Mixed Media
Can we still laugh at cop comedies?
During the shutdown, I dove into Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a long-running sitcom (originally on FOX and now on NBC) set in a police precinct that I’d never watched before. I was happily streaming a few episodes every night for weeks, grooving on racially and culturally diverse casting, and flawed, nerdy characters that I wish had been on television when I was a teenager. Then George Floyd was killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis on May 25. People took to the streets to protest police brutality and racism. And I was abruptly left wondering what I’d been laughing at. I soon discovered that I wasn’t alone in my discomfort.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace sitcom. The police precinct provides a setting and a structure, but it’s not about crime and punishment in the tradition of procedurals like Law & Order. Most of the characters are detectives (not uniformed beat cops) and many episodes contain almost no police work at all.
We get personalities and personal lives, and the show’s writers treat serious subjects like sexual assault and racism with appropriate gravitas while maintaining a comedic through-line. Criminals are often treated with empathy. One of the show’s ongoing stories is about the profound best-friend connection between Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and the Pontiac Bandit (Craig Robinson), a thief who continually outwits the police. However, the show hasn’t addressed police brutality other than in-jokes about tasing.
Now, as Brooklyn Nine-Nine approaches its eighth season, some fans and critics are calling for its cancellation. The critique suggests that because the entire system of policing is corrupt, Brooklyn Nine-Nine effectively functions as a form of propaganda that laughs off the reality of way too many “bad apples.”
Cast member Terry Crews told Late Night host Seth Meyers on June 9 that the Black Lives Matter protests will inform the show’s next season, but that revelation has been met with skepticism.
While there is merit to the idea that the show functions as propaganda, it doesn’t have propaganda’s required intent. It’s one of those rare sitcoms that pushes its characters to grow and change, and its writing has stayed consistently strong over seven seasons. Can it stretch itself into daring new territory? Cancel Culture, or social media calls to boycott anyone who acts or speaks in a way that is unbecoming, eschews nuance and is inherently against second chances. But no one is obligated to watch a show that offends their moral or ethical sensibilities or to spend their time on media they simply don’t like. Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s writers and actors are artists with agency and a platform, and I want to see how they handle this important challenge.