Late-night comedian James Corden is facing yet another online backlash for his “culturally offensive” segment “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” in which he has celebrity guests eat “gross” foods during a round of personal questions.
Though the segment has been a recurring feature of Corden’s show over the years, one episode in which the comedian used Asian dishes as a source of “gross” food prompted an intense response from a woman on TikTok.
“The TikTok user, whose real name is Kim Saira of California, shared a clip of Jimmy Kimmel’s appearance on the 42-year-old’s show in which he had to choose between a bull penis, a thousand-year-old egg, pig blood curd, and a balut,” reported Fox News. “‘Wow it all looks so terrible,’ Kimmel reacted, to which Corden laughs and calls the smell of the foods ‘really disgusting’ and ‘horrific.'”
After the TikTok video went viral with over half a million views, Saira created a Change.org petition alleging that the segment “encourages anti-Asian racism.”
“James Corden’s The Late Late show features a segment called ‘Spill Your Guts,’ where guests either have to answer difficult questions he gives them, or eat the foods that are presented to them. The foods that are presented are meant to be ‘gross,’ as they are supposed to encourage the guest to answer his questions instead,” the petition claims. “However, many of the foods that he presents to his guests are actually from different Asian cultures. He’s presented foods such as balut, century-old eggs, and chicken feet, and which are often regularly eaten by Asian people.”
“During these segments, he’s openly called these foods ‘really disgusting,’ and ‘horrific.’ In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism,” it continued. “So many Asian Americans are consistently bullied and mocked for their native foods, and this segment amplifies and encourages it.”
The petition has generated over 13,000 signatures with a goal of 15,000 and demands several changes to Corden’s show: “Completely change the food presented on his show to something else, or remove the segment entirely; A formal apology statement from James on his show, including steps he will be taking to do better in the future; Funds donated to local Asian American organizations that are working to help Asian-owned restaurants and small businesses.”
James Corden recently found himself in the crosshairs of an LGBT mob on Twitter over his flamboyant portrayal of a gay man in Netflix’s adaptation of “The Prom,” with critics denouncing it as an act of “gay face.”
“In the past few years, there’s been an ongoing conversation about the importance of representation and inclusion. In this case, seeing James Corden put on a fake lisp and attempt to be more feminine when playing a gay man felt like it lacked the nuance of other perfomances [sic]. It felt icky. And those icky feelings are somewhat exacerbated by Corden’s performance being given one of the biggest honors in the film industry. It looks like Hollywood still has much more to learn,” wrote Corey Chichizola of Cinemablend.
Related: LGBTQ Critics Denounce James Corden’s Golden Globe Nomination