Justin Bieber is an light target . From the Lonely Island ’s warm skewering of his bad male child trick in the under - seenPopstar : Never give up Never Stoppingto Kate McKinnon ’s drained - eyed impression of hisCalvin Klein adsonSNLtoSouth Park’sbrutal Bieberdeath - by - tentacle - monsterback in 2010 , the punch - line - ready singer has been mocked by comedians ever since he first croon his way into America ’s heart as a unseasoned Canadian moppet . Last year , he even submitted to his ownComedy Central Roast . In 2016 , it ’s hard to make an original joke about Justin Bieber .
So , I greeted " Nobody Beats the Biebs , " the fifth episode of Donald Glover ’s FX seriesAtlanta , with a little disbelief . When it comes to the drop - crotch - pant - hump , light-haired - dreadlocks - sporting scallywag , what ’s left to say ? You ’d imagine it ’s all been done . Over four episodes , Glover and his author engage us in a hut with Migos , put us in a pizza pie delivery machine withBankroll PJ , and dribble us off at a quasi - mystic chicken joint , a far cry from an " Entouragefor rappers " music - biz satire . The show documents a local medicine view from the margins . A soda water ace like Bieber should have no place .
But great situation comedy are pliable , and tonight’sAtlantafeatures an appearance from " Justin Bieber " that ’s certain to provoke some screaming reaction . This is n’t yet another ego - deprecating fame cameo on a canonical cable sitcom . Instead , Bieber is played by a immature mordant actor ( the very funny Austin Crute , who also recordshis own music ) . The racial flip is never explicitly notice in the dialogue of the episode , yield the many Bieber laugh a surreal , quietly political , and also just plain laughable quality . It ’s just a fact : in the universe ofAtlanta , Justin Bieber is black .
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Like the Bieber that exists in the real world , Atlanta ’s version of Bieber can be polarize : Paper Boican’t stand him but Earn thinks he ’s worth cozying up to and perchance collaborate with . Much like the real Bieber , Atlanta’salternate universe version can be … objectionable . He evenpees in weird locating . By the episode ’s end , the fictional Bieber is stuck in another embarrassing public place – fighting Paper Boi in the centre of a charity hoops game – but , like the literal Bieber , he odoriferous - dialogue his elbow room out of trouble by sing a corny tropical - house lay . " I ’m not a bad hombre , " he says . " I actually get it on Christ . "
Unlike the somewhatcontroversial"color - blind " re - cast of Louis C.K. ’s married woman onLouie , the casting ofAtlanta ’s Bieber feels direct , wry , and purposeful . ( plainly , Ray Donovanhas also explored the " Black Justin Bieber " motion . ) For Glover ’s serial , the casting conclusion stick a series of implied questions : What if Justin Bieber , a musician who attain mainstream success with a cosmic string ofimportantco - signsfrom popular black artists , were black ? Would you view him differently ? Would he have achieved the same degree of succeeder ? Would he be given so many shots at redemption by the world ? The episode resists the enticement to turn its Justin Bieber plot of land into an well digestible , hashtag - quick political gunpoint . It ’s more concerned in moments of ambiguity .
This is n’t the first prison term Glover baffle philosophic about the Biebs . Back in 2011 , when performinga stand - up set , the touringCommunityactor riff on Bieber ’s documentaryNever Say Never , questioning the validity of a title card in the trailer that suppose , " They say it would never happen . " " Who the fuck isthey ? " expect Glover onstage . " Who the fuck see a child play the drums and was like , ' Oh , that will never work out . expert - looking gifted white child ? People hate those . Never work out . Justin Timberlake . All the Chief Executive except for one . Never works out . ' "
intelligibly , the question of Bieber and race has been on his head for a while , but what ’s so impressive about " Nobody tucker out the Biebs , " which was penned by Glover ’s brother Stephen , is that it frame a provocative assumption in such an efficient , unruffled , and almost old - fashioned sitcom package . From a structural stand , the plotting resembles a potent episode of30 Rock , a show Glover used to spell for . In its narration about Earn arrest false for a high - powered broker and its brief C - plot , which found Keith Stanfield ’s Darius getting in an argument about shoot a drawing off of a weenie at a gun range , the show resists the urge to slay its broader social level too hard . or else , it let questions simmer , like a smart Quaker relaxing after a couple beer . What if Justin Bieber were black ? Is n’t it uncanny that people use drawings of man for object at gun ranges ? What if your identity is totally made up ?
" The No . 1 thing we kept coming back to is that it needs to be funny first and foremost , " say Glover inan interviewwithNew York Magazineback in August . " I never wanted this horseshit to be important . I never wanted this show to be about variety ; all that shit is wack to me . " More than any other episode , " Nobody gravel the Biebs " shows the benefit of that attack . It ’s not thatAtlantadoesn’t have " authoritative " matter to say . It just systematically choose to say those things in its own idiosyncratic interpreter . Even when it comes to an easy target like Bieber , it chooses curiosity over curse .
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