I figured there was no better way to express to each of you my dedication to the cause than to pick race and religion as my first topic. (And they told you Audrey Skepburn was classy?!)
Harry Connick Jr. found himself in the middle of a VERY uncomfortable skit in Australia on October 9th. He was a guest judge on an Aussie television variety show called Hey Hey It’s Saturday, when out walked six Sydney doctors in Afro wigs and black face to perform The Jackson 5 hit “Can You Feel It.” Aside from the whole “TOO SOON” aspect of the performance, the “tasteless” and “RACIST” elements just kept piling on.
Connick Jr. isn’t so dense that he didn’t realize how horrible it was. He gave the group a zero and then said it would be racist in America. Agreed. Watch the skit here only if you can keep yourself from passing out when you cringe for 10 minutes straight.
But, thanks to some pissed Aussie bloggers who tracked down the footage, Connick Jr. didn’t have a problem panning both race and religion in a MadTV skit in 1996 with Orlando Jones. Playing a black white southern preacher, he pitches his new record and then falls the ground shaking at the end of the sketch.
Apparently, it’s OK to cross the line if you’re promoting a record. Money is, of course, the most sacred thing. I guess it’s easy to stand up for your values when you’re halfway across the world, on a crazy, crazy-obscure TV show. Connick Jr. was practically in private.
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the madtv skit was in 1996? maybe he has just grown up since then…
Who said you were classy?
I don’t want to split hairs here…but imitating a Southern Baptist Televangelist is not even close to Blackface. Come on.
There, I said it.
Plus my wife thinks he’s hot. So fuck him anyways.
Welcome to the fold Audrey. I have to agree though that I think his bit a just a bit more tasteful (the only time I will ever say that about Mad TV). Besides, since there was a black man in the sketch we should remember Chris Rock, Dave Chapelle, and Sasha Baron Cohen have all taught us: it’s ok to make a racist sketch as long as a member of that race is participating.
Those from AUS are a little less uptight about racial identity.
Those from NOLA are a little more uptight about racial identity.
Remember when Connick Jr got busted for carrying a loaded handgun on an airplane?
Because his dad was the DA, they dropped all charges.
There’s two Americas, alright.
I agree with Jrod (and Jrod’s wife).
Also, @TheIrish:
And Richard Pryor. I read once that Gene Wilder refused to do the blackface scene of Silver Streak unless Pryor was involved. (And then Pryor decided that the sketch was in good taste as long as there was a black guy at the end of the scene that could recognize that Wilder was an impostor.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu1TZVX72Aw
His wife is hotter than him. Or was. I haven’t seen her since all of those people fell out of her vagina.
would someone explain to me why it’s ok for any race to make fun of white people ad nauseum but white people can’t make fun of anyone?
I was wondering that too, Mermaid. Want me to make some popcorn while we wait?
yeah, I think it will take awhile, Beige. want some beer too? may as well get drunk and cry in it.
Jrod is right: even as an Australian, I can recognise the weird tan and poofy pompadour hairstyle of the stereotyped TV evangelist a mile off.
And also as an Australian, can I please state that more than a few off us were likewise appalled at that sketch.
As a bit of background, “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday” was a cheesey variety programme popular with suburban bogans (the Australian equivalent of rednecks) that ran in the late 70s and 80s before being mercifully put to death.
For reasons only known to the Other Gods (although sheer desperation and lack of original ideas is highly suspected) it was resurrected by the TV network for a reunion special this year. One can only hope that, like “Jurassic Park” or “Dawn of the Dead”, this will serve to show that some things are better left dead.
So Clownfish was this show a pardoy of the original?
Were the five doctors in a misguided Homage?
And to the world at large…
If my kid wants to be Michael Jordan for Halloween, is he a racist? He is, right?
Fortunate Son, there’s a whole discussion of white people dressing as black people for Halloween from a post on The Awl last week…
http://www.theawl.com/2009/10/your-halloween-costume-a-bigot
Fortunate Son, of course not. The issue here was purely about Blackface – the “black & white minstrel” type of makeup which grossly exaggerates and parodies African facial features, which obviously as racist as, say, anti-semitic cartoons of Jews with enourmous noses and drooping lips.
On the same show, same episode the show ‘took the piss’ out of an Australian performer-
Malaysian-born Kamahl. The whole episode was a racist-fest.
Story here:
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26185534-10229,00.html
Beige and Mermaid the only reason why whitie cannot make fun of other “races” is because you people are the only “race” that would feel bad about it.
We need to get over this “race” thing, its getting really played out. What I see today is class discrimination.
I think I read when this show was taped that Connick was supposed to be black in the MadTV skit, but looking at that screen shot, I can’t imagine that being correct. In Connick’s defense, he has acknowledged that the 1996 skit was in poor taste, and that it does make it difficult for him to criticize the Aussie skit (without being called a hypocrite). I think that blackface isn’t as taboo in Australia because there is less history of it than in the US. I haven’t seen the video, but I was under the impression that the act was more of an homage/parody of the Jackson 5 than of black people as a whole. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t be insensitive, but there is a difference between poor taste and deliberate cruelty.
Plus, if we’re going to claim that color/looks don’t matter, then we have to start letting black people imitate white people, Asian people imitate Hispanic people, white people imitate Asian people and Hispanic people imitate black people, and NOT freak out about it. Why can’t a black guy be in a U2 tribute band? Why not have an Asian guy play Othello? How about a Hispanic Robin Hood? Or a white Mulan? Just because the person is portraying someone who has different colored skin doesn’t mean they’re being insulting.
Thanks Clownfish. I think most Americans would consider that bigoted but not racist.
In the US, black, caucasian, asian are considered the three races, I know in AUS there’s a slightly different interpretation.
Would most Australians consider this cartoon racist?
http://i38.tinypic.com/2vw7039.jpg
“obviously as racist as, say, anti-semitic cartoons of Jews with enourmous noses and drooping lips.”
Thanks Clownfish. I think many Americans would consider that bigoted rather than racist.
In the US, the three races are widely considered to be black, Asian, or Caucasian, though I know classifications are a wee bit different over there.
Would most Australians find this cartoon racist?
http://i38.tinypic.com/2vw7039.jpg
I see your point, Fortunate_Son; I wouldn’t argue that it was racist in the sense of “we hate the Jackson 5 because they’re black!”, in fact, I’m not even sure that bigotry is the right word. That said, I’d hate to use a ghastly, clumsy PC phrase like “culturally insensitive”.
Basically, it was a one-joke idea predicated solely on the idea that painting yourself coal-black and putting on a golliwog wig and a 70s disco suit was a)a witty parody of the Jackson 5, and b)funny.
I don’t know about racist, but I’d find that cartoon insulting to goblins
But there’s a difference between caricaturing a specific person as a fool*, and caricaturing an entire race as buffoonish idiots.
*FWIW, I never thought GWB was *stupid*, just profoundly incurious and not a little ignorant, but that’s just my take. I would also – despite my dislike of his politics – argue till the cows came home that the last thing he was, was racist. People should have woken up that Kanye West was a fool, then and there.
“I don’t know about racist, but I’d find that cartoon insulting to goblins
But there’s a difference between caricaturing a specific person as a fool*, and caricaturing an entire race as buffoonish idiots.”
Yeah, you’re right. And in a perfect world things would work that way. The problem lies in the fact that no one sees the Bush picture as racist (cause it’s not), but if someone did the EXACT same thing to make a caricature of Obama or Al Sharpton it would be considered racist (even though it wouldn’t be either).
We’ve entered a realm where any criticism of anyone who isn’t white is immediately considered to be racist. Though the intention is the same as it was with the white person – to call THEM an idiot, not their race. In the end, that is what makes something racist – the intent behind it.
I’m really having trouble seeing how Connick screwed up here. Not all southern preachers are black. In fact, most of the ones I see on TV look and act a lot like he does in that skit.
I think Presidents should be fair game for any sort of non-slanderous criticism (ghoblin charicatures, etc) that does not involve their children.
Its very interesting to see political cartoons in US papers portray Obama in a minimally exaggerated to almost photorealistic manner where UK and international cartoons tend to take many more liberties with Obama charicatures, whether merely artistic or racially oriented.
Harry Connick Jr.
He, he, he ain’t got it. What’s the big deal. Usually, Connick Jr. has his regular assortment of attention getting antics. Does he have to play the race card?
Isn’t it enough for him to appear on television and lie about coming from New Orleans, when he’s really from Weston, Connecticut! Telling the world htat his father is or was the District Attorney of New Orleans, when heisw really one of the presidents of Sony Music and one of the biggest stockholders in Sony Pictures. That’s why we’re stuck with this phoney all the time.
Ask yourself: What’s your favortite Harry Connick Jr. song?