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I am so happy that Hey Hey has been on the last 2 weeks, IMO it is the best Aussie show of all time.

Im glad that Channel 9 has decided to bring it back (hopefully for a while) to save my TV’s bowels from all that Reality TV Constipation crap.

But in tonight’s Red Faces there was an act Jackson Jive with some guys imitating the Jackson 5, 5 of them painting themselves black and 1 of course being pale Michael. They started singing Can You Feel It.

Initially i didn’t think it was racist. As most people who watch red faces do its just entertainment where we see 3 or 4 crappy or funny acts and wait for Reds gong and the judges comments. So i didn’t really take any notice i was just like OK some dudes singing Jackson 5’s can u feel it…

But then Harry Connick was a judge and he wasn’t very happy he gave it a zero and said that if that was shown in the US it would be off the air. I can understand Harrys point of view, he basically learned his craft down in New Orleans with a lot of African American musicians etc...so i can understand how it may have offended him.

Daryl Sommers made an apology to Harry later on in the show and Harry explained why he was offended.

However...I don’t think it was the intention of Hey Hey or even the act to offend people. I wasn’t offended and ive seen Sam Newman do way more worse things on the Footy Show.

I can see what is going to happen tomorrow....the media and talk-back is going to have a field day with this and there will be people who have been bagging Hey Hey who will no doubt be exploiting this.

If Harry wasn’t judging i don’t think thie would have even been an issue no one would have really cared.

Big Ups to Harry btw i am always wrapped whenever he is on TV. Awesome artist.

wow really is this show on every week now?
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i dont even watch normal tv anymore

Whilst it’s probably not considered racist by the majority HERE it would most definitely be seen as racist in the US.

I didn’t find it funny at all and from the second they walked out I thought it was in bad taste for several reasons.

Funny thing though - I was like “OMFG!!” with my hand over my mouth and my Sister had NFI what I was talking about. She didn’t see it. That said, my Sister hasn’t really intercted enough with black people to know why that would be hurtful. Her reaction really summed it up and last night I updated my FB status totally conflicted wondering if the fact that we (as the Aussie public) failed to see how this is racist meant that we:

1. Are so tolerant that we see beyond race?
2. Are totally ignorant to the racism that goes on outside of our country?

I wouldn’t expect a lot of Australians to feel this was racist simply because we don’t share that specific history of racism with the US and therefore it’s not something that is embedded in our culture. Our issues with racism have been quite different - i.e Blackface entertainment wasn’t really ever rampant here. We had bigger fish to fry.

So IMP - this is a cultural issue - but I have to say I’m embarrassed by it. I really thought Australia stodd out as one of the countries in the world that had a solid understanding of cultures existing outside of their own - particularly that of the US.

P.s I LOVE how Harry Connick Jr has defended his beliefs and didn’t give two shits!

my 2 cents...i think it was in bad taste and i don’t happen to think something that was acceptable a few years ago means that it can be reinacted for sentimentality.  growing up i had a golly wog knitted doll but i’m not about to give one to one of my cousins kids because they’re just not appropriate anymore.

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it’s funny for me that this has come up because while i was in the sunshine coast a few weeks ago, i was sitting outside having breakfast on one of the days and there was a young family on the table next to us.  the 2 girls were bugging their dad to play chasey and when he gave in and said he’d play he started with “eeny, meeny, miney, moe, catch a nigger by the toe...” and continued.
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i was so shocked, like jaw dropping to the ground shocked.  surely he must have heard himself, i thought.  but nope, 5 mins later he did it again. 
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yeah we used to use that chant to pick teams or play chasey but again in this age, it’s just simply inappropriate.
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also interesting about my trip up north was that i saw golly wog dolls for sale in one of the shops next to the ettamoogah pub.  i really couldn’t believe my eyes.
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it’s not as innocent as people think to be sentimental or old fashioned.
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big ups for harry connick jr for saying something.

I saw the sketch & thought nothing of it, if anything i find it quite amusing seeing white people putting shoe polish on there face, i found it humorous but i totally see where Harry is coming from.

Ok this situation has raised a lot of questions for me, please feel free to answer them....

1. Does our detachment from the US mean that we should be free to be laissez-faire and satirical about issues that aren’t sensitive to us, which might be sensitive to others. Is our perception that there is nothing wrong with painting one’s face black, and that there’s something funny about being black, problematic in itself?

2. Isnt the fact that this act was approved for the air, which brings forward the fact that a lot of day-to-day actions and attitudes of everyday Australians are racist, a cause for concern?

3. Talkback and general talk about this is that people just need to get over it, it’s ridiculous that we’re being so sensitive and so forth. Pretty much nobody in my office saw anything wrong with it. If i painted my face white and went on TV taking the piss out of EJ Whitten, would white Australians be labelled ‘too sensitive’ when they got offended?

4. Why are Wurundjeri spokepeople coming out calling for an apology? I’m all for the recognition of Indigenous equality, but this has nothing to do with Aboriginality, and is not helping the credibility of the Aboriginal community.

5. Do we jsut say “ooh that’s not cool” because it’s the right thing to say? eg. if the act was a bunch of white guys painted brown, with spears and loinclothes, re-enacting a corroborree, would you genuinely be offended, or feign being offended because you dont want to be seen as racist.

6. Was Harry Connick JR genuinely offended, or was he aware that if he didnt say anything, he’d probably be in shit with his mates back in New Orleans

for me, last night’s performance had striking similarities to the “black & white minstrels” type shows that i saw growing up - the whole golly-wog look and for me that is inappropriate.
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plenty of others obviously wouldn’t see it in this light as they may not have had similar experiences to me.  there were pretty big racist undertones in some of the “ways” and behaviours that existed in the cultures i was exposed to growing up.  on the flipside, in my immediate family, we were very close with a number of people from all sorts of different races/religions and i grew up preferring to socialise with other ethnicities than with “aussies” because the ones i had grown up with, gone to school with, didn’t treat everyone equally.  that’s maybe why i saw last night’s act differently to others.
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to say why harry said what he did would be guessing but one thing to remember is that america has a sordid past with racism and a long history of civil rights violations.  although obama’s rise to the whitehouse has been widely celebrated and welcomed, it is a long time overdue and it has reminded a lot of people about just how bad it was to be black in america, not so long ago.  you can forgive the culture for being a little sensitive to this kind of thing.

Asanka - 08 October 2009 11:11 AM

I saw the sketch & thought nothing of it, if anything i find it quite amusing seeing white people putting shoe polish on there face, i found it humorous but i totally see where Harry is coming from.

x2 Didn’t they do this skit on Red Faces years ago? I swear it was similar…

Define Racisim: the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races
discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race.

Yeah, they actually showed their performance from 20 years ago, after the skit was performed. Only difference is, the lead had a black painted face that time.

I’m gonna be straight up honest and admit that I’m ignorant. I don’t understand how this was racist. I feel stupid for stating it, but I’m not gonna beat around the bush and say stuff to “prove” I’m not racist. I’m just going to admit that i can’t possibly see how this was racist, although i can see how it would offend certain people, as much as Russell peters offends people with his Asian jokes.

What really flips me is how this created such a big fuss, yet others slip under the radar. It reminds me of mike Tyson going ballistic at a press conference and calling out a journo, saying “yeah, you’re a scared little WHITE pussy. Scared of the big BLACK man.”

I dunno.

Poppa-Stylez - 08 October 2009 01:30 PM

What really flips me is how this created such a big fuss, yet others slip under the radar. It reminds me of mike Tyson going ballistic at a press conference and calling out a journo, saying “yeah, you’re a scared little WHITE pussy. Scared of the big BLACK man.”

I dunno.

I’ll F### you till you love me F#####! LOL!!!

FunkyJunky - 08 October 2009 01:35 PM

Poppa-Stylez - 08 October 2009 01:30 PM

What really flips me is how this created such a big fuss, yet others slip under the radar. It reminds me of mike Tyson going ballistic at a press conference and calling out a journo, saying “yeah, you’re a scared little WHITE pussy. Scared of the big BLACK man.”

I dunno.

I’ll F### you till you love me F#####! LOL!!!

LOL!!!!! My mate had that as his sms tone!

Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder?
The Wayans boys in White Chicks?

i don’t believe for one second that the guys performing that routine intended it to be racist.  not at all.  i explained why i can look at it and think, “err..” .  however, i also think it’s an issue because harry made it one, daryl brought it out in the open more and the comment was made that had harry known the show would air that, he wouldn’t have agreed to appear. 

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i can understand where he’s coming from and that it can be perceived as racist. afterall, he’s from a different cournty/culture etc, how would he be able to judge the intentions of the performance?
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i did’t like the look of the performers, it did remind me of things that were racist.

wow i just saw it on the news
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i think ppl in the media are over reacting with this, the same shit use to be shown back in the day when this show was on and nuthing was said back then, fucken mj fans
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get over it