To be shocked that this was ever ok?! Blackface on Little Britain...

[BrexitBingoGenerator]

Hello. I've just been looking at the Daily Mail (sorry) and there is a thing about this. I was genuinely gobsmacked seeing the photo and it's completely offensive. However, at some time in the not-so-distant past, this was seen as mainstream comedy and I remember it being on primetime telly. So a critical mass of people must have thought this was ok? I never really watched little Britain and this sketch in particular made me want to heave, but I think at the time it was rather for its horrible portrayal of women generally. I don't remember outrage over it at the time. But maybe there was? I guess I'm just ashamed that comedy like this could have been screened in my adult lifetime.

This is revisionism, he was a champion of the Guardian and he took on right wing American Politics, it wasn't a piss take of white pretending to be black at all, it was character, just like Bruno, Borat and Azamat, it really wasn't a dig at white pretending to be black

Ali G was based on Tim Westwood and taking the piss that a bishop's son from Lowestoft had adopted a Black British accent. It absolutely was a dig at the white lads/young men who listen to hip hop or reggae then suddenly start taking on a rude boy persona and appropriating Jamaican patois.

*Could someone please explain why they think a man dressing up as a black woman, or pretending not to understand an Indian woman, isn’t racist?

Because it's more nuanced than that. In FatFighters, Marjorie was the character that came off awfully for pretending to not understand what Meera was saying, when it was clear what she was saying. That sketch was poking fun at racist people rather than the Indian lady.*

I agree. It would have been racist had the Indian lady actually been speaking incomprehensibly but she wasn't!

Just because your opinion is that it's racist doesn't make it actually racist

Right. So why has it been pulled at this point?

I didn’t rate Little Britain particularly highly but it was extremely popular when I was at uni, not amongst pig-ignorant little Englanders, but with left-leaning student types doing Ting Tong and Yeah-but-no-but and Dust! Dust!

History cannot be rewritten on this one as most of us were alive and cognisant while it was happening I’m afraid.

I’ve heard from various BAME people who have felt this is racist. I am and I am uncomfortable with it.

It used to be funny. Now we look back and a lot of us shudder in horror at it but as a PP said, it had a pop at every single stereotype. No one escaped it.
I wouldn't see it as racist but definitely dated these days. Much like Friends. Funny back then, still a bit funny today on the reruns but some of the homophobia etc is only really recognisable to most people now.

SerenDippitty you also ignore the blackface point, why is that? Why is this photo not racist?

That's a completely bizarre strawman argument - I wouldn't do an impression of anyone in a takeaway to strangers because it'd be bizarre. However amongst friends people often do impressions of sketches they like. The context and message of the sketch is key, not just "X is playing Y so it is racist". Just like Ricky Gervais said, whether a joke is acceptable defends on the context. Little Britain was always mocking the racists and people who stereotyped. If you find something racist you can choose not to watch it, but you can't dicate your opinion to others and state it as fact when it simply isn't.

@WorryWartOne

I didn’t rate Little Britain particularly highly but it was extremely popular when I was at uni, not amongst pig-ignorant little Englanders, but with left-leaning student types doing Ting Tong and Yeah-but-no-but and Dust! Dust!

History cannot be rewritten on this one as most of us were alive and cognisant while it was happening I’m afraid.

You can be left leaning and still be pig-ignorant. The proof is in the willingness to repeat racist catchphrases.

@Vodkacranberryplease

and it's equal opportunities offensiveness

With a main cast of able bodied, middle class white men?
There may be a miniscule argument (with substantial mental gymnastics and overreaching far beyond what I'm comfortable with) in that if the cast had any hint of diversity whatsoever.

If you find something racist you can choose not to watch it, but you can't dicate your opinion to others and state it as fact when it simply isn't.

Again, it’s not my opinion. Blackface is racist. Doing an impression of an Asian person to an Asian person isn’t just offensive, it’s racist. Again, that’s a fact.

@BrexitBingoGenerator

I guess I'm just ashamed that comedy like this could have been screened in my adult lifetime.

No shame in it unless you don't see the problem which isn't the case here.

Look at it from the perspective that it's also during your lifetime that real changes are being made. I know I'm proud of that.

I was responding to your and TatianaBis’s assertion that it wasn’t popular. I don’t think my uni cohort were pig-ignorant actually, they came from all walks of life and different ethnicities and sexual identities. It was a time when shock factor and pushing against PC ideology was the order of the day. We are going through an extremely puritanical era at the moment where people try to out-do each other in terms of outrage and indignation as that is what is fashionable. The pendulum always swings, as history again has shown.

I found it funny, It didn't impact how I treat people in the real world, it was a sketch show ffs

If you find something racist you can choose not to watch it

But other people watch it, and people have stated in this thread that they were mocked using popular catchphrases etc from the programme at school. So even if you choose to watch it, having it on mainstream tv does have an effect. Or does their experience not matter? I am all for close to the cuff comedy, but LB was just a lazy portrayal of stereotypes and more importantly not funny.

That was to Pumper

@Pumperthepumper

SerenDippitty you also ignore the blackface point, why is that? Why is this photo not racist?

I was addressing a particular point about the Marjorie Dawes character. I don't think that photo is acceptable.

We certainly are pushing against PC ideology these days, we might even have a balanced account of Churchill being taught to our children, instead of the glorious leader we learned about when I was at school. It’s brilliant.

I was addressing a particular point about the Marjorie Dawes character. I don't think that photo is acceptable.

Is it racist?

@willloman

I find censorship terrifying; where does it end - book burning? I'd rather watch and be offended and engage about the problem, or laugh because humour often treads towards the absurd/ridiculous. Milan Kundera's, 'The Joke' is a brilliant short treatise on the banishment of humour.

I agree with this.

I don't like this programme, don't find it funny - it is unpleasant. I especially hated the adult breastfeeder gag and the sniggering "Bitty" comments that trailed on for years aimed at anyone who breastfed their baby past a few months.

But I'd rather live in a world where this exists and I exercise my choice not to watch it than in a world where all we have is the defanged, bloodless pablum deemed acceptable by the self-appointed moral arbiters of the Twittersphere. I really dread to think what crap we'd be reading and watching if our cultural products had to get a pass from that board of censors

Humour should be at the sharp end of things. That old quotation about how I may not like what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it... goes double for comedy, IMO.

It used to be funny. Now we look back and a lot of us shudder in horror at it

We’re not talking abut the 30s. Many people shuddered in horror at the time, you just didn’t notice.

If you find something racist you can choose not to watch it

It's not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti-racism. If you find something racist, simply not watching it is not enough. You should be disgusted that others do. You should be able to articulate why you don't watch it and attempt to make racist people understand why it isn't funny. Why it is racist.

Those cops stood shoulder to shoulder with George Floyd's killer can say they aren't racist til the cows come home. They needed to be anti-racism. They needed to speak out. To walk away. To drag that murderer away.

@Pumperthepumper

I was addressing a particular point about the Marjorie Dawes character. I don't think that photo is acceptable.

Is it racist?

Yes.

Thank you

There will be nothing left to laugh at soon.