Animal rights organisation PETA has issued a warning to Kung Fu Panda 2 voice actor Danny McBride over the alleged use of a real monkey in the fourth season of his HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones. Also read: Bigg Boss 18: PETA calls use of donkey on show ‘distressing’, asks Salman Khan to ‘avoid using animals as props’
After spotting what they feel is a real capuchin monkey in the show’s trailer, PETA has threatened to take a rather unconventional approach to expressing their disapproval: sending the actor monkey p**p.
PETA warns Danny McBride
As per a report in Entertainment Weekly, PETA has issued a statement to warn Danny. When it comes to the trailer, a capuchin can be seen towards the end of the clip, cocking its head in a curious fashion and shoving an object in a character’s mouth.
In a statement, a spokesperson for PETA said, “After seeing a trailer for The Righteous Gemstones that included a capuchin monkey, PETA primatologist Debbie Metzler appealed to creator Danny McBride to leave live primates out of the show and commit to never using wild animals in his productions again”.
The organisation claims they have not got any response to their appeal to the creator. The note added, “If the show airs with a live monkey, PETA is ready to send (Danny) a special delivery: a pile of ‘monkey p**p’ for his dirty decision to exploit a real primate rather than use humane technology to create an artificial one — or dump the monkey scene altogether”.
That being said, it is not yet confirmed whether the capuchin in the trailer was a live primate or rendered via CGI. The representative of the actor as well as Warner Bros. Discovery haven’t responded to the warning yet.
About the show
The Righteous Gemstones is a comedy series that delves into the ostentatious and often cringe-worthy world of the Gemstone family, a dysfunctional clan of televangelists and megachurch pastors. At the helm of the family is Dr. Elijah “Eli” Gemstone II, played by John Goodman. The series has been created by Danny McBride, who also co-wrote and stars in the show as Jesse Gemstone, the eldest son of Eli and a key figure in the family. The series’ fourth season premiered on March 9, and it will be the final chapter.
The show has included several scenes featuring animals before, such as a scene in season 2 shows Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) takes his son Harmon (Jeremy T. Thomas) to a pet store to adopt a dog, and a gruesome background scene in season 3 where a CGI cow is run over by a monster truck.
In the statement, Debbie expressed frustration wondering why Danny chose to exploit animals instead of using technology. PETA is asking people to “skip this show” and requests Danny to “reevaluate his crappy choices and rely on CGI and other cutting-edge tech for his future projects”.
