Selena Gomez speaks out after fans SLAMMED The Good Fight for making ‘tasteless’ joke about the star’s kidney transplant: ‘My fans always have my back’

Selena Gomez has issued a response after fans came to her defense on social media over a tasteless joke made in a recent episode of CBS’s The Good Fight about her 2017 kidney transplant.

‘I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,’ wrote the 29-year-old star via Instagram Story on Tuesday.

Gomez continued: ‘I hope in the next writer’s room when one of these tasteless jokes are presented it’s called out immediately and doesn’t make it on air.’

Speaking out: Selena Gomez has issued a response after fans came to her defense on social media over a tasteless joke made in a recent episode of CBS’s The Good Fight about her 2017 kidney transplant; Selena pictured in May 2021 

She closed out the post by expressing love for her passionate fanbase who, in light of the offensive joke, got the hashtag #RespectSelenaGomez trending on Twitter. 

‘My fans always have my back. LOVE YOU,’ she concluded.

Selena seemingly encouraged her Instagram following to become organ donors, themselves, by including a ‘swipe up’ link to organdonor.gov with her Stories response. 

The ‘tasteless’ joke about Gomez’s 2017 transplant was featured in a recent episode of The Good Fight during a scene discussing cancel culture in comedy.

Not funny: ‘I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,’ wrote the 29-year-old via Instagram Story on Tuesday

Three characters, Marissa (Sarah Steele), Jay (Nyambi Nyambi) and Jim (Ifádansi Rashad), ponder what kind of topics would be totally off-limits – even to joke about. 

‘Um, necrophilia?’ Jim suggests. But Marissa counters with: ‘No, that could be funny,’ 

Jay interjects with: ‘Autism.’ And Jim adds that ‘Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant’ would no doubt get them ‘canceled.’

Seems like the writers were prophetic in their scene since in the very next line Marissa wonders if even discussing off-limits topics is enough to catch flack from the public. 

‘When will people stop doing this !!!’ an incensed social media user penned as they shared a scene from The Good Fight. ‘RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ.’

Do you see the problem: In the season five episode of The Good Fight there is a scene that discusses cancel culture in comedy where three characters ponder what kind of topics would be totally off-limits, even to joke about

‘Um, necrophilia?’ Jim suggests. But Marissa counters with: ‘No, that could be funny,’ Jay interjects with: ‘Autism.’ And Jim adds that ‘Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant’ would no doubt get them ‘canceled.’

‘Wait,’ she says. ‘Do you think we can get canceled for even joking about getting canceled?’

The guys responded with a resounding ‘yes’ and it seems they’re absolutely right as Gomez’s fans took the show to task on Twitter for the insensitive quip. 

On social media the hashtag #RespectSelenaGomez started trending as more and more of the songbird’s fans came to her defense.

Upset: Seems like the writers were prophetic in their scene since in the very next line one of the characters wonders if even discussing off-limits topics is enough to catch flack from the public – which turned out to be true

‘When will people stop doing this !!!’ an incensed social media user penned. ‘RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ.’ 

One user called the comment ‘disgusting’ and wondered what ‘goes through the directors head to say it’s okay to joke about this?’

Another asked ‘why are people soo mean?’, while a third said that these types of jokes ‘need to stop.’ 

A show source who spoke with E! News pointed out the irony of the controversy: ‘If you watch the episode in full, the reference to Gomez is part of a discussion the characters are having about topics that are not okay to make fun of and the idea of cancel culture and being cancelled for telling a bad joke.’

They added: ‘The reference is that her transplant is not something you can joke about.’  

A show source who spoke with E! News pointed out the irony of the controversy: ‘If you watch the episode in full, the reference to Gomez is part of a discussion the characters are having about topics that are not okay to make fun of and the idea of cancel culture and being cancelled for telling a bad joke.’

For her part, the Adios singer hasn’t spoken out about this latest controversy.

The former Disney underwent a kidney transplant following organ damage caused by the autoimmune disease lupus in 2017. She received a new kidney from her longtime pal Francia Raisa. 

Gomez revealed her transplant by sharing a photograph of her and Francia in their hospital gowns holding hands with her 152 million Instagram followers. 

This isn’t the first time television writers have taken a pot shot at the actress’ medical issues. A similar situation went down in 2020 with jokes made at her expense from the reboot of Saved By the Bell. 

Some of the jokes included having a pair of students argue over the identity of her organ donor to graffiti in the hallway, which read: ‘Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?’ 

Her story: The former Disney underwent a kidney transplant following organ damage caused by the autoimmune disease lupus in 2017. She received a new kidney from her longtime pal Francia Raisa

Despite documenting her experience on social media and publicly thanking her pal, one scene of Saved By the Bell showed two teens at odds over the donor’s name.

‘I know for a fact that Selena Gomez’s kidney donor was Justin Bieber’s mom. God, I wish that I had my phone so that I could prove it,’ a female student said.

The other student fired back, ‘Prove what? That you’re an idiot? It was Demi Lovato’s kidney. They’re best friends, like you and I were.’

Fans of Gomez were perplexed and enraged at the jokes, which diminished the Rare Beauty founder’s health issues, past relationship with Justin Bieber and jab about the end of her and Demi Lovato’s longtime friendship. 

Not funny: This isn’t the first time television writers have taken a pot shot at the actress’ medical issues and a similar situation went down in 2020 with jokes made at her expense from the reboot of Saved By the Bell

In response, Peacock, NBCUniversal and the show’s executive producers issued an apology.

‘We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health. We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC,’ the statement read.

An hour after the network’s apology, Raisa took to Twitter herself to comment on the off-color jokes.

In her first tweet on Saturday afternoon, the 32-year-old actress wrote, ‘Appreciate the apology but let’s not forget about the donors that potentially felt offended and dismissed from the spray paint written on the wall’. 

The scenes were later edited out of the series.  

Is it too late now to say sorry? In response to the Saved By the Bell jokes, Peacock, NBCUniversal and the show’s executive producers issued an apology; the jokes were edited out of the show

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