If you’ve been paying attention to Jerrod Carmichael, you’d immediately know that he never shies away from controversial topics.

And it appears to work for him with his audience, mostly due to his relaxed matter-of-fact and affable nature.

Carmichael recently appeared on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show, Chelsea, and discussed how NBC decided to pull an episode of his The Carmichael Show, which dealt with gun violence.

Of course, given the recent terrorist attacks and the even more so, the recent UPS and congressional baseball shootings, it’s not surprising that the atmosphere is extra-tense and sensitive about this subject.

Carmichael, makes a good point, however, in his defense of the episode. “What [pulling the episode] says is you don’t think that America is smart enough to handle real dialogue,” Carmichael said.

His point is key; as problems certainly don’t go away by ignoring them … we have to face them head-on, even if difficult to do so.

In the episode, entitled “Shoot Up-Able,” Carmichael’s namesake character Jerrod survives a mass shooting. The episode explores how he deals with the psychological trauma post-shooting. “He is still very much a victim,” Carmichael noted. “We are all victims. When something like this happens, we all suffer from fear.”

Perhaps it is that very same fear that led NBC to remove the episode. The network has yet to release an official statement as to why exactly they decided to pull the show.

NBC also has not yet announced a new network airdate for the “Shoot Up-Able” episode.

This would not have marked the first time that Carmichael used his show to try to promote dialogue and healing in his country. The show's season three premiere made headlines for containing the the n-word.

As it seems that the gun problem in the United States sadly isn't going anywhere, here's hoping that a future season of the show can address the issue, and help all of us to engage in some much-needed dialogue about firearms in our country.

Chelsea

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