James Corden Addresses Backlash Over "Spill Your Guts" Segment

After criticism sparked on social media over James Corden's long-running late-show segment, "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts," the host has acknowledged the outcry.

By Samantha Schnurr Jun 28, 2021 1:43 PMTags
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James Corden has gotten wind of the criticism over his "Spill Your Guts" segment. 

The Late Late Show host recently responded to mounting complaints over the game, one that's been featured on the show for at least five years now. As viewers have seen, the late-night host and a guest sit at a round table featuring a lineup of food items. Each takes a turn asking a juicy question while the other is faced with either answering that question or eating one of the items. 

However, some have called out the segment on social media for making fun of foods that are significant to other cultures. TikTok user Kim Saira has amassed more than 2 million views to a video she posted about Corden's segment with Jimmy Kimmel from 2016, calling it "racist af." 

During the sit-down, the two stars reacted to items such as a 1,000-year-old egg, pig blood curd and balut, a fertilized duck egg known in Filipino food. "Wow, it all looks so terrible," Kimmel quipped. Corden added, "It's really disgusting. It's horrific."

Saira had some different words for the segment. "They're calling Asian food disgusting on live TV," she wrote in her TikTok video. "Huh. This is literally racist. This is so disrespectful wtf."

A petition Saira launched—calling for changes to the food in the game or removal of the segment altogether—has since amassed more than 45,000 signatures, nearly completing its 50,000 goal.  

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"The foods that are presented are meant to be 'gross,' as they are supposed to encourage the guest to answer his questions instead. However, many of the foods that he presents to his guests are actually from different Asian cultures. He's presented foods such as balut, century old eggs, and chicken feet, and which are often regularly eaten by Asian people," Saira explained in the petition. "During these segments, he's openly called these foods 'really disgusting,' and 'horrific.' In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism. So many Asian Americans are consistently bullied and mocked for their native foods, and this segment amplifies and encourages it."

The petition is also asking for James to issue an apology on the show and for funds to be donated to local Asian American organizations helping Asian-owned restaurants and small businesses. 

Corden is apparently in the process of tackling the first request. "We heard that story, and the next time we do that bit we absolutely won't involve or use any of those foods," Corden told Howard Stern in a recent interview, per Deadline. "As you said at the start, our show is a show about joy and light and love, we don't want to make a show to upset anybody."

As for the changes ahead, it seems the direction will be food of the diet-unfriendly variety. "In the same way that when we played it with Anna Wintour," Corden said, "we gave her a pizza covered in cheeseburgers." Correction: They gave her bacon-wrapped pizza, but you get the idea.