Alt-Right Sketch Comedy Show Cancelled By Adult Swim
It has been confirmed that Adult-Swim has cancelled its alt-right sketch comedy show Million Dollar Extreme: World Peace. The network confirmed the news with Splitsider.com, with the website reporting that the show which aired its first six-episode season earlier this summer, will not be returning for a second season.
There had been a lot of controversy surrounding the show from the beginning, with many within the Adult Swim network itself opposing to it being renewed for a second season. In an article from earlier last month, Buzzfeed reported a source within Adult Swim claiming that the network’s standards department had repeatedly found coded racist messages in the show that had to be removed before its broadcast. The same source claimed that the network’s boss, Mike Lazzo, was already aware of all this and the show’s apparent alt-right inclinations. But despite this, and all the lobbying from the network staffers, Lazzo wasn’t convinced enough to cancel the show.
“They’re gathering a long list of complaints from people. All of these complaints will hopefully be able to keep a second season from happening.”
“Lazzo makes every decision there. A lot of people at Adult Swim have been on him, trying to get it not renewed. I know at least one person who is very high up there who was furious about it before it came out.”
But three weeks ago, Brett Gelman, one of the network’s most popular comedians and show hosts, decided to cut ties with Adult Swim, citing its treatment of women and more specifically, its promotion of ‘alt-right’ shows and comedians as the reason behind his decision. And now, finally, the network’s powerful boss has given in, with Million Dollar Extreme being cancelled, according to Splitsider. There have been no official announcements yet, but they expect it to come out soon. Million Dollar Extreme: World Peace aired every Saturday at 12:15 am on Adult Swim during the summer.
One of the major reasons behind the call for cancellation of the show was the relationship Million Dollar Extreme, the sketch group that created World Peace, maintained with its community of followers. The sketch group’s most popular member, Sam Hyde, is a prominent figure among alt-right followers, with them praising him on alt-right websites. Hyde also moderates a sub-Reddit devoted to the group, where fans come to decode the subliminal messages in the show, most of which are pro-white nationalism.
Hyde’s followers are extremely aggressive; they engage in harassment campaigns against anyone opposed to the show or their beliefs, another trait characteristic of the alt-right. These have been pointed out as some of the reasons why Adult Swim’s talent group had been calling for the network to cancel the show.
Adult Swim Cuts Loose Alt-Right Affiliated ‘Million Dollar Extreme’, Still Needs To Find A Woman Director https://t.co/ytCQbepdmm
— Bleeding Cool (@bleedingcool) December 7, 2016
Alt-right is short for “alternative right,” and denotes a group of people who reject mainstream conservative beliefs and practices of the U.S. and hold their own far right ideologies. The group lacks a formal ideology of any sort, and also lacks a consensus in ideology among its followers. However, the group’s followers have widely been linked with white supremacism, anti-feminism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-immigration, right-wing populism and other ideologies associated with the far right.
The term “alternative right” itself is relatively new term, with Paul Gottfried having coined it in November 2008. The group’s followers are openly opposed to political correctness, and they express their opinion either anonymously via internet memes or by posting on websites such as Twitter and Breitbart News. They rose into mainstream attention during the 2016 presidential election race, with alt-right members widely supporting republican candidate, Donald Trump, mostly because his campaign revolved around policies such as anti political correctness, Islamophobia, anti immigration etc., that the alt-right agreed with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGkg_U5HIo
[Feature Image by Million Dollar Extreme/Facebook]
