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'Ellen' made a sketch about a young Nicki Minaj that some are calling 'casually racist'
'Ellen' made a sketch about a young Nicki Minaj that some are calling 'casually racist'
Megan WillettOct 13, 2015, 08:34 IST
YouTube"The Ellen Degeneres Show" took a break from scaring celebrities and creating viral moments to show a sketch on Monday that mocked Nicki Minaj's new TV show, as first spotted by Gawker."It was just announced that Nicki Minaj is producing a sitcom of her childhood growing up in Queens, New York," DeGeneres started the segment, showing a clip of Minaj posing in the background. "It's not on the air yet, but I called in a favor and I was able to get us a very exclusive sneak peek. This is totally real, not something we put together as a joke."What followed was a short parody of the typical classic sitcom, with a young Nicki Minaj playfully lying to her parents about childhood chores, complete with a laugh track. The main joke was that all the actors, from the young Minaj to her mother, father, and even their dog, all had big butts that were getting in the way and knocking things over.The Ellen ShowThe sketch is not on the website or YouTube page of "The Ellen Show," but you can watch the full clip at Gawker."They have big butts, that's the joke," DeGeneres said after the sketch.Gawker's Rich Juzwiak called it "a satirical sketch that amounted to a little over of a minute of modern minstrelsy" adding that the joke really seemed to be that women's bodies, particularly black women's bodies, were absurd.Some people on Twitter who had seen the sketch agreed.Others made the argument that her figure is the asset that Minaj is most famous for and didn't see an issue with the sketch. It's not the first time that DeGeneres has made a big deal of Minaj's body. When her music video for "Anaconda" blew up in the summer of 2014, DeGeneres donned a butt pad and gold hoops to try and dance to the music video. And a few months later in December of last year, she repeatedly asked Minaj what she did to achieve her body."What do I do to look more like you?" DeGeneres asked the star, who looked uncomfortable with the question. "I'm working out, I'm doing everything I can," she continued, referencing squats."I don't know, if I told you, then I'd have to kill you," Minaj joked back.Perhaps Ellen's writers need new material.
