"Black face" skit on Australian variety show

[lionking]

The Australian TV show "Hey Hey it's Saturday" was an institution here for over 20 years, but went off the air 15 or so years ago as it was seen to be past it's use-by date. Anyway there have been two re-union shows which have rated their socks off.

One feature of the show was "Red Faces", a send up of "New Faces", where acts of marginal talent, but often funny, were judged. Twenty years ago a group of medical students blackened their faces and did a Jackson Five skit. They were asked to come back again and here is the result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96YLZFbrMms

Harry Connick Jnr was a judge and stormed off and there has likewise been a storm of talk-back radio responses. Many were outraged by the skit, but a surprisingly large number responded with comments like "the Jackson Five were black, why not blacken their faces"; "one of the performers was Indian"; "political correctness gone mad"; "Harry Connick Jnr can't tell us what to do" etc etc.

I should add that there has always been a high degree of irreverency in Australia, and sacred cows are regularly slaughtered on the altar of public opinion.

Opinions? Is this a hanging offence? Or indeed, political correctness gone mad?

 

[Arcade22]

They should be hung for thier disregard for other peoples sensitivities!

Anybody who makes an politicaly incorrect joke deserves to be hung from the nearest lightpost!

 

[Akhenaten]

I cringed. I saw a replay of it today as well and cringed again.

I need to deal with this problem of mine and move on. Arcade22 is right in the true intent of his post <--- anti-Poe

I'll bet Melbourne to a rusty rabbit trap on it.


It was hilarious BTW

If it hadn't been for Harry, whose music I enjoy and whom I admire as an ambassador for his country and as a good bloke, I wouldn't have even thought of it offending anyone. I don't think my Aboriginal friends would have minded at all, since they pull the urine as well as anyone, including from themselves.

Google 'Ernie Dingo' for elucidation. A fine ambassador for our Country. (I'm sincere)

Harry was justified, and explained why he felt as he did, very eloquently, I thought.

I think everyone came out of the whole thing quite well, and lessons were are being learned, even as we type.

 

[gtc]

Black face doesn't seem to have quite the same connotations in the UK and Australia as it does in the US. Bo' Selecta and the League of Gentlemen are both recent examples that drew no apparent ire in the UK.

Andrew Bolt has a link to a youtube sketch of Harry Connick Jr done up to look like a black man so I suspect Harry is being slightly over the top here.

I think Bolt summed it up when he wrote:

Yet what he, Somers and the Hey Hey team failed to consider was that in their Australian audience was indeed an American. Worse, that American was from New Orleans, in the American south, and he was now sitting right in front of them as a judge of the Red Faces segment. What on earth did they imagine Harry Connick Jr would think? And even if Connick were inclined to laugh it all off as a culture clash, what else could he do but protest? YouTube clips of him sitting there unprotesting in front of a black-face skit would have killed him back home.

Still I'm sure this will be seen as proof by at least one fruitcake that Australia is racist as well as homophobic.

 

[Akhenaten]

Heh heh.

I was reading through your quote, nodding sagely and thinking how sensible it sounded.


Then I got to your comment and it all came flooding back to me.

 

[GStan]

The Jackson's are, in fact, black; (or at the very least, all five of them were black at the time they were still performing as the Jackson 5.) Why is it inappropriate, when doing an impersonation, to make yourself look like the people you are impersonating?

Some people are in a perpetual state of "offended" just searching for things to be offended by.

 

[Akhenaten]

The Jackson's are, in fact, black; (or at the very least, all five of them were black at the time they were still performing as the Jackson 5.) Why is it inappropriate, when doing an impersonation, to make yourself look like the people you are impersonating?

Some people are in a perpetual state of "offended" just searching for things to be offended by.

I think you are spot on with that last bit, but the first part was my favourite.

Not only is it a quite valid comment, but it produced a sudden vision of the Jacksons doing a whiteface routine, and all these white people running, screaming from the venue in horror and disgust, and lurid headlines in all the papers, pushing the fruitcake crisis off the front page.

 

[Darth Rotor]

I guess folks need to pillory Gene Wilder now.
(Ref is Silver Streak, and his "we bad" schtick.)

 

[Darth Rotor]

Jacksons doing a whiteface routine

You mean Michael wasn't?

(Yes, cheap gag at Michael Jackson's expense.)

 

[Ryokan]

They painted their faces black... THE HORROR!

Now try this on for size:



Warning: Japanese comedy is weird. Oh, and one word is used that some might find, well, sensitive. It starts with N.

 

[quadraginta]

I think that gtc goes to the core of this particular contretemps with his post. There is certainly a culture clash. The American reaction to 'blackface' is complex and also a deeply ingrained if not visceral sort of reaction. The racial issues in this country and the various disputes revolving around them have been a prominent area of concern for as long as we have existed as a nation.

It is probably inevitable that some will take advantage of this as an opportunity to slur Australia. I won't, because to me that would be falling victim to the same sort of stereotyping that makes the classic 'blackface' offensive in the first place.

For those who might be interested there is this wikipedia article which describes in some detail much of the history and evolution of 'blackface' (including a paragraph specifically about the "Hey, Hey" show. Damn, they move fast!!) It is very informative and well presented.

I guess folks need to pillory Gene Wilder now.
(Ref is Silver Streak, and his "we bad" schtick.)

I think that this comment exemplifies in some ways how nuanced the issues can be. The main aspect of 'blackface' that is seen as offensive is the element of parody which is intended to belittle and humiliate the subject in question, with the observers appreciating the humor specifically due to that humiliation. It can be credibly argued that this is an essential element of much, if not most humor, but there it is. In the U.S. this attitude when combined with the social stresses already extant concerning racism have evolved into a specific social taboo.

The Gene Wilder "schtick" )) worked because the parody was not directed at blacks, but at the Wilder character's obviously stereotypical and distorted understanding of what "black" is. The joke wasn't aimed at blacks, it was aimed, with stunning accuracy, at stereotypes.

That was a difficult row to hoe, and it probably needed the team of Pryor and Wilder to pull it off. In other hands it could easily have been a disaster.

There are going to be many other examples of "Well, what about this?" being brought forward during discussions about this episode, but most of them are going to miss the point in the same way.

 

[psychictv]

Andrew Bolt has a link to a youtube sketch of Harry Connick Jr done up to look like a black man so I suspect Harry is being slightly over the top here.

Uh, Harry is not wearing blackface there. He has a fake moustache on. Is that how he's "done up to look like a black man?"

I don't think the cultural differences should be overstated. This kind of thing is racist no matter where you do it. It's just that you can get away with it in Australia and the U.K. as the majority of people condone it and you can't get away with it anymore in the U.S.

 

[psychictv]

Why is it inappropriate, when doing an impersonation, to make yourself look like the people you are impersonating?

History? Context? I would have hoped somebody from West Virginia would have understood this by now.

 

[Ryokan]

Of course, when blackface is done well, it's ok...

 

[quadraginta]

Why is it inappropriate, when doing an impersonation, to make yourself look like the people you are impersonating?

History? Context? I would have hoped somebody from West Virginia would have understood this by now.

Worse than that, he's from my Dad's hometown.

(What's left of it. )

 

[GStan]

History? Context? I would have hoped somebody from West Virginia would have understood this by now.

Why? Please explain this statement further.

 

[plumjam]

Things will look a little different when it's finally revealed that Harry Connick Jr is a former pet shop owner from Harlem who's been whiting up for the last 20 years.

 

[GStan]

Worse than that, he's from my Dad's hometown.

(What's left of it. )

Truedat. That's why I commute to Pittsburgh for work.

 

[Akhenaten]

Things will look a little different when it's finally revealed that Harry Connick Jr is a former pet shop owner from Harlem who's been whiting up for the last 20 years.

I've bloodywell missed you. How weird is that?

 

[patchbunny]

The Gene Wilder "schtick" )) worked because the parody was not directed at blacks, but at the Wilder character's obviously stereotypical and distorted understanding of what "black" is. The joke wasn't aimed at blacks, it was aimed, with stunning accuracy, at stereotypes.

Wilder: I don't think we'll make it on the train.
Pryor: We'll make it on the train. I just hope we don't meet any muslims.