comedy Fly With Me, which also got axed by Netflix, have since reiterated their earlier apologies for wearing blackface.
The crusade against the old shows and movies has been related to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests across the world following the death of African-American George Floyd shortly after he was arrested by police in Minneapolis. Many have condemned the depiction of racial prejudice and slavery in certain shows and movies, with the HBO streaming platform deleting the legendary film Gone With the Wind, noting that it would bring it back to the platform when accompanied by a discussion of the historical context it portrays.