Selena Gomez criticises latest ‘tasteless’ TV transplant joke

US actress and singer Selena Gomez has criticised The Good Fight for being the latest TV show to make “tasteless jokes” about her kidney transplant.

“I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,” she wrote.

Last year, Saved By The Bell said sorry for a joke about her 2017 operation.

In February, a Chinese variety show apologised for editing a post-surgery photo of the former Disney star.

“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,” Gomez added.

The latest joke at her expense came in a recent episode of the Paramount+ legal drama, when characters discussed off-limits topics for comedy now as being necrophilia, autism and “Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant”.

“Respect Selena Gomez” soon trended online, as fans leapt to her defence once again. Gomez thanked them on Twitter and Instagram, noting how “they always have my back”.

But a source from The Good Fight told The Hollywood Reporter: “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 OK to make fun of and the idea of cancel culture and being cancelled for telling a bad joke.

“The reference is that her transplant is not something you can joke about.”

Four years ago, Gomez underwent a kidney transplant as a result of her ongoing battle with the autoimmune disorder lupus.

She signed off her social media posts by encouraging people to sign up to be an organ donor. – bbc.com