Comedy Central India chops 'Schitt's Creek' gay-kiss, Dan Levy fumes
What's the story
Comedy Central India has recently become a topic of hot debate for editing out a kissing scene between two men. Schitt's Creek director and actor Dan Levy called out the Indian wing of the comedy channel for a cut on a very important scene that it did last year. Notably, the Canadian TV sitcom has swept this year's Emmy Awards by bagging nine trophies.
Details
The scene was included in a promotional video
Levy, who plays David Rose, a pansexual character in the show that he has written and directed, too, was in the scene that faced the scissors of the Indian branch of the channel. The scene was included in a video, lasting over three minutes, that showed several lead characters taking turns to perform dares as part of the game "spin the bottle".
Twitter Post
'This is a show about the power of inclusivity'
You showed the kiss between two women, you showed the kiss between a woman and a man, then removed the kiss between two men? This is a show about the power of inclusivity. The censorship of gay intimacy is making a harmful statement against that message. #loveislove https://t.co/3ouNbuetq1
— dan levy (@danjlevy) October 6, 2020
Edited part
Video showed girl-girl kiss, girl-boy kiss, but cut man-man kiss
As part of the dares, each person pointed at by the bottle gets to kiss the person on the other side of it. The snippet shows intimate moments between opposite and same (girl-girl) sexes. But when the bottle stops at David, and Ted (Dustin Milligan) goes for a kiss, that's when we see it deleted. The video resumes moments after the kiss happens.
Criticism
He wrote a powerful tweet with the hashtag #loveislove
Tagging the video with #loveislove, the 37-year-old actor-writer posted a powerful tweet. "You showed the kiss between two women, you showed the kiss between a woman and a man, then removed the kiss between two men? This is a show about the power of inclusivity. The censorship of gay intimacy is making a harmful statement against that message," read his post.
LGBTQ+ rights
GLAAD's Twitter handle extended support to Levy
GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) too supported Levy's sentiments on Twitter soon after. "Schitt's Creek was designed by @danjlevy to be a place free from homophobia, so removing this kiss flies in the face of the show's intent and what makes Schitt's Creek so extraordinary," stated the tweet. The show was nominated twice for GLAAD Media Award but won one last year.
Confusion
It's the Indian channel, not the US branch, Levy clarifies
Levy's tweet created confusion among Schitt's Creek fans worldwide, who started calling out the parent channel, asking for the reason behind the deletion. Levy cleared the air with his reply, mentioning that this was done by the Indian division of Comedy Central. Reporters have reached out to the US channel for a comment from its Indian sister division on this matter.