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.

@SerenDippitty

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

Unless the intention was to mock Nelson Mandela, then no.

Leigh Francis/Keith Lemon might be a different case. He's said sorry for the Craig David impersonations.

@Nousernamehistory
"White people can't experience racism"

Irony?

Most BAME people don’t care about tokenistic outrage at entertainment. Same as going around knocking imperialist statutes down won’t make the world more equitable. These gestures are just the preserve of ‘activists’, leftie champagne socialists. Don’t get taken in by it, real action takes courage and comes in the form of everyday unspoken actions.

@sst1234

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.

Nah, I get it, and I got it at the time... but it's just not ok nowadays.

I'm not saying Little Britain (and Bo Selecta) wasn't/weren't generally acceptable to most of the population at the time it/they were made, but not now. It's good that we have moved on. I don't feel any need to demonise or criticise David Walliams, Matt Lucas or Leigh Francis, but their comedy from the early-noughties isn't appropraite now.

It was so huge when it came out. I remember walking past Clinton Cards and they had a giant Vikki pollard cut out in the window. Everyone in my school loved it.

I found the female characters really uncomfortable and creepy, I remember that. But I don't remember picking up on the racism and I don't know why that is because today it'd make my jaw drop. Me and DH watched a bit of Only Fools and Horses recently and I couldn't believe the things that the characters would say to each other, ditto Harry Enfield and Friends (a recent Netflix rewatch really altered my memory of how funny it was. With the exception of Kevin the Teenager, the rest was just weird, unfunny and offensive).

I suppose comedy tastes just change over time. I also think the fact that the BBC aired LB gave it public sanction.

@SuckingDieselFella

In what way?

White people do not experience the systemic oppression, hatred and discrimination that black and brown people have.
Racism is related to power and white people are the ones who hold that power.
There can't be systemic discrimination against the majority.

@onedayinthefuture at fucking last. The voice of reason from someone who actually has the right to be offended or not (though there was a lady in the first page too, also sensible).

Im white and find all this virtue signalling embarrassing and a bit shit. Like who thinks they are the most right on. I live in north London, loads of different kinds of people around and I think that there are times when all of this is just a bit fucking insulting to the people supposedly being defended.

And has anyone here even met a Thai woman? I've met loads and they are great fun and feisty as hell. Big smile then taking the piss at the hand wringing, with each other.

It's all condescending and implies that non whites are so pathetic they need protecting. Fgs, the worst ones I know literally never spend any time with anyone from another race from day to day. It's just another leftie way to feel better about themselves.

I remember Walliams dressed as an old woman and eating a cake, he then found out an Indian woman had made it and was immediately sick

Might as well throw that in to the ring. Also, I was watching a program last week and a football manager said that one of the black players had a good sub tan

[quote Nousernamehistory]@SuckingDieselFella

In what way?

White people do not experience the systemic oppression, hatred and discrimination that black and brown people have.
Racism is related to power and white people are the ones who hold that power.
There can't be systemic discrimination against the majority.[/quote]
Don't be ridiculous.

Wouldn't it occur to you that there are other countries in the world besides your own and white people aren't always in the majority? Ask any white person who has been imprisoned in the middle east for offending a local.

@Lockeduporknockedup that’s great to hear why you don’t think it’s racist I said the same to my husband and he now thinks I’m racist. I agree I didn’t find that show funny at all.

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

This!

@sst1234 I completely agree.

@Vodkacranberryplease thank you, thank you. I feel like it's some form of oppression, lefties are just completely ignoring any voice of reason. I am being silenced by them, the irony.

I never liked the show, I found it to be misogynistic. But, it seems like they were horrible to everyone. They didn't seem to be particularly picking on black people but creating a range of cringe-y characters.

@vodkacranberryplease

Said this on another thread tonight before that got pulled.

I'm mixed race and disabled. I can decide for myself what I find insulting or not.

White people deciding (on my behalf) that anti-racism views are shit, virtue signalling and condescending is by far and away the more insulting thing. You'd know this if you thought to ask instead of assuming and being condescending (you know, the very thing you're moaning about there)

It's all condescending and implies that non whites are so pathetic they need protecting. Fgs, the worst ones I know literally never spend any time with anyone from another race from day to day. It's just another leftie way to feel better about themselves.

I don't agree that there is anything leftie about this; rather the contrary. However, I absolutely agree with the rest of this. As has been stated, the point of this programme was that it took the piss out of everyone. If it had been solely about blackface you might have cause to complain. The target it was probably most scathing of was the racist woman who vomited copiously at the mere thought of a black person touching something she had eaten.

The programme gave non-white people and disabled people the credit for not assuming that they demanded to be treated as 'special cases'. If it had left them out, or sanitised them so that they were always depicted as the saintly good guys, that would have been unbelievably patronising and way more offensive.

@SuckingDieselFella

White people systemically victimsed?Fumes might've got to your head a bit.

Reckon I'll keep on being ridiculous thanks ✌🏾

Honestly, as a black person, I don't see how this character is any more offensive than every other character in the show. The purpose of every single character was to portray the worst stereotypes of every faction of society. The gay representation is offensive, the black overweight representation is offensive, the white middle class woman, the on-benefits teen mother is offensive... Every stereotype is offensive and that's the entire point. There isn't a demographic of society that is not offensively represented in the show. Blackface is where white people would dress as black people and exaggerate our features to mock us for our very blackness. That's not what is happening here.

Exactly.

@Nousernamehistory

Are you a sixth form sociology student? If not, there's no excuse for such a juvenile response.

@Lockeduporknockedup has it for me.

This was an interesting short essay by a Professor form Columbia University who happens to be black. It's not a contrarian point of view, but a bit of a call to be rational, not emotional and put black people's needs first rather than getting carried away with white guilt and white people wallowing around.
www.the-american-interest.com/2018/05/24/atonement-as-activism/?fbclid=IwAR3EKCWOy0l5_hO3K_TaBCx3LxQ6-PepAlWZ2W-6BPtkA1IlsbWE7cjPXaA

White people deciding (on my behalf) that anti-racism views are shit, virtue signalling and condescending is by far and away the more insulting thing. You'd know this if you thought to ask instead of assuming and being condescending (you know, the very thing you're moaning about there)

Exactly!

I loved some of the sketches but the ones with bodily fluids were a bit much. It was really popular when I was at uni. Not watched it in 10 years but imagine its not aged well and can see why they want to pull it. I agree with posters saying the show is about sterotypes and think they hit the nail on the head most times but I 've never got the sketch with the two overweight woman in it or understood what we are supposed to be laughing about there?

Honestly, as a black person, I don't see how this character is any more offensive than every other character in the show. The purpose of every single character was to portray the worst stereotypes of every faction of society. The gay representation is offensive, the black overweight representation is offensive, the white middle class woman, the on-benefits teen mother is offensive... Every stereotype is offensive and that's the entire point.
There isn't a demographic of society that is not offensively represented in the show. Blackface is where white people would dress as black people and exaggerate our features to mock us for our very blackness. That's not what is happening here

This ^

I actually found the programme funny. Brings back memories.

A racism argument I seem to have is about people dressing up but making their face black if the character is black not in a mocking way just being as realistic as you can like wearing a wig for example. My DH thinkis this is the height of racisms as colouring your face is reminiscent of what the the black and white minstrels did and therefore a no no. I’d be interested about what people thought about that I know tiny bit off topic.

*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.*

But laughing is a pretty primal, instinctive reaction; you either find something funny or you don't. You can tell someone "that show's not funny, I don't know how you can laugh at that" but they still will. I still find it funny and have great nostalgia, me and my friends still discuss that show. I have read a lot about racism but it was a comedy show designed to mock racist people and British stereotypes of foreigners - as an immigrant at the time (as much of my friends were) I found it hilarious and on-point. Comedy is for the purpose of laughing at ourselves - one of the sketches mocked a stereotype of the country I'm from and I found it very funny. You can be faux-outraged and professionally offended until you're blue in the face but you simply can't dictate to people that they should have your opinion.