Culture Netflix, Seth McFarlane accused of racism over new animated Good Times reboot - Controversy surrounding the show has resulted in a petition to boycott its release.

Outrage ensued on Wednesday after Netflix and Seth MacFarlane released the trailer for its upcoming animated reboot of the Good Times series, as many claimed the show portrayed racist stereotypes of black people.

In a post on X, Netflix revealed the official trailer for the show set to premiere April 12. One scene of the video shows a character praying to a "black heavenly father" before going into a montage of criminal activity.

JB Smoove, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jay Pharoah, Slink Johnson, Marsai Martin, and Wanda Sykes star in an irreverent reimagining of the TV classic Good Times. From Ranada Shepard and EPs Stephen Curry, Norman Lear, and Seth MacFarlane. Premiering April 12.

In one part, it shows a young, white girl telling a black man that his neighborhood is "a s**thole" before a narrator says the system "put the guns and drugs on the street" and shows gang violence taking place.

"What about the struggle?" one character said. The other responded, "We're black, it will be here tomorrow."

Then to close out the trailer, it portrays young babies as gangsters, where three of them proceed to shoot at each other to a background track that says "all black, everything black."

Following controversy, a change.org petition was started to call for a boycott of the show. Alistair Fannell, who started the petition, wrote, "The New Good Times animated series on Netflix is a glorified stereotypical show that has damaged the image of the original Good Times family show that started in 1974 through 1979."

"The New Good Times animated series promotes violence, culture destruction of the Black community and alcohol abuse," he noted. "It’s time to put a stop to this nonsense that is portraying Black Americans in a negative light through these shows; could lead to bad outcomes towards our youth potential Police brutalities and an increase of the prison population industry.

One of the comments under the post said the show "glorifies the degenerate, destructive behavior some in our community engage in, and tries to portray this a normal behavior."

Another social media user pointed out, "The goal of the original Good Times show was to disrupt the flow of negative stereotypes about black families." They added, "This remake does the opposite, it promotes and amplifies the most negative stereotypes of black families."



"A drug dealing baby? I don’t mind a story of the ghetto or hood lifestyle, but this is what y’all thought was a ‘good time’?" another user said.



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[Nguyen Van Phuoc]

Ironically, the only reason I even know what Good Times even is is from a Family Guy cutaway:

 

[Bland Crumbs]

Ironically, the only reason I even know what Good Times even is is from a Family Guy cutaway:

By five minutes Lionel you huckster!

For revenge I am putting this here because WHO THE FUCK CARES:

 

[SiccDicc]

Ironically, the only reason I even know what Good Times even is is from a Family Guy cutaway:

Mine was from Drawn Together.

 

[whatever I feel like]

So, is there an actual controversy here or is this more the Post Millennial daily churn shit?

 

[Battlefield2142EU]

Who the fuck asked for a good times reboot?

 

[Troonos]

I'm almost positive that the "negative stereotypes" are just actual embarrassing behaviors that modern black culture does on a daily basis.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

It looks aiight n sheeiit.

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

meh McFarlane ain't done anything good since Family Guy S3 and American Dad S6 the rest is pure garbage

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Not over the fact that jj is a scientologist

 

[Cereal Experiments Grain]

The show looks so ugly and dismal while being really obnoxious. I don't seeing it lasting very long. Thankfully without Netflix I probably won't have to see much of it around.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I've seen better animation on Newgrounds in the 2000s.

Western animation is literally dead. They chased away any capable person and they only have trannies and women left. Better to do porn commissions.

 

[Kulee Baba]

I wouldn’t call it racist but if I were a Boomer/Gen X who enjoyed the original sitcom yeah I’d be pretty annoyed. It just clearly has nothing to do with the original concept.

Some of the kneejerk conservative posters here will likely loathe Norman Lear; a jewish outspoken libshit. But his sitcoms hold a special place in tv history, they were funny, they talked about serious issues. What I like most about them was that the family felt “real” in that they portrayed the working class and they weren’t some happy fairy tale bullshit. BTW if you’re under 50 or didn’t watch Nick@Nite/TVLand (like me) know that the 90s sitcoms “Married with Children” and “Roseanne” were both heavily inspired by Norman Lear’s sitcoms.

This post is feeling really TV autistic but my point is Hollywood scraping old TV shows for cheap cash ins is lame. I never watched Good Times but I did see some episodes of Sanford & Son and I’ll riot with my melinated brothas if they dare shit on the memory of Redd Foxx!

 

[Would]

This is racist! Where's the outlandish portrayals of wypipo, Seth!?!?!?!

...What is Family Guy, nigger?

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

The fuck is this shit?

The original Good Times was about a poor but loving black family trying to make the best out of their difficult living situation, and the triumphs and tribulations they go through while doing so.

What does this cynical, disgusting, ghetto cartoon have to do with the sitcom??

 

[FedPostalService]

White people need to stop being offended when black people are honest about black people.

As much as I hate Seth McFarlane is this a nothing burger created by white liberals who can’t use google.

 

[Lifeguard Hermit]

Kind of reminds me of how soft white underbelly goes after the low-hanging fruit.

At no point do I believe that a black person is offended by this shit. This is 100% a media golem ironically not wanting black ppl to have a "good time"

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

Generally fuck Seth McFarlane and all that but... this sounds more like whining over things hitting too close to home.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

My comment on the trailer from the western animation thread:

People are shitting on this but it seemed to oscillate between intresting and unwatchable for me. Some bits at the start seemed like they had potential but then dumb shit like the boss baby, the supervillains, the slapstick and the cyborgs started appearing.

I don't think it was doomed from the start as a concept.

The boondocks has proven that you can do heavily sociopolitical commentary comedy focused around "the black perspective" and still be insightful and funny for everyone, black or white, and the guy that made that was literally a card carrying socialist.

That said expecting netflix to have writers skilled enough to pull off an introspective black comedy ala boondocks is reason enough to be commited to a mental asylum, but still.

 

[Tablet County]

Firstly who gives a shit. Secondly wow that looks like shit.

 

[Haramburger]

That animation is ugly as all hell.

It's in line with every other black cartoon/claymation attempt, they always come out wacky in a hard-to-classify way which is part of the charm to not-black people. It does seem racist in the same way Boondocks is, shouting uncomfortable truths out loud. The more of that out there, the better. Since trust fund band is involved, we'll have to see what Baskin Roberts poster thinks of this.