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Tracy Morgan has defended the casting of Black actress Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid following the widespread racist backlash but cracked some jokes at the movie's expense.
"Some people are outraged because the Little Mermaid is Black now—that's not, that's not good," Morgan said in a discussion about the movie on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The 30 Rock star, 53, said that a Black mermaid would not want to get her hair wet, to rapturous laughter from the audience.
"You know she ain't even gonna be swimming. She just got her hair done," Morgan said, adding: "I ain't swimming!"
The comic then said: "She's going to be sitting on a rock arguing with Aquaman over child support."
Morgan's joke about the highly anticipated Disney movie comes after weeks of controversy over its casting.
A Black actress in the role of Ariel has caused a huge reaction online, with many delighted, but the trailer has also been spammed with dislikes on YouTube as critics share increasingly bizarre arguments about why the character must be white.
The first footage of the highly anticipated movie was unveiled at Disney's D23 Expo on September 9, showing Bailey in character for the first time.
When the 22-year-old was cast in the role back in 2019, the movie's director, Rob Marshall, said that, after an extensive search, it was "abundantly clear" that Bailey was the perfect choice.
A backlash against casting a Black Ariel ensued, and the trailer's release led to yet more racist criticism on social media.
Despite the backlash, a heartwarming thread of Black children reacting with joy to the trailer went viral on Twitter.
Prior to Morgan's comments, actress Daryl Hannah—famous for playing a mermaid in the movie Splash—defended Bailey's casting.
"The little mermaid is black / I met her / there!" Hannah, 61, wrote on Twitter on September 16, finishing her tweet with "don't be a racist dork" in hashtag form.
Hannah, who is an environmental activist, wrote in another tweet that those who are so upset about Bailey's casting should direct their energy at other issues.
"wow / folx seem to be getting super worked up & agro about the melanin of an imaginary character," Hannah tweeted, "how bout getting worked up about the fossil fuel industry & the actual fact that they make mega profit$ off destroying our life support systems & our shared future."
Bailey discussed her role in the film in an interview with Variety magazine in August.
"I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they're special, and that they should be a princess in every single way," Bailey said.
"There's no reason that they shouldn't be. That reassurance was something that I needed."
The Little Mermaid will premiere in theaters in May 2023.
