The Saved by the Bell Reboot had a joke about Selena Gomez‘s kidney and now NBCUniversal is apologizing to fans offended by the bit. A swift backlash has prompted the company to address this whole thing head-on. The actress had a widely-known transplant that she said she received from her friend Francia Raisa. In the episode a group of students speculates on the validity of that claim and even argue that it could be untrue. One of them argues it was Justin Beiber’s mom and then another suggests singer Demi Lovato is the one who helped out. It’s a bit of a mess on social media where fans of the performer took extreme offense to her serious medical condition being used for laughs. On Twitter, “Respect Selena Gomez” got trending as fans lashed out at the disrespect on display there. Variety was able to obtain a statement about the joke and the donation NBCUniversal will be making to help Gomez’s fund.
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“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” they said. “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.”
Raisa described the ordeal in her own words when everything happened in a video for SELF. Lupus recovery is no joking matter at all.
“It’s going to be hard, the recipient is going to glow and she’s got to recover a lot faster than the donor because she’s getting something she needs and you are losing something you don’t need to lose. It’s going to be hard,” she said. “And it was very hard… Your scars don’t define you It’s a part of your story. It’s a part of the story that makes you special and you different.”
Check out what Comicbook.com had to say about the Reboot in the review:
“We’ve seen many sitcom reboots in recent years and, while it’s always fun to watch our old TV favorites again, most shows can’t seem to grow past the nostalgia to give us anything new,” Matt Aguilar wrote. “While nostalgia is a key ingredient to reboots, it’s not something that can sustain a series on its own; you need a blend of new and old, character growth, and an awareness that things are different now than they were 30 years ago. We are so pleased to report that Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot might be the best attempt at reviving a sitcom we’ve seen.”
Did you know about these jokes? Were you upset on Gomez’s behalf? Let us know in the comments!
