Eric Andre says some “middle-aged white people” at Netflix urged him to take out a joke mocking police from his new comedy special

The Daily Beast

Eric Andre: Legalize Everything, the comedian's first Netflix special dropping on June 23, kicks off with a sketch showing him handing out drugs in New Orleans while posing as a police officer. Andre tells The Last Laugh podcast that some “middle-aged white people” at Netflix urged him to consider taking out the joke due to the police brutality protests. “I’m like, no, guys!” he says. “This is the best time to do these jokes. This is what we need! We need to point out the absurdity of the police department and what a fucking hypocrisy and a disgrace it is. We need to point out police brutality. I am blessed that my stand-up special is coming out in this time.” Meanwhile, on The Good One podcast, Andre says he hates that his Cops joke is still relevant. "I grew up watching that show," he says. "It was always on and always fascinating, and they definitely downplayed the police brutality — that’s the farce of Cops. But the underlying subtext to Cops is like that Bill Hicks joke: State power will always win, and we’ll bust down your door and get you anytime we want. I also read some article about how cops, in less violent towns, when they’re filmed on the show Cops, they kind of ratchet it up. And people have been killed or hurt because the cops were kind of showing off for the camera. I heard that they do a dirty trick where they go to the person who’s arrested in the back of the car, (and) they say, “Hey, can we release you?” And the person’s thinking like, Oh, I’m going to be released from these handcuffs. So they’re like, 'Yeah.' It’s secret code for a verbal release consent form for the filming. I heard that the producers have a dirty trick. I don’t know if that’s true though. But that’s pretty dirty. It is unethical, producing Cops."