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

646 replies

BrexitBingoGenerator · 09/06/2020 17:27

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.

To be shocked that this was ever ok?! Blackface on Little Britain...
OP posts:
Nousernamehistory · 09/06/2020 21:50

@onedayinthefuture

Only if you are so pathetic and small minded that your sense of humour is only satisfied by laughing at other people Biscuit

TatianaBis · 09/06/2020 21:50

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

It impacted how other people were treated in the real world though. Did you consider that?

TatianaBis · 09/06/2020 21:55

There will be nothing left to laugh at soon.

Yes what will be left to laugh at when we can’t laugh at dark people any more. 🙄 (Gingers?)

TatianaBis · 09/06/2020 21:56

By we I meant you, clearly.

LuxLuxLux84 · 09/06/2020 21:56

I really didn’t like the character in a wheelchair either with his carer.

Destroyedpeople · 09/06/2020 21:59

The invention of thecharacter in the wheelchair was just plain nasty. Anyone who thinks that by not watching this 'we won't have anything to laugh at' really needs a mental slap.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 09/06/2020 22:00

There will be nothing left to laugh at soon

If you honestly think that the only shows that are funny on tv are the few remaining which openly mock people of colour, people with disabilities or poor people, the you should just stop watching comedy. Put on the news. Read a fucking book.

Raaaa · 09/06/2020 22:01

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

It impacted how other people were treated in the real world though. Did you consider that?

No I didn't, it was a 30 minute programme that I watched at the end of the day, had a laugh and then didn't give it a second thought when it was over. I don't tend to watch tv and think about how what I'm watching may affect others, if that makes me a bad person fine.

Destroyedpeople · 09/06/2020 22:02

I mean....Harry and Paul managed to be funny ..'take the piss ' out of people and not be offensive. So it's not impossible is it?

kenandbarbie · 09/06/2020 22:05

A lot of it was just nasty, sexist and racist. I liked the fat busters character who clearly was intended to poke fun at racists. But mainly it was immature toilet humour. As evidenced by so many people saying everyone liked it when they were at school
/ uni. I was at work and not everyone liked it. I didn't remember the blackface character.

There was no need for the nastiness or the racism, I'd much rather blackadder or dara o'briain for example who manage to be funny without relying on childish toilet humour and nastiness. No doubt someone will point out some racism or sexism in blackadder now! But I don't remember any.

CasperGutman · 09/06/2020 22:06

@Pumperthepumper

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.

Whether doing an impression of an Asian person to an Asian person is racist or not depends on all kinds of details of the context and people involved.

I used to work in Japan, and while out in a bar with Japanese colleagues I would certainly impersonate specific phrases or mannerisms of Japanese people we all knew from work. That wasn't racist.

I think possibly I once did am impression of a British person's stereotype of a Japanese person to them once, too. They thought it was hilarious, and we were all clearly mocking ignorant Brits. That wasn't racist either.

TatianaBis · 09/06/2020 22:07

I don't tend to watch tv and think about how what I'm watching may affect others, if that makes me a bad person fine.

Not bad. Just a bit dense.

Pumperthepumper · 09/06/2020 22:09

I used to work in Japan, and while out in a bar with Japanese colleagues I would certainly impersonate specific phrases or mannerisms of Japanese people we all knew from work. That wasn't racist.

I think possibly I once did am impression of a British person's stereotype of a Japanese person to them once, too. They thought it was hilarious, and we were all clearly mocking ignorant Brits. That wasn't racist either.

It was racist. It was well-received racism. Again, if you really don’t believe it’s racist, feel free to do that same impression at your local Japanese restaurant.

Raaaa · 09/06/2020 22:10

I don't tend to watch tv and think about how what I'm watching may affect others, if that makes me a bad person fine.

Not bad. Just a bit dense.

Thanks for just quoting part of my comment 👍
Dense haha ok Grin I do hope that whatever you may have watched tonight in your downtime you have considered the impact on others

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 09/06/2020 22:12

No I didn't, it was a 30 minute programme that I watched at the end of the day, had a laugh and then didn't give it a second thought when it was over. I don't tend to watch tv and think about how what I'm watching may affect others, if that makes me a bad person fine

I find it interesting when people accept things are bad yet take the "fine, I'm a bad person" route.

It is possible to look back and say "I used to find it funny. I see now why it isn't any more"

If you still find it funny, then maybe do some reading around the topic in general and decide.

onedayinthefuture · 09/06/2020 22:16

How many of you commenting here are white? The professionally offended? I am mixed race and as a child I experienced racism but as I got older I grew more confident and quickly realised that you can't change stupid. Why should I let them bring me down? My parents taught me to be strong. We should all be able to laugh at ourselves. I honestly feel that privileged white people are absolutely lapping up all this racial tension, it gives you another fucking cause doesn't it? Without us poor minorities, who could you fight for? You fucking want us in our boxes don't you? The more you go on about race, the more it never fucking goes away....!!!! YOU are the problem.

gingganggooleywotsit · 09/06/2020 22:17

I used to love it and find it hilarious, I do feel bad..when I watched it back recently I couldn't believe they got away with it. It's ridiculously rude to so many people on so many levels. Come fly with me is even worse.

gingganggooleywotsit · 09/06/2020 22:18

My husband is Indian and we both laughed at it together at the time.. I honestly can't say why we couldn't see
how offensive it was.

Titsywoo · 09/06/2020 22:19

It was funny. What about that film "White Chicks"? That's ok is it?

Fucking ridiculous. I just bought Come Fly with Me on Amazon - my kids love it. And no they aren't bloody racists.

SerenDippitty · 09/06/2020 22:20

Out of interest do people think Rory Bremner doing impressions of Nelson Mandela was racist?

FOJN · 09/06/2020 22:24

honestly feel that privileged white people are absolutely lapping up all this racial tension, it gives you another fucking cause doesn't it? Without us poor minorities, who could you fight for? You fucking want us in our boxes don't you? The more you go on about race, the more it never fucking goes away....!!!! YOU are the problem

Agreed, it's embarrassing.

Pumperthepumper · 09/06/2020 22:24

@Titsywoo

It was funny. What about that film "White Chicks"? That's ok is it?

Fucking ridiculous. I just bought Come Fly with Me on Amazon - my kids love it. And no they aren't bloody racists.

Unlike Churchill.
ilydia · 09/06/2020 22:25

At the time (when I was in my mid-teens) I felt like it was a strange show and I was very surprised by its success. If the show were made now pretty much all of the sketches would be considered extremely problematic.

We can't necessarily judge things made a while ago in the context of today's world, but in this instance it feels right and just that such content has been removed. This kind of comedy isn't acceptable in 2020, even if it was in 2003.

sst1234 · 09/06/2020 22:26

Wow so much faux outrage here that it could have made it into the show as a sketch in itself. The irony. It’s clear that most people here just didn’t get what the show was trying to portray, it was poking fun at the stereotypes. It’s the kind of middle England outrage displayed in this thread that populists thrive on.

Nousernamehistory · 09/06/2020 22:27

What about that film "White Chicks"?

White people can't experience racism so it's not a comparable example. That film has it's own issues with ableism though so not acceptable either.

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