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.

[WornDownTired]

Some people think it is offensive, some people don't. Banning things will only get peoples backs up now. When you silence people, you turn many of them against a cause. You think we would have learned that by now with Brexit, Transgender issues etc. We repeat this mistake time and time again.

[Chienloup]

@Poetryinaction

David Walliams is so unfunny and his books are shit.

The crap books with the horrible racial and sexist stereotypes, which he makes millions on and doesn't even bloody write. Ugh.

[JuniorMint]

Ali G wasn’t black, was he?

[Guineverez]

Ali G was played as a white guy, Tim Westwood probably inspired it.
Where I grew up it was spot on, a lot of white kids who suddenly started talking that way in high school out of nowhere.

[PaulineScrambledPhones]

Oh I liked the tiny Dennis Waterman it was so random....

Like Marjorie Dawes, this was also inspired by a League of Gentlemen character: Reg Ingleby. The character didn’t make it to the TV series, but is a recurring character in the original radio series.
(Not relevant to the thread, but I’m a wealth of League of Gentlemen trivia!)

[Raaaa]

I thought it was funny it took the piss out of everyone in society and if you don't like it don't watch it, sick of people being constantly offended these days

[lilgreen]

I didn’t think it was racist or homophobic. It was a sketch show ridiculing stereotypes.

[iwilltaketwoplease]

I didn't think it was racist when I watched it But I can see how people could be offended. It wasn't a show taking the piss out

[Gwenhwyfar]

"The character of Andy for example perpetuates the myth that people routinely fake disability"

It was making a joke of the idea that some people MIGHT do that. It wasn't saying all disabled people are like this. It's a comedy.

[iwilltaketwoplease]

...of a black person, it was a show taking the piss out of everyone. It was funny.

[WornDownTired]

Yes, Ali G is supposed to be a white boy from Staines immersed in African American gang culture and hip hop. I think we are a bit confused because Sasha Baron Cohen is Jewish and is quite dark so doesn't look like a white boy form Staines.

I always thought Ali G was an Asian character immersed in the London hip hop scene but not quite achieving it as his mum wanted him back by 9pm.

[Sandybval]

Shall we just say that on the whole Walliams and Lucas are unfunny fuckers?

Yep!

[Shallwedancetomojito]

Daffy duck you better watch out your next.

[Lonoxo]

I never got it, didn’t find the show funny at all.

[june2007]

Anne is very funny and actually not demeaning, if you watch it.

[Destroyedpeople]

.....if you listen very caefully to what Ali g's nanna says when she tells ali not to play wirh his 'pupik' she is clearly a Yiddish speaker.....

[SuckingDieselFella]

Sasha Baron Cohen didn't black up.

That's the difference.

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

The show isn't funny - never has been.

[DrDavidBanner]

They offended everyone. Blackface was just as offensive then but they got away with it, and the rest for years because they were 'cool'.

See also Emily Howard and "Ting Tong was Ping Pong" yet now they've disapeared into a purity vortex that's made their careers pretty much pointless

This is virtue signalling at it's best, but it is quite funny.

[dooble]

Was the computer says no sketch on there? that did make me laugh.

[Peapod29]

Little Britain was offensive to everyone. I’m afraid to admit I found it funny, and probably still would now if I hadn’t already watched it so many times. For some reason it was one of the few videos we had as teens.

[user127820]

@june2007 I did watch it and I found it demeaning. Do you really find this funny and acceptable:

All I can think of while watching it is the young woman with learning disabilities I know and how heartbroken her parents would be if anyone ever made fun of her in this way.

[Justanotherlurker]

I never got it, didn’t find the show funny at all.

Thats good, I didn't really enjoy it either but comedy is subjective and it was a big hit for the BBC that even sold abroad.

I would imagine a lot of stuff you find funny many others wouldn't either, and I would guarantee that something you did find funny could also be problematic if held up to todays standard.

[Pumperthepumper]

@june2007

Anne is very funny and actually not demeaning, if you watch it.

Anne, the incontinent disabled woman who can only speak in grunts, played by the able-bodied male actor David Walliams? That Anne?

[isseywith4vampirecats]

little Britain was controversial and designed to get peoples backs up if all programs and comedians who took the piss out of other people were taken off television there wouldn't be much comedy left only safe twee middle class comedy like the good life and birds of a feather oh sorry they take the mickey out of Dorian been old I love citizen khan he calls white people whitey on the program is that acceptable because hes an Asian character and hes insulting a white person, like any controversial program if you don't like it you have the choice not to watch it