Not cool, MTV Australia. Not cool. On Sunday, January 10, America Ferrera and Eva Longoria took tongue-in-cheek jabs at the way Latina actors are often mistaken for one another, while presenting an award together at the 2016 Golden Globes.
“Hi, I’m Eva Longoria, not Eva Mendes,” Longoria, 40, kicked off their podium schtick.
“And hi, I’m America Ferrera, not Gina Rodriguez,” Ferrera, 31, chimed in, in a nod to previously being misidentified as the Jane the Virgin star on the official Golden Globes Twitter account.
“And neither one of us are Rosario Dawson,” Longoria added.
“Well said, Salma,” Ferrera quipped.
“Thank you, Charo,” Longoria replied.
But when MTV Australia weighed in later on in the evening, their purported joke fell flat.
“Where are the English subtitles? We have no idea what @AmericaFerrera and @EvaLongoria are saying #GoldenGlobes,” the network’s Twitter account wrote.
Fans and Twitter users immediately lashed back at the off-color remark, calling the tweet “racist” and “offensive.”
“I would call you out on this @MTVAUSTRALIA but as I’m Latina, you might not understand what I’m typing here,” Teen Vogue editor Ella Ceron shot back at the account.
“When the intern decides it would be funny to make a racist ‘joke’ @MTVAUSTRALIA,” another Twitter user wrote.
MTV Australia later deleted their original tweet and offered an apology.
“Our Tweet was in reference to @EvaLongoria &@AmericaFerrera’s #GoldenGlobes joke,” the account tweeted. “We sincerely apologize for causing offence. We get it was a bad call. We’ll leave the humour to @rickygervais.”