'Reno 911!: Defunded' Creators on Finding Humor in Controversial Topics: 'We're Not a Mean Spirited Show' (Exclusive)

The Reno 911! crew is back with Reno 911!: Defunded, the newest season of the hit comedy series, and it never fails to find humor in controversial topics. PopCulture.com spoke with series co-creators Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney-Silver about the new episodes, and the group addressed their intentions when writing sketches. "I mean, we've talked, like, I feel like we've talked about it on occasion," Lennon offered.

He continued, "Like we definitely, at one point during the Quibi episodes, we did an episode called 'Let's Shoot an Unarmed White Guy,' and we thought... and it's actually called that and it becomes a two part episode... and we were like, 'This is gonna be hugely a problem.' And not only was it not a problem, we got nominated for four Emmys." Lennon then stated, "I think, because even when we swim directly at the like most taboo, weird stuff, you know, we never... we're not a mean spirited show."

Kenney-Silver added, "People get that vibe from us after all these years that we don't go to offend or to shock our thing is not like, 'Well, they're not gonna believe this. Look what's coming.' We're not those people. It's like funny first, always funny first, if it isn't funny, we're not doing it, but there are times we look back and go, 'All right, whoa, huh? We shot that. It is funny, but is it too much immediately?' We go, 'No, it's what we've been doing for all these years.' And you know, it's who these characters are. And people know, I think by now where it's coming from."

Lennon then confessed, "I would say 80-to-90% of the subject matter though, in Reno episodes, whether it's a scene or an entire episode, if it was a script that someone had to be approved, none of them would ever have been approved. No network, no movie studio would've ever approved, 80% of what we do."

Joking about one of the show's characters, Kenney-Silver quipped, "If you said to someone, 'Oh, we've got this really funny character that's a pedophile.' It's like, 'No.' Full stop. 'No, I don't care what kind of crazy mustache he's got on.'" All episodes of Reno 911!: Defunded is now streaming on The Roku Channel, which does not require a Roku-specific streaming device, as anyone can download the Roku app and stream the series for free.