13 Run-of-the-Mill Comedies That Had One Extra Spicy Take

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13 Run-of-the-Mill Comedies That Had One Extra Spicy Take

It ain’t no thang when already spicy comedies add more spice. If anything, that’s why we’re watching them in the first place. But when a normally pretty tame, fun-loving sitcom has an unapologetically hot take, it’s pretty glaring. When executed properly, it can have a pretty lasting effect. We’re laughing along with their zany antics, then boom… Tearful gun violence speech! It can also be a pretty off-putting “wait, what?” moment that makes us think, “Is this the character we really need to be hearing this from?” 

Don’t get us wrong, we love when a comedy can amp up the raunch or even tackle issues like religion, depression, or racial profiling… We just didn’t expect all that from Home Improvement or Family Matters. Good on ‘em. They took a chance on possibly alienating people or splitting their audience, and we applaud the risk. Whether they pulled it off or not, here are 13 otherwise tame comedies that had one extra spicy take.

As silly as Brooklyn Nine-Nine is, cops wind up dealing with pretty serious stuff.

CRACKED BROOKLYN NINE-NINE KNOWS THAT IMMIGRANTS WISH THEY COULD HELP. RUN About an immigrant witness, Rosa says, He's scared to show up to testify at the courthouse because he didn't want to be detained by ICE. Hitchcock responds, You know, that keeps lots of immigrants from helping cops.

Collider / Boston Globe 

Carl Winslow confronts a fellow cop.

GRACKED FAMILY MATTERS TACKLES RACIAL PROFILING. Normally a pretty light hearted vehicle for Urkel's antics, Family Matters got real every so often. A 1994 episode, Good Cop, Bad Сор sees Carl confront a racist cop for racially profiling Eddie.

SF Gate / People 

Lorne was like, “Okay, Louis, just go for it.”

GRACKED LOUIS C.K.'S PEDOPHILIA MONOLOGUE SNL About child molesters, he said, From their point of view, it must be amazing, for them to risk so much. It's no shock that he had a spicy take, but Lorne approved the 2.5 minutes of child molester jokes, and it didn't seem very SNL.

Insider

David needs wine to explain his sexuality.

GRACKED SCHITT'S CREEK DISPLAYS SEXUAL FLUIDITY. With the analogy of men as red wine, and women as white, David says, I do drink red wine. But I also drink white wine. And I've been known to sample the occasional rosé. A couple summers back I tried a merlot that used to be a chardonnay. I like the wine, and not the label.

Youtube

This early SNL sketch used racial slurs to prove the show’s edginess.

GRACKED CHEVY CHASE USES THE N-WORD SNL In a Season 1 sketch with Richard Pryor, word association escalates into trading racial slurs. The sketch makes it seem like it wasn't all that wild to say that to a black person back then. Like, you could never say the F word on SNL, but that word was okay?!

Insider / IMDB 

Even for a zany, almost cartoonish show, it’s still a cop show in America.

GRACKED BROOKLYN NINE-NINE IN A POST-GEORGE FLOYD WORLD. On the issues of systemic racism and police brutality, Jake tries to prove he's one of the good ones, but Rosa emphasizes the importance of supporting minority groups without the need to self-validate, or paint himself as a hero.

Collider

You could see how this could alienate the show’s heartland church-going viewers.

CRACKED HOME IMPROVEMENT ON ORGANIZED RELIGION. When Randy questions his religion in Season 7, Tim is upset that his son isn't attending church. A preacher (played by Dan Akroyd) tells Tim that even though his son isn't attending church, he's still doing the Lord's work by helping people in need.

Ranker / Variety 

The Barone boys are grateful for their dad.

CRACKED EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND BREAKS THE CYCLE OF ABUSE. Frank Barone tells Ray and Robert that his father hit him every day, saying, That's just the way it was. They realize that their grandfather got hit, their father got hit, but their father never hit them - breaking the cycle.

Youtube / NY Times 

A silly New Girl character felt the need to say something.

GRACKED WINSTON'S DILEMMA Flash Nom Sweet Dee Spear ........ - - NEW GIRL UMOKTIELDO His storylines usually involved stuff like a cranberry in his ear, but in the wake of Eric Garner's death in 2014, Lamorne Morris (who plays Winston) co-wrote an episode where he's torn between protesting police brutality and being a cop himself.

Washington Post

Parents groups were up in arms after Modern Family cusses.

GRACKED LILY SAYS THE F-WORD MODERN FAMILY Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (who plays Lily) actually says fudge while her mouth was blurred and her voice was bleeped, but the parents group No Cussing Club and the Parents Television Council protested because it encouraged children to curse.

The Week / Pop Sugar 

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