PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written on 11/28/17; 12/2/17)
11/28/17
-I came up with the episode a few months ago after reading about the reaction to Dave Chappelle's transgender jokes in one of his recent Netflix specials. It made me wonder, "How much can you say before it goes too far?" and "How much can you overreact to something?" I wanted to answer both questions in this episode. This is actually what "The Code" (#TYH412) was supposed to be until plans changed.
-When it comes to political correctness, I don't have a strong stance on it, just like I don't have a strong stance on political incorrectness. I feel like they can co-exist, and we can live in a more conscious society while also understanding that not everything should be treated as offensive. And if it is, then it's best to talk about why this is offensive or why certain views might be problematic.
-Both plots show two different sides to the situation: RK tries to understand how to move in a politically correct society, but then gets angry and doesn't understand why he has to watch what he says until he hears about KG's problem. Meanwhile, KG sees his best friends going over the top with slurs and epithets as insults while playing video games. He eventually joins them because there's nothing he can do about it, until RK encourages him to think differently. This actually helps RK learn something, while Jaylynn also learns a lesson about what can happen when people get too sensitive about something.
12/2/17
-Originally, the main plot wasn't supposed to be another RK/Jaylynn battle. All of the group members were supposed to give up swearing, but while I was writing, having the conflict be between two people worked out better for what I was trying to say. RK represented someone who gets stuck in older views every now and then, while Jaylynn understands how to move in a more politically correct society. Plus, I love pairing these two together because they have great chemistry.
-I was a little worried this episode would end up being too similar to "Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017" (#TYH515), but it worked out in the end since both episodes go for different things.
-The episode is named after the Heavy D song that plays over the end credits. That was the title I came up with originally, but I had actually never heard the song before doing the rewrite.
-I was thinking about changing the first two scenes because I didn't like them at first and felt like the episode wasn't starting off the way I wanted it to. However, I ended up falling in love with them during the rewrite. I wanted to show what can happen when someone overreacts to something you say that was never meant to have any malicious intent. RK wasn't trying to insult Ashley or prove that he was right like he usually would, but instead tried to understand where his friend was coming from until he got in trouble.
-RK references the Earth, Wind, & Fire hit song "Shining Star."
-I really like the message of "Most Girls" and felt like the song would speak to Jaylynn so I decided to reference it here.
-I was inspired by the incident involving PewDiePie's use of the n-word a few months back to do the subplot involving KG, Rodney, and Trevor. From what I found out, there appears to be a lot of racism and homophobia that goes unchecked in the gaming community. I wanted to get the point across that Rodney and Trevor were not doing this out of malice or because they actually had these views, but were most likely influenced by others to do it and continue doing it because nobody ever told them it was wrong.
-The Louis C.K. segment was meant to make fun of his recent sexual harassment scandal where he was accused of masturbating in front of two women, along with his constant use of the n-word in his routine.
-Jaylynn references one of Lynne's lines from "The Code" when she tells Anja how clean her language is.
-When being challenged by Jaylynn to crack, RK tries to save himself by singing a number of random songs, the first two of which he forgets the lyrics to: "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent featuring Olivia, "Drops of Jupiter" by Train, "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson, and "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince & The Revolution.
-KG tries to justify his video game language by saying that he was doing his Mark Wahlberg impression. This is a reference to a hate crime Wahlberg committed when he was a teenager where he assaulted an elderly Vietnamese man, on the same day he had assaulted another Vietnamese man earlier. When Wahlberg returned to the scene of the first attack, the police reported that he used derogatory terms towards Asians such as "gooks" and "slant-eyed gooks." KG then references the SpongeBob episode "Sailor Mouth" where SpongeBob and Patrick get in trouble with Mr. Krabs for using swear words.
-When KG asks Trevor if he heard what he said, Trevor misinterprets it as KG asking him if he had ever listened to "What I Said," a Coco Jones song from the 2012 Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine. Funny enough, I heard that song playing on TV last night.
-Buster initially believes that Wade created more clones of RK and Jaylynn, a reference to "You're Welcome, Hellish" (#TYH513).
-RK refers to Jaylynn as Salty, a reference to the baby seal of the same name that has appeared in several Disney cartoons.
-In the episode "Heterosexuality 101" (#TYH512), it is revealed that Buster sees RK as his spirit animal, but he tells Jaylynn that in confidence. That's why in this episode, he hesitates to call him that.
-KG's statements on Denise reference the 1973 blaxploitation film The Mack, where the statements originally come from the pimp character Pretty Tony. I've never seen the movie, but I heard Pretty Tony's lines sampled at the beginning of the Raekwon song "Wisdom Body" (the song appears on Raekwon's 1995 debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., but it is actually a Ghostface Killah solo track), which is what inspired me to use it.
-I don't want to get into details about this, but it's interesting that right before this episode came out, Gabby Douglas ended up facing controversy on Twitter for a statement she made regarding Aly Raisman's post about female empowerment. Life is a crazy thing.
-I've noticed a lot of the time when shows do these episodes that they tend to just attack political correctness. Like, the message is that the world is getting too sensitive, and I don't have a problem with that, but they never seem to talk about why the world has become more sensitive, or what might happen when people legitimately go too far. Some of my frustration regarding that comes out in KG's speech near the end.