Parents call over ‘Chris’ Santa slip
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Parents with young children who happened to watch “Everybody Hates Chris” recently had some explaining to do when the character of Chris Rock’s brother suddenly told his younger sister that Santa doesn’t exist.
“Everybody knows there’s no Santa Claus,” one of her brothers tells Tonya (Imani Hakim) on the UPN sitcom, pointing out that their apartment features radiators, not chimneys. She then consults her father (Terry Crews), who tells her the Easter Bunny and tooth fairy don’t exist, either.
A blindsided UPN received “a handful” of complaints about the Santa expose on its sitcom, based loosely on comic Rock’s life growing up in Brooklyn, a spokeswoman said. The episode, titled “Everybody Hates Christmas,” aired on Dec. 15 and was repeated on Monday.
Ali LeRoi, the show’s executive producer and co-creator, admitted that his own 6-year-old boy was upset when he saw the program.
“My wife told him it was just a TV show and to ignore it,” he said. “It worked. He believes her.”
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