There's been some controversy over last night's reunion episode of Hey Hey It's Saturday.
No, it's not that the show was screened on a Wednesday. Although, that is silly enough in itself.
During a judging panel segment of the show called "Red Faces", Dr Anand Deva and a bunch of his chums performed a skit as "The Jackson Jive".
In blackface.
Here's a clip of their performance:
Harry Connick Jr., a guest judge on the show, found the performance incredibly distasteful and offensive.
As most people would.
However, the episode also produced responses in other areas of the globe. Not nice ones.
Matt Bachl's "Uproar over Hey Hey 'Blackfaces' Sketch" gives voice to some of these reactions:
Marina Hyde from Britain's Guardian newspaper described Australia was "the world's most savagely self-parodic country,” and introduced the skit as, “news of an important breakthrough in race relations".
Hyde, who has often expressed a low opinion of Australia in her columns, went onto to scorn host Daryl Somers for his reaction to the skit.
"If you take a look at the mind-boggling video clip, you will note that we rejoin the show after the break, during which the host seems to have had a somewhat unconvincing epiphany ... very good of him," Hyde wrote.
"In Australia, of course, [blacking up] is perfectly acceptable, and we thank the nation for yet another important contribution to the annals of human culture."
And this:
David Schmader from The Stranger posted a video of Connick Jr's reaction to the sketch on the blog, with most of the replies to his post saying Australians were racist.
"The casual racism of a lot of Australians beggars belief ... they're thirty years behind us in some ways," user Fnarf replied.
"Agreed ... I visited there a while back and was pretty stunned ... white Australians don't get it," STJA wrote.
Others said Australia had more prejudices than Americans: "Good on Connick. That piece is quite vile."
Schmader later made another blog post titled: "Australians: Post-Race Miracle Humans or Racist Idiots?" before publishing comments from people who supported the sketch.
So Australia is judged as being a racist country based on a single skit that appeared on a variety show.
In other words, judging an entire country and its people based on an incident that occurred within a small (extremely small) portion of the populace.
Isn't that a tad, oh, I don't know, racist?
Personally, I found the sketch in poor taste for a few reasons:
- I'd hardly call their performance a "tribute". I mean, dressing up in blackface is bad enough, but the lead singer also has white face paint on. Plus, it's hardly respectful in the wake of Jackson's death.
- Host, Daryl Somers' offhand comment about there being "a lot of colour on this show."
- The troupe also did the same routine 20 years ago. Just in different costumes.
- It wasn't really funny. Not just because they were in blackface, but because, it was all old-hat. Done and dusted.
But, let's get some perspective here.
Where was the outcry when this was released:
"White Chicks", Wikipedia.
If dressing in blackface is unacceptable, why is it ok to dress in whiteface and construct a whole movie around the concept?
Oh, and what about Connick Jr. himself? He got some pats on the back for criticising the performance, but, as the clip reveals, he didn't exactly walk off the set in protest, either.
Indeed, he later appears in a sketch offering help to keep the show on air beyond the reunion episode (Channel 9 were considering bringing the show back on air if it rated well enough. It ended up rating its damn socks off).
To his credit, though, he did speak up on the perfectly justifiable reason he found it offensive and why it would be offensive to others. After Daryl raised the issue with him.
He also accepted an Honorary Cast Memeber Award.
But, back to the skit.
Overall, it was certainly a poor decision of management to allow the skit to air.
But, come on. A racist country because of it?
The skit's lead singer expressed some bewilderment over the hue-and-cry, but let's hope he hangs up his facepaint:
Dr Deva further defended the act by saying the group of doctors were from multicultural backgrounds and were huge Michael Jackson fans.
"I am an Indian, and five of the six of us are from multicultural backgrounds and to be called a racist ... I don't think I have ever been called that ever in my life before," Dr Deva said.
"Anyone who knows us as a group, we are intelligent people, we are all from different racial backgrounds so I am really truly surprised."
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