S.T. VanAirsdale, Movieline, October 7, 2009
Apparently enough time had elapsed since Michael Jackson’s death that a cheeky comic tribute to him and the Jackson 5 seemed in good taste. At least it seemed that way a troupe of Aussie TV performers, who rounded out last night’s performance as the “Jackson Jive” in full-on blackface. The crowd ate it up, but an American judge who knew better ground the show to a halt until somebody apologized.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Harry Connick Jr. or the iconic Aussie variety series Hey Hey It’s Saturday, for whom the midweek show represented a much-anticipated reunion special. {snip} Not cool, said Connick: “If they turned up looking like that in the United States, it’d be like Hey Hey There’s No More Show,” the crooner spat, giving the group a score of zero in the episode’s mock-talent competition. (The Aussie judge beside him was much more forgiving, allowing for a smile and a 7.)
The host brought Connick—who’d appeared on the show before—back out after the break for an official mea culpa: “I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologize.” Connick thanked him, adding, “I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that, we take it really to heart.” {snip}
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on October 7, 2009)
Comments
Harry Connick was probably afraid that if he didn’t demonstrate some politically-correct outrage, he’d be black-listed and asked to apologize for being associated with the show.
Now the Aussies must be made to feel the guilt and shame for offending a people who live on the other side of the world.
Soon we shall all be expected to feel everyones universal pain and suffering. Smiling might be frowned upon because it might remind someone that some people don’t always smile. We can’t have people laughing when someone is crying.
In the documentary, Eye on the Prize, I believe some black performers liked to darken their face to cause their features to stand out.
The idea that black face of abhorrent and offensive is a true social construct.
Poor Harry. He’s been so Brainwashed, that like other Americans I have met in Australia they flinch when you mention black shoes.
Does he realise that political correctness is censoring the arts now. Jacksons family are black……fact……Michael Jackson used medication to turn himself white……fact. No one made nasty remarks about blacks they simply point out a few anomalies and if you want to be a celebrity put up with the occasional jibes that are made.
Connick - “..but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons.”
Blacks represent themselves. Black behavior speaks for itself and no two bit minstrel act is going to change anything one way or the other.
One of the funniest routines I’ve ever seen on any TV show! Good to see that the Aussie audience still has a sense of humor about such things, now sadly lacking among Americans.
Harry Connick Jr. revealed himself as a bleeding-heart liberal moron, and embarrassed the (probable) majority of Americans who don’t agree with his pro-black views. The MC should have told him, “If you don’t like it in Australia, mate, then go back where you came from!”
“we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons”
No, it is whites that are made to look like buffoons in TV commercials, movies, comic acts and throughout hollywood.
“we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons”
…or like criminals, or like morons.
And yet so many are, no matter how hard white liberals try to make it look otherwise.
Poor Harry: it’s hard work to keep that wobbly edifice standing.
You see this type of thing now and then: liberals, placed in another cultural setting, behave as though their own values should determine what is right and wrong for others, as long as those others are white. This is not only a failure to celebrate cultural diversity, it is even a form of racism in itself, since it assumes that non-American whites are fair game for cultural admonishment, just because they are white.
“…we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons…”
Unfortunately, I’ve seen Independence Day, so I can back you up on this one, daddio.
Seriously, though: doesn’t that quote say it all? This is what white (gentile) liberalism has been reduced to. It’s no longer about economics or even politics, it’s about distorting reality to better suit people’s sensitivities.
“If they turned up looking like that in the United States, it’d be like Hey Hey There’s No More Show,” the crooner spat, giving the group a score of zero in the episode’s mock-talent competition.”
Well actually that’s true. If Whites did that on American TV, it would be shut down immediately. Of course the reverse would be ok.
Who is Harry Jr. speaking for when he say’s “we”? Bleeding-heart liberals just love to speak and act for everybody. Liberals always know better. They know what’s best for us. They love to give away my money. They love to give away your money. I don’t care if Harry or anybody else for that matter wants to give away their time, money or whatever. Leave me out of it.
One more thing. Harry Jr. says that “we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons”. Has he never picked up a newspaper, watched a television? They’re doing a fine job of making themselves look like buffoons in spite of “our” best efforts. I’d like to quit, Harry. May I please be excused?
I live in Sydney Australia and I watched this show. Everyone (including the audience) loved it or at least wasn’t offended. To my mind this really shows what’s great about Australia. As was also shown by the Cronulla backlash and Muslims. We will not take political correctness lying down as so many other western countries have. The only way to kill the Australian spirit is to flood us with third worlders which our socialist prime minister Kevin Crudd is trying his very best to do. But because of our location it is much harder to inundate us. And to Harry Connick Jr. GO HOME! we don’t want people like you here. We love Americans but not your type.
Just to give you guys some background this was a reunion show for a vaudeville style variety show that started in 1971 orginally as a children’s morning show and due to it’s popularity and (sometimes) subtle adult crossover humor it eventually became a very successful and loved prime time Saturday night show.
My partner and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this show last night for the reminiscence factor and we both had commented to each other how nice it was to watch some real television i.e. something that wasn’t ‘reality TV’ or a cop or medical drama and how it was also nice to see young people and old people actually enjoying something together.
The segment in question ‘Red faces’ is a clone of the old ‘Gong show’ format where you get some really bad amatuer acts and everyone laughs at how bad they all are and the least worse of them all wins.http://tinyurl.com/yb4237k
What leapt out out me was the cultural clash between the Australian and (liberal) American mindsets.
Also on last nights Television here, was:http://www.vic.crimestoppers.com.au/targetCrimeOfWeek.aspx
‘Chinese buyers fuel top-end property boom’http://tinyurl.com/ycqknak
And finally…http://tinyurl.com/yet5gvg
Graham R wrote:
That reminds of a good analogy. In Victorian times, people became so prissy that you could not use certain words, such as “legs”. Rather, they were “nether parts”. You could not even refer to piano legs. The word was shocking, tabooed. At least by “nice” people.
Today, the most horrible taboo subject is becoming race (along with the forbidden N-word). Are we getting to the point were we won’t even be able to mention “race”? Will children have their mouths washed out for saying something naughty? Will adults go to jail for it?
This very question a few years ago would have been considered silly. Now, it is getting to be not so far fetched. Who knows where we’ll be in another 50 years?
“I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons”
First, who is “we”? Second, the only people that make blacks look like buffoons are black. And, third, the only people that erase the buffoon sterotype are also black. Get real, Harry!
I remember on the old “Sanford & Son” the buffoonish white cop was always mangling his attempts at black slang, and always being corrected by his black partner. Just one example out of thousands.
The simple fact is, that if a representative of a minority has to appear on every TV show or advertisement, and for comedy or dramatic purposes someone has to be the criminal or buffoon, logic dictates it will always have to be the white male. Blacks insisted they be represented on every TV show and in every advertisement lest they be “invisible” but as usual they are not satisfied and continue to escalate their demands.
If any such thing as locally-produced television still exists in Zimbabwe or any other African nation that once allowed whites, I wonder how whites are represented, if at all?
Didn’t racially sensitive Mr. Connick do a Jesse Jackson imitation in Independence Day, getting what was, in theory at least, as indicated by the forced, wooden laughs during the scene, some humor out of the unique cadence and diction of a black man? Haven’t we spent enough time trying to make blacks sound like buffoons?
Yet having colored folks dress up as whites, as in ‘White Chicks’, ‘Watermellon Man’, ect and stand up comic rountines across the country where the performer pretends to be white for a moment, that’s all a-OK and valuable commentary. Even Oprah does this, talking in her pretend, mocking, white voice. Then again Oprah will pretend to sound ghetto or ‘real’ too. Apparently it’s more than OK when blacks do it. The old, white = bad, black = good, routine. But it’s not really a routine it’s just real life.
Did Connick, Jr become offended when Michael Jackson put on “white-face”? Did Connick, Jr become offended when the movie, “White Chicks” was released? Did Connick, Jr become offended when Downey, Jr played a black soldier in a recent movie? Did Connick, Jr become offended when C. Thomas Howell played a black student in “Soul Man”?
Harry Connick, Jr is an anti-Aussie hypocrite. He claimed that if that was held in America then it would have been a “No Show”? Well, it wasn’t held in America, now was it? It was held in Australia. So what would or wouldn’t be acceptable in America was irrelevent to this event.
Back away from yourself, Harold. Your self-righteousness is disgusting.
I agree with Harry connick jr.The skit might have been OK 50 years ago but so was slavery.America has fought so hard to make equal stadards for all coloured people.It is important to respect each other regardless of colour.Australia should take some notes from them as alot of Aussie look down on the Aborigines and the Musliums look down on every one else.
It is pretty well understood where I work that when Americans are around one needs to be on his best behavior. Some Auzzies are partially brainwashed. However, when I look at most (not all) American whites I cannot help but think of the Eloi from that classic movie the Time Machine.
I just put my Harry Connick CD’s in the trash!
To remain a good liberal, you must be a buffoon yourself and at every opportunity instruct others on how to prprly conduct yourself.
Most people are of the opinion that Harry acted like a woosy jerk. News polls show that the majority of Aussies thought that the skit was hilarious. And it was with he guy (an Indian BTW)playing Michael Jackson in white makeup over black makeup. Not the result the PC media was hoping for. We were all supposed to be as shocked and outraged as Harry was. But we weren’t. Apparently Harry has cancelled all further promotional appearances and with luck, he’ll cancel his tour and get the hell out of Australia.
Harry,
Contact your local government and I am sure they can give you a list of protected minorities. Whites, please remember, upsetting or annoying protected minorites is not allowed. Forget all that about free speech! Upsetting or annoying white, Christian heterosexuals is ALWAYS allowed, so be on the safe side and stick to nice, decent jokes about rednecks and dumb blondes.
I am from Melb and grew up watching that show when it first started in the 70s as a kids program.
“In Victorian times, people became so prissy that you could not use certain words, such as “legs”. Rather, they were “nether parts”. You could not even refer to piano legs. The word was shocking, tabooed. At least by “nice” people.” *
Well, not exactly.
In the teens & twenties, modern & enlightened people fancied themselves to be sophisticated revolutionaries throwing off the dry, dead weight of the past. The modern woman would no longer model herself after the proper Victorian middle-class matron. She would have a Freudian, liberated view of sex. She smoke, she drank, she turned herself into a make-up-wearing sex object with short skirts and short hair. She even participated in beauty contests! (Yes, ninety years ago a beauty contestant was a liberated, progressive, feminist type of girl!)
The liberated sophisticate of nearly a century ago of course had to tear down that against which she was rebelling, thus the view of the Victorians as repressed and stuffy spoilsports. Eventually, this revisionist view of the 19th Century came to dominate.
Kind of like how we now view the 1950s as a time of repressed, racist comformity, thanks to our latter-day revolutionaries of the 1960s.
And no, no one ever knitted wool stockings to cover indecently naked piano legs. I believe this one started with reactionary British conservatives, who loved to paint the 19th C. United States as a horrible example of the conformism & puritanism that resulted from liberal, democratical “mob rule”.
* Actually, there was a fad for referring to legs as “limbs” mid-century, but “legs” could also be found in use in popular literature as well.
What struck me most was that, by Harry Connick Jr. actually saying, “…we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons”, it absolutely IMPLIES that, in fact, they ARE!! I realize that was not his intent, but that sure is how it came across!!
Whilst the double standard pushing baboons put on white face and make movies about “white chicks,” members of the white race cower on all parts of the globe, and promis to abide by the latest verbal rules, the latest special lables, and the latest reason for accepting blame for all ills that befall Africans, no matter where they be.
9/8—Tonight, phony Bill O’Reilly showed his predictable PC disgust. This is the same creep that wants integrated proms, etc.
Actually, if it had been blacks in white face,you just know that Connick and O’Reilly would be whining if whites complained about the skit.
If blackface is “racist”, is skin bleaching also “racist”?
“The liberated sophisticate of nearly a century ago had to tear down that against which she was rebelling, thus the view of the Victorians as repressed and stuffy spoilsports. Eventually, this revisionist view of the 19th Century came to dominate. — MikeNY
But now, how will we explain that some people “flinch when you mention black shoes”? I guess that’s just a figure of speech. At least I certainly hope so! But “black” may be the next word to become taboo, somewhere down the line.
Hey, hey, race matters, apparently a lot more than some people realize.
If Harry Connick Jr. hasn’t seen the videotape of the beating death of that Chicago Fenger high school student, then he should. Some Bantus will be buffoons no matter how hard Connick Jr. apologizes for them.
Who does he think he is, going to another country and telling them how and what they should show on their own television programming? Why doesn’t he go to Iran and tell the mullahs there to stop religious programming, because “in America we have an absolute separation of church and state”?
My guess is, they’d slice him faster than a loaf of bread.
What a confusing time we live in. Just a few short years ago blacks were upset with the sterotype of being known as chicken eaters. Just recently a well known fast food chicken chain was running a commercial non stop of blacks dancing and singing about the chicken chains fine chicken. What the heck? I wish minorities would make their minds up over all this stuff. I am at my wits end trying to stay up to date with their politically correct demands.
Anonymous at 3.05pm “The skit might have been OK 50 years ago but so was slavery”
Slavery was ok 50 years ago? That would be in the 1950s - I thought slavery in the US ended in 1865 when the Civil War ended.
The skit was perhaps ‘racist’ by US standards, but since when are Australians living in their own country required to follow American standards? Are Afro-Americans so protected and special that the rest of the world isn’t allowed to ‘offend’ them?
It was a skit sending up the Jacksons - since when are the Jacksons so sacred and precious that they cannot be satirised? Especially since they do such a good job of satirising themselves.
“we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons,”
I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that, we take it really to heart.”
Chiefly because said efforts are difficult enough because of black people persistently acting like buffoons.
Seems poor little Harry has no made many friends in Australia. See his face book page. He is being accused of arrogance & hypocrisy. He has canceled an appearance today 10/10/09. and a lot of Australians are warning of a boycott of the Australian Idol TV show if he appears as guest judge as advertised
What gives an AMERICAN the ‘right’ to go to AUSTRALIA and tell AUSTRALIANS in AUSTRALIA what is and isn’t appropriate? Such arrogance masquerading as “righteous indignation”.
Dave Chappel stereotyped white people in white face all the time
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/WarriorMarikus/DaveChappele.JPG
