Amala Ekpunobi
James & Fuhad Apologize for Laughing at Andrew Schulz’s “Racist” Joke
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Two popular comedians are finding themselves in a lot of controversy for laughing at a racist joke they heard on a podcast. And now they're apologizing to their audience. So without further ado, let's talk about James and Fuhad from Shits and Gigs. (upbeat music) Guys, before we get into today's video, please like and subscribe. Today we're going to be talking about comedy and not necessarily telling an offensive joke, but laughing at an offensive joke. And this is going to bring us to the controversy that's taking place with the Shits and Gigs podcast and their hosts, James and Fuhad. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with these two comedians, they have a podcast called Shits and Gigs. They are best friends, James and Fuhad. And a lot of their comedy is just finding funny stuff online, talking about their lives, dating, what it's like to be a man, this, that, and the other. Now I'd say they have a pretty wide ranging audience, but they're particularly popular within the black community. And that really gets to the root of what we're gonna talk about today. Because what happens when you offend a large part of your audience, in their case, black women. Now let's break down what happened. James and Fuhad are on a little bit of a press tour. And they ended up going on Andrew Schol's podcast, "Flagrant." And Andrew Schol's is known for telling abrasive jokes, jokes about race and racial stereotyping. I don't think he leaves any stone unturned. And that includes the stone of black women. Now he made a joke at the expense of, I guess, black women. And we'll roll the clip so you can hear and see James and Fuhad's response. - Wait, what is the black girlfriend effect? This is not gonna throw up the other culture. - Yeah, so you'll see a guy who's had a black girlfriend. All of a sudden he's got, like, shape up. - Nah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - I like that, I like that, I like that. - But shake their hair 'cause they start losing it. 'Cause it's so stressed around it, black girl complaining about shit all the fucking time. - That's why they gotta shave their hair, bro. - Why guys with black girlfriends? They said-- - They grow a beard? - They step 'cause there's more cushion when they get slapped the fuck out of it. (laughing) - I think, I think the black girlfriend effect, hmm. It might be a protective instinct, bro. - You think? - Yeah. - Do you guys, have you ever had black girlfriends? - Yeah. - Do you, have you ever had white girls? - Yeah. - Oh, wow. - Okay, what's your favorite? (laughing) - We love them all. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh, really? - We love them all. - Yeah. - That means white. - Yo, who? - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughing) - We love them all. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - All right, that's the clip in question. Of course, Andrew Scholes is leaning on stereotypes of black women that they're mad and angry and constantly complaining that they hit their men and James and Fuhad made the grave mistake of laughing at that joke. Now, I've watched a lot of shits and gigs content. I've watched a little bit of Andrew Scholes content and I can tell they have very different comedic stuff. - I've watched a little bit of Andrew Scholes content for into comedic styles. James and Fuhad lean on the lighter side of comedy. Andrew Scholes is a little bit more abrasive and I could see when you have a crossover of these two different camps of comedy, how maybe one can take over the other and it will be the more aggressive form. It's also Andrew Scholes's show, so he's the one who's going to be really taking the lead with the jokes. Now, this clip went out into the world and of course many had responses to it, particularly black women, so let's listen to some of the responses. - I think we've done things where we've done interviews and someone says something that we ain't made personally not agree with, and you can just be like, oh, they were laughing. - They were laughing. - Ellie laughed, they thought that was funny. - And do you know what's actually quite funny? Was it last week, the week before we made a statement, men are afraid of the men. This is it. A man saying that black women are violent. - A white man. - A white man, you two are black men and a white man, and also Andrew wasn't alone. There was another guy there in the clips you're seeing. - He did, he did. - They just don't show him. - He did, well, I'm up to laugh loudly. - But as you said, exactly. 'Cause the other guy is Indian Asian, Asian, so like, but so you're not like surrounded by white people that you feel so uncomfortable. But a white man sits down and laughs at you and says that the women from your race are violent creatures and you laugh. And then you have the nerve to come to us and apologize and say that it triggered your fight or flight. As if we didn't watch it in 4K, you don't make it seem like you had the KKK standing around you. - Now I'm gonna be the one to say it before we get into more responses. It was a joke. If you're familiar with these comedians as well, they make jokes at everybody's expense. And sometimes there are very negative stereotypes about the different races and demographics that they're talking about. They joke about white people, black people, Asian people, men, women, you name it, they're making jokes about them. Now I think a lot of people maybe didn't expect to James and Fuhad to be a part of the audience or a part of the experience when listening to these jokes. And they're now being introduced to a podcast that is really not their vibe and that's okay. But to be this upset that they laughed at a stereotypical joke is a bit much for me. A joke is a joke. And you guys know that I always say comedy is the final frontier of free speech. Really, it's a free-for-all when it comes to comedy. And we're getting responses like this, such sensitive responses to comedy. It makes me concerned for the Western mind at large that we can't take a joke. And you know what? Sometimes jokes don't hit, you don't find them funny and that's okay, just don't laugh. It doesn't need to be this heated controversy where we call out these men for laughing at something they happen to find funny and trust Andrew Schills and his team. Plus James and Fuhad know that not all black women are violent. It's a joke, okay. It'd be a whole different scenario if they somehow sat down in a serious video and said we need to discuss how violent black women are when you date them. They didn't do that though. Nonetheless, we're gonna get into more responses and see what other people have to say. At the end of the day, men with podcasts are gonna act exactly like men with podcasts. And I'm so sorry, I don't wanna see like one of those people that look back and they're like, "Oh, I always knew something was off about them "with the gift of hindsight." But I can definitely say I've never trusted a man with a podcast. However, I have seen some shits and gigs videos, never the full one, okay. And that may be where my disconnect is. But I have seen some like the short clips, okay. And I don't think they ever gave like pro black women or even pro women in general. I just think the snails and men on podcasts is so low that anything like contrary to like fresh and bit is seen as like, "Wow, you're one of the good ones." So it makes sense why a little women, especially black women, would like see their podcasts in a safe space in comparison to everything else that's out there. But I don't think anything that they've ever said or done is deserving of like the moral pedestal that they've been put on. Like they just read other people's tweets and stories and laugh, which is fine. Like I was laughing too sometimes, but they don't deserve this expect, not deserve. They don't even like worthy of these high expectations that people are placing on them. They never gave any indication that they are worthy of upholding these expectations. And I just think that shows how dire the male podcasting world is that you can gain an audience full of women that place you on this moral pedestal just because you don't talk shit about women. Like that is the baseline for being a good male podcast, just don't talk shit about women. And they can even do that. That being said, this news about shits and gigs, it didn't really move me, I can't lie. But it made me think, what would I be moved by? Like, who saying this? Would I be like, ah, like jaw open by? And guys, the only answer that I could come across was Dr. Umar. Like if Dr. Umar said something disrespectful towards black women, then I'd be a little bit moved, like a little bit disappointed because he positions himself with someone that is pro black, pro black women. But guys, shits and gigs. She's onto something a little bit into the video where she's talking about morally pedestalizing people who we watch online. You should never do that. You do not know these individuals. You should especially not do that with people who are known for comedy. And it's so interesting that this is even news in the first place, considering all they did was laugh at a joke that somebody else made. Now, whether or not you find that joke funny is up to you. I didn't find it particularly funny, not because I was offended by it. I just don't like that style of comedy. But when I watched it, all I did was just remain silent. And we've seen stories like this pop up in the realm of comedy over and over. I'm reminded of Matt Reif, who in a comedy special for Netflix made a joke about domestic violence right out of the gate. Now, his majority female audience was not too happy with that domestic violence joke. Attempted to cancel him and he decided to double down on the joke. There's also Dave Chappelle, who in a comedy special for Netflix made a joke about trans people. Now, trans people didn't like that. Allies to the trans community didn't like that. They attempted to cancel him. Dave Chappelle decided to double down. Now, the only difference with this story is that James and Fuhan decide to apologize, not for telling a joke, but for laughing at a joke. Let's watch their apology. - We just wanted to address something that's happening at the minute. This past weekend, there's been a couple of clips going around from when we did a session on the Fleygren podcast, while we were on our US tour. And yeah, there were a few jokes made that were incredibly inappropriate. One specifically pertaining to black women. - Yep. - And in the clip, Andrew was making a joke. I'm not even gonna get into specifics, making a frankly racist joke. And we will laugh at it. And to give, first of all, before we get into specifics or anything like that, obviously, there's just literally no excuse. There is no excuse. - Agreed. - And fight or flight is a real thing. Like, it is, yeah. Fight or flight is a real thing, and it's so not easy to say, but when you're in the situation, you look at it through a lens of like, bro, if it was me, I promise you, I'll stand up, I'll kick the cameras down. - Yeah. - I was smack homeboy in the face. - Yeah. - I was saying this, I'll do that. But when you're in there, you're in shock. - You're in shock, and all you wanna do is move on. - Yeah. - Are we being so for real right now? Have y'all ever been to a comedy show? And maybe I say this as somebody who is a fan of comedy, I'll go out and watch a comedy show. One of the worst people that she will encounter at a comedy show is like, a heckler, or somebody who is so offended by a joke that they feel they need to make a scene out of it, or pop up in the middle of the comedy show and leave. And this is what's happening in the online sphere. And because it's happening in the online sphere over TikTok and people are making these intellectualized responses to them laughing at a joke, we somehow find it more acceptable. It does not make sense to be this offended by a joke. Again, you can say it's not for you, but to turn around and make it into something that is racist and so crazy offensive and Andrew Schulze's a Nazi is way too much. These guys clearly do not hate black women. And if you can't handle a joke at your own expense or at the expense of your race or your demographic, maybe you should not find yourself in the realm of comedy or watching comedic content. And I gotta say, in regard to James and Fuhat and this apology, soy milk, okay? If you didn't like the situation, there's so many things you could have done about this and you could have handled it like a man in the situation, which I know is what they're saying. And they're saying, you know, it was fight or flight. They weren't man enough to handle the situation. I have a feeling they actually found the joke funny. Shocker, and that is why they laughed and said that it was hilarious. Stand up for yourself. You know, you have a few options. You can double down on what you did. You can back down on what you did, which is what they're doing right now. Or you can remain silent. I would prefer you either double down or remain silent when controversy like this is happening, but they're so scared of losing their audience and losing the fame and status that comes with this audience that they feel the need to apologize. Now let's watch a little bit further into their fight or flight apology and see what they have to say. Oh, bro, move on, it's the fucking word, bro. All you want to do is fucking move on. Just move on to the next thing, just move on to the next thing. And like we have to say a few times, bro, just move on. - Just move on. - Just move on. - So many different topics. You were like, move on, move on, move on. - Yeah. - It's not even like about petty laughs or anything, but we just wanted to get out of that situation. - Yeah, literally get out of that situation, keep the ball running. And we thought it was going to be more of like a... - A bro's... - Yeah. - Yeah, it ended up being something that's happened to me. - It ended up being something that's like really, really hurt people that look to us for support and look to us to feel protected. And protected is the main thing I wanted to discuss, is that it is our duty to protect you guys. - Facts. - And it is definitely not cool to be in that situation. And again, not be the ones to stand up and keep the cameras down. - Not be the ones to stand up and kick the cameras down. Imagine how crazy that would be if they actually did that in response to a joke about black women. That would be insane. I don't know if I'm crazy, but that would be an insane response. And they say it's their duty to protect their audience. Since when is it your duty as an influencer or a comedian to protect your audience? If anything, as a comedian in particular, your job is not to protect anybody in the audience. But let's keep watching. - We fucked it on that occasion. - We did. - It's not going to happen again. And it's about being human, it's about realizing that you don't know what you're prepared for. You don't know how to prepare for something. - No, you don't know what's going to happen. And once it's happened one time, you're like, fuck, all right. - You learn from your mistakes. And that's literally, you learn from your mistakes. - Yeah, we fucked it and we're like, we're sorry. - You're probably, you definitely do up all of those. - It is, for me, it's one of them ones where you don't realize that like, for one, when you're part of a community, you don't realize that you can hurt your own community, especially say that. - When unintentionally. - When intentionally for one. - And also on top of that, it was so crazy that like the narrative that's been spun about how we feel about our community, the irony of the fact that while the whole reason we're in that country was to just show how much we love our community and how much we love our supporters and how much time we spent at the shows and just like getting to know people and just like understanding our community better and just like making friends and making bonds and showing love and their showing love. And this whole six week trip was just about showing how much we love our community and how much our community show up. Show out for us. And then to have that exact same trip be the reason that we're having to have this conversation now, but at the end of the day, mistakes make you a better person. - Mistakes do make you a better person. - You're not born a perfect person. And yeah, we don't condone, we don't appease that behavior, we don't rate it and we don't want you guys to think that we were sat in that room, rating what's going on. - We hold our hands up, we apologise. You learn from your mistakes and we hope we don't let our communities now and again, because ultimately we do this for you guys like. - Yeah, you guys all we have. - From now on as comedians, we have certain groups of people that we will make jokes about and we have certain groups of people that are off limits and black women are now in that group. So if you want to hear jokes about black women, I guess you have to go somewhere else because they are now a protected class on our show. Guys, make it make sense again. I will repeat, I totally understand not finding a joke funny or not finding a joke truthful. You know, a good thing about stereotypes or jokes that lean on stereotypes. And when they hit is that, oh, you kind of hit on a kernel of truth right there. That makes me laugh. And a good part of comedy is recognising that the comedian actually understands your community and then can sort of joke on the behalf of your community. And maybe that's not true for Andrew Scholes and that was recognized immediately when he told the joke. Guess what, it doesn't need to be that big of a deal. We don't really need to run with this, and you know, full force and come after James and Fuhad. But now that they've backed down, I'm just like, oh, that's pitiful. It's absolutely pitiful. And now of course, Andrew Scholes has to respond to their apology because his podcast is called into question. And they mentioned that there were many times in which they felt uncomfortable in the podcast and that they asked him to move on. We're gonna watch a small clip of Andrew Scholes response to the apology. - What's gonna happen? - Yeah. - Once it's happened one time, you're like, first, first, you know what's man funny about this? Is it, they had shit that they asked to take out the episode. You know what they didn't ask to take out? - You're racist, Lander. (laughing) - Watch your nose, watch your face. (laughing) - They had shit, they're produced or whatever. It was like, hey, we really think that's inappropriate. We like to take that out. That's very, they're fight and flight instinct, really kicked in after the power down. But with that joke about the Black Moon, nothing really seemed, the fight or flight wasn't really there afterwards. - Your delivery was too good. - Maybe what they were seduced by delivery. - Yeah. - I like them. I feel bad they're going through this, but you don't gotta protect anybody. That's what I would say, to y'all personally, to y'all publicly, you don't gotta protect, your people are equal for talking about it. - Okay, let's listen to the end of the apology. - You learn from your mistakes and-- - That's true. - That's true. - Yeah, we fucked it and we're like, we're sorry. - You definitely, you definitely don't wanna fight. - And of course Andrew, they go on to talk about the fact that they make jokes about every community and very negative jokes about other communities as well. And if that's not your style of comedy, sure, that's not your style of comedy. But to now hear that their team reviewed the podcast before it went out, and they actually flagged things that they wanted taken out, but didn't flag the joke in question that they laughed at is pretty telling. Now, if I were James and Fuhad, I'm either gonna shut the hell up and not respond to the controversy, or I'm gonna come forward and say, you know what, it was a joke that we found funny. We understand that you didn't find it funny. You know, we didn't mean anything in regard to Black women. Of course, we don't hate Black women and we don't think all of you are violent. We just found that joke funny, that's it. That's all you have to say. But now, I'm sorry, I'm gonna say it again. It just makes you look soft, and you need a glass of soy milk at this point. So here's what happens. Now you've lost credibility with those who have stood by you through the controversy, and you've also lost credibility with the people you're apologizing to. And the apology is not going to gain that audience back because they already know how you feel based on how you reacted at the outset, and they're not looking for an apology. They're not looking for progress out of the situation that you committed. They're looking to punish you, and the punishment is playing out as we speak. So it's really a lose, lose situation, and the best route you can take is to stand by your actions or to shut up. And when it comes to comedy, I feel like situations like this really distinguish who's a real comedian and who's not, because if you are approaching your comedy with an idea that certain groups of people need to be protected, that you can't laugh at certain jokes because you're going to offend people, then you're probably not a real comedian. These people would be quaking in their boots if they heard a Dave Chappelle special or listened to Norm Macdonald. And it's because they are true comedians, and they're not going to say that there's a certain protected class that cannot be joked about. What this is pointed out is that James and Fouhard are not necessarily comedians. They're sort of like people pleasing, performing influencers who are going to go wherever their audience takes them, which really can't make you a comedian. And I guess we'll see how this goes for them. Can they gain back the love of black women that they lost in laughing at that joke? Or is the damage already done? I have a feeling because their content is enjoyed by many different demographics. They all have no trouble just bouncing back from this, but it does really make you sit back and reflect on comedy, on your obligation to your audience, and on what to do when you find yourself in a bit of controversy, where the internet is blowing up something way out of proportion in my opinion. But guys, those are just my thoughts on this situation. Drop your thoughts in the comments down below. As always, if you liked this video, like, subscribe, click the notification bell to be notified every single time I post a video for you guys, which is every day. And if you disagree with anything I said in this video, don't worry, you don't have to cancel me. Just let me know what you disagree with in the comments down below, and we can have a healthy discussion about it. Guys, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. Bye. (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah, you better ♪ ♪ Yeah, you better ♪
James & Fuhad of the popular ShxtsNGigs podcast have issued an apology for laughing at a ‘racist’ joke that Andrew Schulz made on his ‘Flagrant’ podcast at the expense of black women. Was this necessary, or total weak sauce? Let’s talk about it.