Saturday, December 24, 2022 at 9:18 am
Jimmy Carr became the first celebrity to be deposed in 2022 after a joke about His Dark Materials was deemed anti-Semitic (Picture: Getty Images)
If we’ve learned anything about the abandonment culture in recent years, it’s that canceled doesn’t necessarily mean, well, canceled.
Harvey Weinstein had been cancelled. But then he was there, carelessly sipping a drink in a public bar. JK Rowling was also cancelled. But then she was interviewed by Stephen Fry on The One Show about her children’s book, and no questions were asked about her trans views.
Here are five celebrities canceled in 2022, and our predictions on whether or not their cancellation will be permanent or forgotten over the next year.
Who got cancelled? Will Smith
What happened? In case you haven’t left home or turned on the TV all year, here’s a recap: Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face in front of 17 million onstage at the Oscars this February. Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith. Smith has since apologized and sought therapy.
A number of Smith’s projects were initially delayed, including Emancipation, which sparked Oscar buzz before the slap. Netflix has canceled a project called Bright and production of Fast & Loose and Bad Boys 4 has been delayed. It’s not clear if the delays are directly related to Smith’s Oscar smack, but an apology on social media was well received and Fast & Loose and Bad Boys 4 are now in pre-production, according to Imdb.
What happens next? Of course, it’s impossible to say, but Smith is so popular that it’s unlikely the slap will affect his career and reputation in the long run. In the long term we are talking in five years. For the next few years, it would make sense for him to repeat history as he seeks advice, behaves incredibly well at public events, and tries to slowly get his pre-slap projects out the door to show that he is still the actor we all knew and loved from before. It was a horribly inexcusable act, but it didn’t fit Smith’s public image so that in time it could be considered a one-off: not forgotten, but forgiven.
Who got cancelled? KanyeWest
What happened? Kanye has sadly lost fans throughout 2022 as he continued to pour out bizarre rants that contained anti-Semitic sentiments. He has also been asked by his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to stop publicly disclosing messages that she or her former partner Pete Davidson sent to his masses of followers on social media.
What happens next? Kanye doesn’t have the sympathy Smith has always had in droves. 2022 was the culmination of years of outbreaks that have tarnished its reputation. Back in 2009, West stormed the stage when Taylor Swift won the VMAs, stating that Beyoncé should have won instead. His streaming and physical sales have plummeted in response and he is reported to have lost billions in sponsorship deals.
West’s attacks felt more sustained and intentional than Smith’s, and there were calls for him to go into therapy, with fans saying they were seriously concerned about his mental health.
Who got cancelled? James Corden
Meryl Streep and James Corden in The Prom.
What happened? A New York restaurant tweeted that they banned Corden for being rude to waiters, and it inspired a host of other people who’ve met him over the years to share their supposedly negative experiences. One person said Corden plugged in his headphones and ignored the drama while his wife attended to their crying baby on a flight.
What happens next? Corden’s main gig is presenting The Late Late Show in the States, but his contract expires next year. He had already decided to leave the show before the misconduct reports surfaced. Unlike Smith and West, Corden doesn’t have a long career to draw from outside of The Late Late Show. His films, including recent flop Cats, were so unpopular that a poll asking him not to be cast in new films again went viral. He’s hugely popular for British TV show Gavin & Stacey and more of that is said to be coming, but the project isn’t big enough to support him after the talk show. It’s not clear what direction he will take, but with his reputation tarnished by the allegations, some of which he has admitted to and apologized for, and without the cachet he desires for his acting career, it seems likely that he takes it in will have some time to work out the logical next step without rushing into something else that might flop. Corden’s future feels unpredictable.
Who got cancelled? Jimmy Carr
(Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)
What happened? Carr was among the first celebrity victims of Cancel culture in 2022, when a line from comedy special His Dark Materials went viral in January.
The joke read: “When people talk about the Holocaust, they are talking about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of Gypsies killed by the Nazis. Nobody ever wants to talk about it because nobody ever wants to talk about the positive things.”
Carr was quickly condemned, including by politicians and the media.
What happens next? Carr is proof that being loved is often the antidote to being fired. Although he never apologized, he has remained popular. He even has a new, albeit controversial, show about, um, canceling people. Jimmy Carr Destroy’s Art sees the comedian destroy artworks by famous but troubled artists, and every week he hosts discussions about the validity of art created by the likes of Hitler. Becoming an arbiter of talks about abandon culture rather than being canceled is certainly the ultimate flex for someone allegedly canceled, the supreme sign that abandon culture is picking and choosing who to burn and who to return to entertainment hamster wheel throws.
Who got cancelled? Jeremy Clarkson
What happened? The last cancellation of 2022 was Jeremy Clarkson. In his Sun column, he wrote that he hopes Meghan Markle will be paraded naked through the streets and that he “hates” her. He has since apologized, although equality organizations have criticized his apology as skimming a comment that was more damaging than he acknowledged.
What happens next? It’s too early to tell, but Clarkson is hugely popular with TV viewers, and with a second season of Clarkson’s Farm due out early next year, there’s too much money at stake to be the victim of culture cancellation could become. This series earned him a whole new legion of fans who expressed the softer side of the motorist’s personality, so producers will likely be interested in him remaining shy until then. And a new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is also on the way, with Clarkson at the helm. Given his legacy of saying bad things and getting away with it, he’ll likely carry on the same way.
Read more from City AM Culture
Similar tagged content:
sections
categories
Comments are closed.