This no-win approach to the topic was 100 percent episode writer Carmichael’s goal in penning the installment. "That's the thing I just wanted reflected. More than anything, it's saying that even Black people, who have been both victims of and beneficiaries of the fun and ubiquitous use of it, we don't all have the exact same opinion on it," he wrote in The Hollywood Reporter , mentioning his real-life family doesn’t agree on the n-word. "Having the word itself said on the show came out of a deeper conversation about do you feel beholden to these unspoken rules for being a Black person, or being a woman or being gay or being whatever you are? It just naturally went to the n-word and the rules around it and that's where it came from. Then we said to the network, 'We want to say it, but it has to go on air.'" Although NBC originally said The Carmichael Show could only use the n-word once, Carmichael explains the showrunner gave him permission to use it twice while penning "Cynthia’s Birthday." He and episode writing partner Ari Katcher used it four times, and the cast ended up saying it six times during filming.