'Direspectful' ​Obama Title Card In The Last Dance Updated Following Backlash

An amusing description of former US President Barack Obama in The Last Dance has been updated after fans hit out at the documentary for being 'disrespectful', despite the filmmaker maintaining it was just a joke.

As you'll know, Barack Obama served as the President of the United States for eight years between 2009 and 2017.

However, in the new Michael Jordan docu-series, director Jason Hehir decided to have a bit of fun by referring to Obama as a 'Former Chicago resident' - which, of course, isn't wrong.

Netflix/ESPN

However, Hehir has said he's now had to change the text following online abuse for the title card, saying viewers have dubbed the move 'disrespectful'.

One person had tweeted: "So we just gonna ignore the fact that they called Barack Obama 'Former Chicago resident'??"

Speaking to Boston.com, Hehir explained that the title card was simply 'a little inside joke' from the editing room, explaining that former president Bill Clinton was also referred to as 'Former Arkansas Governor' in the series.

Hehir said: "I was pretty adamant that when we have a celebrity, we wanted it to be organic to the story.

"We don't want to just have a president for president's sake... The reason he was in there is that he was a former Chicago resident."

Responding to the online hate he's received for the Obama joke, Hehir stressed that he has nothing but love for the 44th president.

He said: "I've seen people who are investigating whether I'm a Democrat or Republican.

"I'm a huge Obama fan, so for people to say it's disrespectful and I did that on purpose? I mean, come on. I promise you he will be the president by the end of the series."

The change seems to have done the trick with Obama fans, with one tweeting: "Did anybody notice in Ep. 5 of The Last Dance that they changed 'Barack Obama - Former Chicago resident' to 'PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA' hahaha good fix."

Another added: "Congrats @BarackObama on the upgrade from Chicago resident to President! #LastDance."

The first six episodes of The Last Dance are available on Netflix now, with the rest of the series airing over the course of the next two Mondays.

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Barack Obama, Netflix

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman