February 24, 2019 | Funny Bits

Check out the new Jussie Smollett Lifetime Movie

If you haven't heard about Jussie Smollett and the racist and homophobic attack he allegedly made up, consider yourself lucky. The whole affair is a mess.

Smollett, who played Jamal Lyon in Fox's Empire, claimed to receive a hateful letter on January 22, 2019. It included the image of a stick figure hanging from a tree with a gun pointing towards it. The note said "Smollett, Jussie you will die" and "MAGA." 

A week later, Smollett claimed he was physically attacked by two men in ski masks who called him racial and homophobic names while shouting "this is MAGA country." They beat him and wrapped a noose around his neck.

Condemnation of the attack was swift, but eventually Smollett's story was called into question. Two men, extras from the Empire set, claimed Smollett hired them to help fake the hate crime. Police changed the focus of their investigation and on February 20 Smollett was charged with filing a false police report. He has been accused of faking the original hateful letter as well.

He still denies the charges, but he has been dropped from filming for the remainder of the current season of Empire. His future with the show is now in question.

Why did he do it? Only he knows, though some reports claim he was unhappy with his salary on his TV show and hoped the attack would make him a more valuable member of the cast.

Of course, The Daily Show can find humor in any situation, here with a Lifetime movie starring Jaboukie Young-White and Roy Wood Jr.