the popular and uplifting (inspirational) netflix series unbreakable kimmy schmidt is not uplifting for everybody.
when fredric brandt, a dermatologist with celebrity clients who is considered a “pioneer in the use of botox” committed suicide last month, ran this headline
Surgeon suicide after mocked on Tina’s Fey’s comedy ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’
and reported that
brandt was upset about martin short’s portrayal of a nutty plastic surgeon on the hit comedy, but it was not the cause of his death.
upset means emotionally affected in a negative way. nutty means crazy or eccentric. portrayal means representation.
kimmy schmidt meets her boss’s nutty plastic surgeon
according to brandt’s publicist
the show definitely deeply hurt him, he was being made fun of because of the way he looks.
made fun of and mocked both mean laughed at. hurt means injured or damaged, in this case emotionally.
the parody mentioned is from the episode kimmy goes to the doctor. martin short has a brief but memorable appearance as the oddball (eccentric) plastic surgeon, dr. franff.
dr. franff looks like he has had too much plastic surgery done on his own face. his cheeks and mouth don’t move naturally so he is difficult to understand, but the second thing he says to kimmy is
these frown lines are flubbed up
frown is the opposite of smile. flub up indicates a mistake. dr. franff uses it to try to convince kimmy that he can fix her frown lines.
kimmy’s roommate titus andromedon frowning
as mentioned in the headline from news.com.au, tina fey is the creator of unbreakable kimmy schmidt. when she was liz lemon on 30 rock she sang this optimistic song about frowns in s4 e12
that martin short is known for creating absurd characters like dr. franff who are
rooted in some shred of reality
and that he
typically draws praise for these portrayals
shred means a very small amount.
the fictional dr. franff & the late dr. brandt (screencrush.com)
shortthat comedians should think about boundaries (limits) when doing a parody, but that the possibility of offending someone shouldn’t prohibit a sketch
i think u should try to be aware and try to be sensitive
aware is similar to conscious.
baba wawa & barbara walters
to support his point, short mentioned baba wawa, gilda radner’s famous parody of tv journalist barbara walters from the sketch comedy show saturday night live
walters hated the impersonation at first before later embracing it… however, [walters] never acknowledged that [radner] shouldn’t have done it. that’s really what it is.
embrace is another way to say hug and in this context means accept enthusiastically. shouldn’t have done it is another great example of how to talk about a hypothetical situation in the past.
in this video walters admits she hated baba wawa, but that she eventually (and literally) embraced gilda radner as well as the parody.
what’s your opinion? can an actor go too far when they are doing a parody? have u seen the kimmy goes to the doctor episode of unbreakable kimmy schmidt? what did u think of it? share your comments under leave a reply
