Selena Gomez fans call out kidney transplant comment in The Good Fight

3 August 2021, 18:16

Selena Gomez talks to Kamala Harris about the US election and lupus

By Katie Louise Smith

"The kidney transplant was a life threatening situation and i don’t understand how it could ever cross someone’s mind to make fun of it."

Selena Gomez fans are coming to her defence on social media after her kidney transplant was mentioned in an episode of The Good Fight.

The Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald-led Paramount+ series is catching some heat over an episode that aired back in July that focused on cancel culture and offensive jokes. In the episode, one of the characters references Selena Gomez's life-saving surgery in a conversation about off-limit jokes.

As a result, Selena's fans have started trending 'Respect Selena Gomez' on social media.

The Good Fight season 5, episode 4 explores cancel culture, what is and what isn't regarded as an offensive joke, and who, if anyone, is allowed to tell those 'jokes'.

The employees at the show's law firm then begin printing 'joke permits,' with subjects that include an array of issues, stereotypes and famous figures like Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Greta Thunberg to name a few.

During a conversation between Marissa, Jay and Jim about the permits, Jay asks what kind of subjects are off limits. Jim says “Necrophilia?" to which Marissa responds, "No, that could be funny.” Jay then suggests "Autism," and Jim replies with "Selena Gomez's kidney transplant." The subjects are deemed off-the-table.

The Good Fight frequently draws from real life political and pop culture happenings. The scene appears to reference the backlash from the unacceptable 'jokes' about Selena's surgery that were aired on the Saved By The Bell reboot back in 2020.

Fans have now called the show out on mentioning Selena's name in the scene and bringing up her surgery. To show their support for the star, they managed to get "RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ" trending on Twitter.

Another fan wrote: "the kidney transplant was a life threatening situation and i don’t understand how it could ever cross someone’s mind to make fun of it RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ."

As mentioned above, Selena Gomez fans have been very vocal on social media about offensive jokes and references that have been made in TV shows regarding Selena's 2017 live-saving surgery.

In November 2020, the Saved By The Bell reboot was slammed after graffiti was seen in the background reading, "Does Selena Gomez even have a kidney?" Another 'joke' saw two characters speculate about the identity of Selena's donor, despite Selena having already shared that Francia Raisa donated a kidney for her.

Following the backlash, the scenes were removed and the creators issued a statement and an apology: “We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health. 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.”