Sadly, this isn't the first time.
Mikelle StreetThough Dan Levy should be on a high right now given that his show had a historic night at the Emmy Awards, sweeping the entire comedy category, and just picked up four nominations for the People's Choice Awards, he's having to deal with a bit of homophobia. The show co-creator and writer took to Twitter Tuesday to call out a television network that had edited a gay kiss out of their promotion of a scene from Schitt's Creek.
The scene came from season five of the show. At a party a group is playing spin the bottle. As the clip, which was posted by Comedy Central India, starts Stevie spins and must kiss Alexis. She dutifully gives an almost-giggling Alexis a peck. The game continues and eventually Ted, Alexis's boyfriend, spins and lands on David, played by Levy. As the group tries to brush off the selection, Ted is undaunted, crawls over and places a big — well nothing because the smooch is edited out.
"Oh my god," Alexis responds to the unseen moment. Oh my god indeed.
The post was captioned with "Do you smell drama?" when it was uploaded back in March 2019 — which is when it would have aired on the network.
"You showed the kiss between two women, you showed the kiss between a woman and a man, then removed the kiss between two women?" Levy wrote to Twitter. While the character of Ted is straight, David is notably pansexual. "This is a show about the power of inclusivity. The censorship of gay intimacy is making a harmful statement against that message. "Schitt's has long been lauded for it's inclusivity and its setting of a small-town with no homophobia. The kiss that was edited out was quite a long one actually!
"I thought I made this petty clear for those who are confused, this is about a channel in India," Levy later clarified. "Comedy Central in America is not censoring the show. They have been lovely and respectful. Thank you for your time." It is currently unknown whether the kiss was edited only removed on social media, but many have assumed it was removed from airing as well back in 2019.
This isn't the first time the show has had to deal with censorship. In 2019 Levy called out the U.K. television station 4Music for censoring a kiss between David and Jake (known to many as Pony) in season four. The network also edited out some dialogue. They later apologized, saying it was "inadvertedly lost" and would be "sorted for all future broadcasts."
For its efforts, those behind Schitt's Creek have leaned into the show's gay kisses. A billboard was notably erected featuring a kiss between fiances David and Patrick ahead of the final season. Fans flocked to it for photos and Levy tweeted it was a "dream come true."
And for those who wanted to relive it, we've reposted the kiss here.
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