This article was originally published by i-D Australia.
Earlier this week Tyler, the Creator visited San Diego’s Comic Con to promote his animated series The Jellies, which follows a human boy who’s discovered he’s been adopted by his jellyfish family. The show was originally conceived by Tyler and Odd Future’s Lionel Boyce for the GOLF Media app, where the first season aired, but it’s since been picked up Adult Swim.
Watch: i-D Takes Tyler, the Creator Mini-Golfing
During a Q&A session to promote the second season, Tyler was asked why the show’s leading man, the human Cornell Jelly, would be black in the second season after being white in the first. “How many fuckin’ black cartoon characters is it on TV right now? Name five. I’ll give you time,” Tyler responds. Hannah, the audience member who asked the original question, struggles to name one. “It is none. It is none,” Tyler says. “They cancelled Static Shock, nobody remembers Fillmore! We don’t got shit. The only black character is — oh no, they killed Chef on South Park.“
“So I said fuck that,” Tyler continued. “He ain’t got no guns, he ain’t shooting no fucking basketball, and he a fucking goober, and we’re gonna put him on TV. And he’s the lead character, he ain’t the comic relief, he ain’t the sidekick, he the lead.”
Season two of The Jellies will air on Adult Swim.
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Text Isabelle Hellyer