The Story Behind Dear White People’s Perfect Scandal Parody. Dear White People, the new Netflix series being released on Friday, was not created for this moment. Its creative team couldn’t have even known that this moment would be this moment, since they wrapped production on Election Day. The fact that the show rings so true is a testament to the writers’ satire muscles, or outright clairvoyance. The show is based on filmmaker Justin Simien’s critically acclaimed 2.

Obama- era post- racialism. The Netflix series takes place after that bubble has burst, and the presence of lingering bigotry is presented without plausible deniability. The central question to the show, then, is how to balance being a person and being a member of the resistance: Can you watch Scandal with your friends (and white boyfriend) when there are protests to plan? That idea is at the heart of the first episode, which contains one of the show’s absolute funniest scenes — one where the main characters gather to watch Defamation, Dear White People’s hilarious Scandal spoof. On this week’s Good One, Vulture’s podcast about jokes and the people who write them, we talked with Simien about that scene, with the conversation also getting into why he couldn’t maintain the film’s level of satire for an entire TV series and his reaction to the renewed backlash to the show’s title.

Listen to the episode and read an edited transcript of our discussion below. Tune in to Good One every Monday on i. Tunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the first episode, the main characters gather to watch Defamation, a Scandal parody. I think a good place to start is: How do you feel about Scandal? Honestly, I think her shows are great.

PERHAPS we shouldn’t have been remotely surprised when the release of Dear White People’s trailer in February brought out the online trolls.

Shonda [Rhimes] knows what they are. Watch Black Robe Online Etonline there. I call them kitchen- sink entertainment because they give you every possible thing that could possibly happen. If you’re a black person of a certain age, you’ve absolutely been to that viewing party. It’s just so ingrained in my experience as a young black guy, but it’s one of those cultural experiences that hadn’t yet been shown on a television show.

Dear White People creator Justin Simien talks about loving Shonda Rhimes, writing satire, and his show’s timeliness.

What was so funny about it for me, as a person who wasn’t watching week to week, is just how caught up everybody was in it. The show is a lot of fun, but watching people watch the show, that was the gag. That was the aspect of young black culture I thought would be a fun place to set our characters, who are dealing with interracial relationships.

1. Justin Simien's new Netflix original series, "Dear White People," illustrates how best to adapt a movie for TV.
2. How Dear White People Wryly Dismantles the Myth of Post-Racial America. Writer-director Justin Simien talks about how he expanded his Sundance breakout into an.
3. Featured, Movies, Pop Culture, Race & Politics, Television Dear White People on Netflix Is Everything That The Movie Could Have Been Plus More.

Scandal and even How to Get Away With Murder, they’re popular among black women, but the interracial aspect of it is pretty controversial. Ironically, it sounds like you felt how the white character Gabe feels in the scene, which is, What are all these people watching? I’ve been the guy in the room like, “Wait, so, who is that?” I always get the death stares from my friends who are like, “Justin, this is not the night to revoke your black card. You have to support this show and us watching it.” I’m in no way, shape, or form mad at Scandal because it serves a need that black people have when we watch things.

Speaking for myself, as a black person, I love digging deeply into a series and thinking about its intricacies, but I also love talking to my television and saying, “Girl, don’t go in there.” We really are celebrating it because our characters love. Defamation. Some of them love to hate- watch it, but either way, people love it.

Maybe the most iconic scene in your movie is when the characters criticize the types of movies Hollywood makes for black people. Then, in the first episode of your TV show, you have them being like, “This is exactly what I want to see.” Was that intentional? Not in that way. Both were attempts to capture what the conversation is at the moment. Honestly, a lot of black audiences are feeling suspicious but optimistic. I’m not going to say we’ve reached a mountaintop, but there’s certainly more films and television about interesting, nuanced black characters than there’s ever been in my lifetime.

That conversation of, like, “Why is the only thing playing at the movie theater Madea Goes Wherever She’s Going?” isn’t the same. I couldn’t have foreseen Moonlight and Get Out and Insecure and the timing of where our show fits in the Zeitgeist. It just occurred to me that this is a funny thing. There’s a lot of collaboration required on a TV show, but every creator has a different relationship with a writing staff. Going from the film to the show, how did you work with others? It was a learning process for everyone to not only get inside my head, but for me to also communicate how I make decisions.

Dear White People has a very specific aesthetic and set of characters. We came into the room and I had the first season fleshed out and knew the beats of all the episodes, but I’m one person and I wanted a bunch of different points of view in the room. I needed female voices and white people and black folks that didn’t agree with me on things. Defamation was one of those things, however, where I just wrote it.

It was very clear to me what that scene needed to be. As a director, replicating that network- TV slick, shoot- through- glass, every shot’s moving style was so fun. We were being so honest about this thing that we all laugh at, and that we all know is a part of our lives. Obviously, it’s an elevated tone outside of an already elevated existence. How did you instruct the actors to perform?

Within the world of Defamation, I have to say the actors came in on point. The great thing is the actors who play the president and Olive Bishop [DWP’s version of Olivia Pope] are good actors, so they are playing something real. The performance style is just so over the top. It’s fun when you’re in the director’s chair and all you have to do is push people further. Pulling someone back and finding nuance where there isn’t, that’s hard work. But being more insane is just really fun. There’s no craft there.

It’s just, “Do more of that! Scream at him!”The character I found most fascinating in the scene is Reggie. Would you talk about his role? We don’t know their history at the beginning of the show, but there’s this girl that Reggie has his eye on. She has been egging him on in a way.

She suddenly shows up with a white dude, and they’re watching a show about a girl who’ll do anything for the white president. We always try to figure out how to make it personal as well as political, so Reggie says, “Oh, see, this is why the revolution dies, because we’re in here watching TV.” That’s what he says, but what he’s feeling is the subtext of the scene: That’s the dude. That’s reason she’s not with me.

His corny ass? We were looking for that tension between what the characters say and what they mean, not just because it’s good writing, but because that’s what the show is about. Who we say we are versus who we are. We’re satirizing a time in this country where a lot of us are at odds about how to involve ourselves in some political or activist kind of process, but also be honorable to all of our other identities. Like, Do I always have to be woke and speak to something, or can I just be in love? When can I turn it off? Seeing that parody or homage made me think about the tone of Dear White People the show versus Dear White People the film.

Is it possible that satire on television is harder to maintain? I see the show as a five- hour movie you’re watching in slices.

We start with Sam, who is very much a part of black culture at Winchester. Then we move to Lionel, who is very much trying to penetrate black culture at Winchester.