_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
Hollywood spent the past decade preaching progressive politics. Movies were reengineered around identity. Award shows prioritized diversity over merit. Children’s content was rewritten to reflect left-wing LGBTQ ideology. And Seth Rogen—one of Hollywood’s loudest progressive voices—was all in, backing Black Lives Matter and mocking concerns about rising crime caused by progressive policies.
But in his new comedy series The Studio, actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen, takes direct aim at the absurdities of Hollywood’s diversity mandates and woke contradictions. One of the episodes centers on a fictional studio trying to make a movie while navigating DEI rules, racial dynamics, and ideological landmines.
_THE FACTS_
Rogen’s new show The Studio is about a fictional film studio. In one episode, they are trying to navigate Hollywood’s DEI madness.
Film executives debate whether casting the Kool-Aid Man as black is racist, or whether it’s racist not to cast a black actor.
A character argues the Kool-Aid Man’s wife can’t be Asian because, “Black people have a problem with it.”
The writers are told they can’t give a black character a non-black wife, which leaves them confused, wondering how that’s not regressive.
To solve the problem, the studio makes the cast all-black. Then non-black writers refuse to write, saying it’s not their place.
Trying to fix the issue, the team concludes the cast should reflect U.S. demographics, but realize that would include too many white characters and creates even more contradictions.
_INSIGHTS_
Leading up to the 2024 election, it was clear that the progressive, identity-obsessed era was coming to an end. Kamala Harris was floundering, Trump’s anti-woke message was gaining steam, and Americans—exhausted by the ideological overreach—rejected it at the ballot box in a landslide.
What followed was a quiet retreat. Major institutions, including corporations, universities, media, and Hollywood, began backing away. In Hollywood’s case, it seemingly came from a simple realization: the woke politics that once shaped American culture had lost.
Just a few years ago, an episode of a show like this would’ve sparked outrage and weeks of think pieces. Now, it was hardly noticed. Moreover, the show has been nominated for a slew of awards.
Seth Rogen’s The Studio is a signal that culture is shifting downstream of politics. The Studio is now Hollywood trying to save face, mocking the losing ideology it once mandated: a critical step in delegitimizing an ideology.
