In the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that have followed, people are taking a hard look at the issue of systemic racism to examine how we can do better going forward. And yes, for many white Americans this means being confronted with latent discrepancies and histories of problematic behavior—even for those who may not have appeared “outwardly” racist.
In one such instance, comedian and game show host Wayne Brady called out his Whose Line Is It Anyway? costars Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie over a joke that was made in poor taste.
It’s unclear exactly how old the offending clip was, as the series is still airing on The CW to this day. However, in the scene, Stiles starts an improv act mimicking that he’s a police officer and that the other three comedians—Brady, Mochrie, and Jonathan Mangum—are part of a lineup. You can probably already see that this is veering into super uncomfortable territory.
“When you’re joking but not really,” Brady wrote, sharing the clip on Instagram. “When comedy and the truth meet up…”
“Can you pick out the man that robbed you?” asks Stiles, before the other two began gesturing at Brady, in the middle. The bit elicited laughter from both the audience and host Aisha Tyler, though Brady seemed less than enthused. “Y’all know that’s fucked up, right?” he says to the audience.
Later in the segment, Brady and Tyler get their comeuppance.
Taking the role of the police offer, Tyler lines the three white men up and asks Brady: ” “Sir, can you pick out the man that embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in the American economy, and then made you pay for it?”
“You mean after systematically devaluing my education and relegating me to certain neighborhoods where I couldn’t actually pursue the education that would enable me to rise to meet a certain fiscal stature in this country?” Wayne responds.
“And also preventing you from making any loans, or homes, or jobs, or businesses, or getting a car lease,” Aisha continues, as the other three slink off.
The clip clearly struck a nerve with people.
“This sucks. On one hand, I’ve watched this show since I was little, I know Ryan and the others are comic genius,” commented one user. “However, laughing at this and watching it made me cringe. I’m really sorry the world is so fucked up.”
“Whose line [sic] was my favorite show growing up,” added another. “Even the new seasons were funny AF. As funny as that was, man that is just as messed.”
With any hope, this will be a teaching moment for Brady’s castmates, who can learn how to be better allies going forward.