NBC’s The Carmichael Show is a show that, while leaning liberal, still manages to crack jokes at the crazier left-wing antics (which seem to be happening more often recently). If you need any more proof, just know that this episode managed to work in the Women’s March with only minimum eye-rollage and a few laughs along the way.
The July 19th episode “Evelyn and Vernon” literally begins with the men, Jerrod (Jerrod Carmichael), Bobby (Lil Rel Howery), and Joe (David Alan Grier) waiting for the women to come home from the latest protest in their city. What was this march about? Well, judging by the men's questions and the ladies’ answers…I’m not sure anyone knows. Just check out the clip and alert me if you figure out what the Women's March was for.
Joe: Your mom just texted me. They're on their way back from that Women's March.
Vernon: What the hell are these women marching for?
Bobby: I think it's about abortions. Usually, that's when women get mad, is when somebody tell them they can't have abortions.
Jerrod: All I know is that any time I ask Maxine what she's marching for, she gets all riled up and mad at me. And she says "If you don't know, then you're part of the problem." And then I laugh. Man, I guess I am kind of part of the problem.
Joe: I know why they March. See, a whole lot of women voted for Trump, and a whole lot of other women are angry at those women because they feel like those women aren't being the kind of women that they feel they supposed to be. See, it's all very confusing, but the point is, it ain't got nothing to do with us men.
Bobby: Yeah, I don't like when they group us all together and make it sound like all men are misogynists or rapists just trying to keep women down. When it's really only 45% of us that do that.
Maxine: Hi, guys.
Joe: Hey.
Cynthia: Oh! That March, it was incredible. They had speeches and music and Lena Dunham. She had a T-shirt on that just said "Vagina" across it. Ooh, there was something weirdly powerful about it.
Evelyn: Ooh, yeah, that March was inspiring. I have never seen so many masculine haircuts on women. It was cute and confusing.
Cynthia: You should've seen Mom out there. She chanted louder than all of us. Oh, I've never seen you so excited.
Evelyn: Well, I just got caught up in the moment. (Chuckles)
Bobby: Hey, Grandma, you got some Lemonheads?
Evelyn: Ooh, you know I do, precious.
Bobby: Yes!
Evelyn: Here you go.
Maxine: You know, I'm so glad that we all went together. It was really cool having three generations of women all standing united.
Jerrod: Hey, Maxine, what were y'all marching for?
Maxine: Uh, there are so many issues, Jerrod. Women's rights are literally under attack. And if you don't know that, then you're part of the problem.
Jerrod: (Laughs) See? I told y'all.
Bobby: Where's Nekeisha?
Cynthia: She threw a can of Mountain Dew at a congressman. So they kept her for a few questions. She said it didn't have anything to do with his speech, it was a personal issue and he knew what he did.
Evelyn: Ooh, that Nekeisha, she's just a little firecracker.
I’d hate to borrow a phrase from radical liberals unfortunately my own age, but even the slightest reference to the haphazard protest earlier this year gets me, dare I say, triggered. The cavalier approach to abortion, the undermining of anything male, and the sheer audacity that they speak for all women when in reality half of them are mocking the marches on Twitter sends me back, and most certainly not in the good way.
But this may be probably one of the few times I have seen a show willing to reveal the Women’s March for what it is, a nonsensical movement for liberal women just to whine about Trump and non-free abortions, and have us laugh at it, at least a little. It’s hardly a step forward in commonsense, but I think mainstream television could use a few more jokes mocking Lena Dunham’s obsession with vaginas. Of course, the Emmy-winning Modern Family wasn't willing to be anything less than reverent to the march and all that it stands for (seriously, I still don’t know!).
The rest of the episode is unfortunately not as heartening, with Cynthia’s (Loretta Devine) parents on the cusp of divorce following the march. Is it because of the march? Is it because the show also presses the disingenuous statistic that half of marriages end in divorce? Is it because the couple’s genuinely dysfunctional? Like the march, there is no good answer. And, once again, like the Women’s March, I don’t expect one.
