the writers...
Brett Gelman's Dinner in America (2016): A dark comedy-horror special where Gelman invites four Black panelists to discuss racism in the United States, which devolves into unhinged chaos.
Brett Gelman and Jason Woliner are a prominent actor-director comedy duo best known for their acclaimed, surreal, and dark comedy-horror specials on Adult Swim. Together, they co-wrote three specials between 2014 and 2016
Your cast is incredible. You’ve got Loretta Devine, Shareeka Epps, Mack Wilds, and Joe Morton making up the rest of the panel. Each of them gets to deliver some very powerful words on racism. They all represent differing views. The dialogue is intense. When you presented this to the cast, what was the initial response? Did they immediately get what you were trying to do?
They did. These are top-notch actors and they were all on board. It’s a very tough shoot. We shoot 25 pages in two days. We did it on a weekend to make sure that we could get these great actors. They took their Saturday and Sunday out to do two 14 hour long days. I can’t believe we got these actors.
You play the only white person in a roundtable discussion on race. You’re playing someone who really thinks that they know what’s going on and that they can help. Without giving anything away, so many of the setups in this special are risky, especially in the beginning. When you were writing this did you worry about how it might be perceived? Are there things that once you started filming you felt like you had to change?
Oh yeah. We’re still worried about it. As long as there’s somebody to see it and possibly misunderstand our intentions I’ll always be worried about it. Our intention was not to make fun of race. We don’t think that’s funny. This one in particular is sort of a prank on the audience, making them think that they’re watching a comedy when, in fact, they’re watching a tragedy. With the other two, as violent or as fucked up as they got, there’s still a level of humor there. There are many moments in this new one that are just not funny at all. We really wanted to experiment with that. The comedy was a way to let people put their guards down so that the tragedy of it hits them harder. Hopefully it allows people to process what’s going on in a more meaningful way. That’s the real goal here, for people of color to feel like they’re spoken for because they can’t be spoken for enough and for white people to check themselves and be like, “Okay, I’m not a racist, but I exist in a racist system. In what ways do I maybe contribute to that system by doing nothing?” Our fear is that people will think we’re making fun of race, that people won’t get that my racist character in this is a villain and not somebody to be liked. My character is a metaphor for white liberal racism. But if any person of color says it offended them I cannot tell them they’re wrong. I have no true understanding of what their daily reality is. I get to live a privileged existence.
Your character is a hyperbolic extension of what a lot of white people are going through when dealing with racism. They believe they’re doing the right thing or that they’ve had an experience that they think allows them to relate to somebody of another race and the problems they’re going through. You take that premise and blow it up to a ridiculous level to where that character truly does become a villain. Watching it there were times where I felt like, “Oh shit, I’m ignorant like this sometimes.”
It’s a big thing that’s present in the white liberal community. That, “I’m talking about it so I’m doing something.” No, you’re just talking about it. And you’re talking about it usually to other white liberals. You’re not really doing anything here. Talking is not action. Don’t just look at what you say. Look at how you socialize. What is your work environment? What do you actually do to help legislation along to protect people who are in a more compromised position than you are? I would assume that intelligent white people will see this special and go, “Well… yeah. Yeah, I do that.” There’s the whole ‘white idiot makes racist comments without realizing it’ joke and as they try to dig themselves out of the hole, dig an even deeper hole. We wanted to show that archetypal comedy character, but then show what actual darkness lies behind that.
