'How I Met Your Mother' Creators Craig Thomas And Carter Bays Apologize For Yellowface

How I Met Your Mother co-creators, Craig Thomas and Carter Bays apologized after Monday’s Kung-Fu parody episode caused uproar on Twitter, with #HowIMetYourRacism trending.

#HowIMetYourRacism

How I Met Your Mother aired “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra” on Monday, Jan. 13, and immediately sparked outrage. In the episode, Marshall (Jason Segel) tells a story of how he learned to deliver the ‘Slap of A Million Exploding Suns’ for his last slap to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). The ‘Slap Bet’ between Marshall and Barney has been a running joke throughout most of the series, but things took a turn in the most recent episode when Marshall took viewers on a kung-fu film inspired adventure that featured all of their white friends in Yellowface – dressed as Asian caricatures.

Asian-American writer and activist, Suey Park, began using the hashtag ‘How I Met Your Racism’ and the hashtag gained momentum, eventually trending on Twitter.

‘HIMYM’ Apologizes

Co-creators, Thomas and Bays responded a few days later with a Twitter apology, explaining that they had meant the episode as a tribute to old kung-fu movies they adore.

Thomas re-tweeted Bays apology on his own Twitter page, adding, “We love all HIMYM fans and apologize that we caused offense.”

None of the stars of the show have directly commented on the controversy, though star Alyson Hannigan did re-tweet Bays apology.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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