Blue Ivy Carter, with her parents Jay Z and Beyonce onstage during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Comedian Amy Poehler is under fire after a joke about Beyonce's three-year-old daughter bombed on her new web series Difficult People.
The joke in question - "I can't wait for Blue Ivy to be 18 years old so R Kelly can piss on her" - has been largely condemned on social media.
In a case of life imitating art, Julie Klausner, who plays Julie Kessler in the series, makes the joke on social media and receives abuse from online trolls suggesting she kill herself.
R Kelly was arrested on child pornography charges in 2002, after a videotape allegedly showing the singer urinating on an underage girl. He was found not guilty in 2008.
Blue Ivy is Beyonce's three-year-old daughter with husband Jay Z.
On social media, some have suggested the joke was racial in nature and Poehler would not have made the same joke about a white child.
One user wrote: "Blue Ivy is a real little girl! I usually like Poehler, but this is whack. She wouldn't make this joke about Suri Cruise."
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Klausner said Poehler was heavily involved with writing the show.
"Amy could not have been more hands-on. She did not only give notes on every script, she gave notes on every draft of every outline. She weighed in on casting videos, cast roles. She weighed in on production matters. She came up with the title. She would give notes on every single edit, not only of the shows but of the promos, the trailers. She would be involved in every stage of the process in a way that she would go above and beyond."
Poehler co-founded an online community called Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, which seeks to empower and support young women.
The joke continues to bomb on Twitter:
- nzherald
The Australian site cited a 'heightened threat level' as the issue.