Striking writers “punch up” at Jenna Ortega over ‘Wednesday’ comments

(NOTE LANGUAGE) With writers out of work and on picket lines amid the writers strike, some comedy writers have plied their craft to poke fun at Jenna Ortega for her viral comments about the scripts to Netflix’s Wednesday.

As reported back in March, Ortega was critical of some of the scripts for the hit show, telling Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Expert podcast, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday…There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines,” adding, “I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go through and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

Variety spotted one picket sign reportedly from House Party staff writer Brandon Cohen that jabbed, “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!,” using Hollywood speak for making a script better.

BoJack Horseman writer Nick Adams snarked on Twitter, “Jenna Ortega better be back from NY for her afternoon shift on the picket line,” to which The Bear‘s Karen Joseph Adcock replied, “Rewriting is writing! See you at the line, Jenna!”

One of Jenna’s many fans defended her, saying she was being used as a “scapegoat,” but Adams wasn’t having it, punching back at the commenter, “she’s not gonna see this and she’s never gonna f*** you. Be better.”

Those jokes have to come out one way or another: “Idle hands are the devil’s playground,” as the saying goes.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.