So now Netflix has removed The Mighty Boosh and League of Gentlemen

[Doyoumind]

Should they be cancelled or is it going too far? They weren't like Little Britain, imho. Perhaps they were offensive. How far does it go though? Will there be anything left to watch pre 2020?

It’s madness isn’t it? Bring back the good old days where you could lick as many public toilet seats as you wanted and go home to indulge in a good old festival of racism.
It's a very lazy and cheap shot to accuse someone of racism because they don't like being told what they can and can't watch, you don't make a point that way.

@hypernormal

It’s madness isn’t it? Bring back the good old days where you could lick as many public toilet seats as you wanted and go home to indulge in a good old festival of racism. It's a very lazy and cheap shot to accuse someone of racism because they don't like being told what they can and can't watch, you don't make a point that way.

It’s lazy and cheap to consistently insist that your right to watch whatever racist garbage you like means it’s not racist. Nice to see you on this thread Hyper - your defence of racism is being discussed on the other one too.

Will Lenny Henry have to apologize for impersonating David Bellamy years ago?
I can see why some things have to be removed , but it is going too far to ban a film like Gone with the wind that is about the American civil war and at a time when having staff from a different race or culture was the 'norm' for the times (be that right or wrong. )

Will Monty Python's Flying Circus be removed next? The last episode I watched had homophobia, yellowface and sexual stereotyping.

Actually... perhaps each episode should be prefaced by someone explaining that it was a product of its time. Preferably a Graham Chapman lookalike with a very po face while wearing an army uniform. Please let it happen!

It's a very lazy and cheap shot to accuse someone of racism because they don't like being told what they can and can't watch, you don't make a point that way.

Thank you hypernormal

The dolmio advert where the characters are speaking in a fake Italian accent...should it be removed too? Horrible histories has a lot of actors dressed up as people from other countries and talking in fake accents too. Just how far do we go?

Regarding the "w*g" episode of Fawlty Towers.

From memory it's an exchange between the hotel cook and the Major, who is a genial but anachronistic old racist.

The Major, reading his paper, mentions that Boycott scored a century at cricket against India. The cook says "bunch of n***s". This is clearly intended by the show to be a remark that its audience would find offensive if made in real life.

The Major ticks off the cook and says "no, you can't call them that old boy. Those chaps are w*gs".

Thus taking the piss out of the Major for.. being an out of touch, anachronistic old racist.

I assume that if it's been censored, it's because those words are now taboo in a way that "fuck" isn't any longer, not because of the nature of the joke.

It’s lazy and cheap to consistently insist that your right to watch whatever racist garbage you like means it’s not racist. Nice to see you on this thread Hyper - your defence of racism is being discussed on the other one too.
Why can't you state what your objections are and what your point is, rather than rampaging through threads calling people you don't know 'racist'? That way we can have a discussion. I won't engage with you further if you're just going to be abusive. Those who wish these programs removed may well have a point and if so I'd like to hear it, but your abusive tactics do nothing to convince anyone.

Oh, and just so people can make up their own minds whether or not I'm 'defending racism' here's a link to the other thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3933779-To-be-shocked-that-this-was-ever-ok-Blackface-on-Little-Britain

@hypernormal

It’s lazy and cheap to consistently insist that your right to watch whatever racist garbage you like means it’s not racist. Nice to see you on this thread Hyper - your defence of racism is being discussed on the other one too. Why can't you state what your objections are and what your point is, rather than rampaging through threads calling people you don't know 'racist'? That way we can have a discussion. I won't engage with you further if you're just going to be abusive. Those who wish these programs removed may well have a point and if so I'd like to hear it, but your abusive tactics do nothing to convince anyone.

You are defending Little Britain as being diverse. That’s your argument. You’re also defending Matt Lucas dressing up as Ting Tong as being some kind of satirical take-down of British racism. It isn’t.

It never crossed my mind that Papa Lazarou was in blackface. He's more Morris dancer or clown isn't he?

There's Morris troupes who wear black face paint and crow costumes now, they are dressing as birds. It would be a shame if they end up being pushed to stop wearing the makeup so as not to cause offence.

The thing I find most frustrating about this conversation is how actually, there is a wealth of white-centric British comedy that plays racism for laughs. I’m not a massive Ricky Gervais fan but David Brent being the prime example - someone so keen to be seen as right-on and woke, yet tells jokes he struggles to finish in front of his black colleague or has to immediately back-track when he slips up and says something without thinking.

Arguably too, in Extras where two of the characters in Andy’s show (the one he’s worked so hard on yet has been dumbed-down beyond all recognition) pull their eyes back and wear lantern hats to give a presentation to two Asian people. It’s played for laughs in the fake show (I think there’s even a couple to audience members wearing Little Britain catchphrase t-shirts?) then it immediately cuts to Andy and his agent talking about how shit the program is, and how it’s target audience is ‘thick kids and their thick parents - the thick demographic’.

There’s an episode of Peep Show where Jeremy’s girlfriend makes him up in blackface to ‘break a taboo’ and pretend he’s a black man having sex with his mum. He’s mortified by it and she says ‘you can’t imagine your mum having sex with a black man? That’s pretty racist’ Again, the joke here isn’t that he’s caricaturing a black person - it’s that him and his girlfriend are so ridiculous.

I’ll stop, because this is massive now - but my point it, if you want to look at how we can use racist tropes to make racism funny, Little Britain is absolutely not it.

You are defending Little Britain as being diverse. That’s your argument.You’re also defending Matt Lucas dressing up as Ting Tong as being some kind of satirical take-down of British racism. It isn’t.
No, my argument was that Little Britain has scenes in it that are clearly anti-racist. The main duo are of course not diverse, it's two white men. The supporting cast is though, and people from different ethnicities are often made to look more intelligent than the stupid white characters.
I haven't even mentioned 'Ting Tong' anywhere at all, so that's a complete projection. I don't have time for this, I'm sure you'll find another victim easy enough though.

I’ve replied to you on the other thread Hyper, I’m not chasing you around trying to tease you into making conclusions to your own argument that you’re incapable of making yourself.

There's Morris troupes who wear black face paint and crow costumes now, they are dressing as birds. It would be a shame if they end up being pushed to stop wearing the makeup so as not to cause offence

This is something I don't get - why does something have to stay exactly the same? What would actually be wrong with Morris Dancers updating their looks - you can do fantastic things with facepaint that actually look like birds, we have neons, we have glitters, we have things that weren't available to the originators of the tradition. You can continue a tradition yet update it.

@category12

There's Morris troupes who wear black face paint and crow costumes now, they are dressing as birds. It would be a shame if they end up being pushed to stop wearing the makeup so as not to cause offence

This is something I don't get - why does something have to stay exactly the same? What would actually be wrong with Morris Dancers updating their looks - you can do fantastic things with facepaint that actually look like birds, we have neons, we have glitters, we have things that weren't available to the originators of the tradition. You can continue a tradition yet update it.

Agree. It's a different scenario from existing TV programmes, where your only options are to censor them or to put up with the racism. : Living forms of art/folk music can evolve - have to, in fact, or they become fossilised. I'm sure Morris dancing now is very different to how it was in the 15th century. No one really knows why there is a tradition of painting their faces black, so why not change it to a different colour instead? What would actually be lost?

Worlds gone made!! Little Britain is hilarious 😂 PC Brigade need to get a life!

I wondered why there were so many blank spaces on Netflix.

I'm very jealous that you got all these programmes on Netflix in the first place. I'm in NZ and Netflix is mostly crappy American B-movies and second-rate sitcoms. I only renewed my subscription for lockdown and am about to cancel it again as I don't really use it.

Always hated them anyway, so no loss there

I'm very jealous that you got all these programmes on Netflix in the first place. I'm in NZ and Netflix is mostly crappy American B-movies and second-rate sitcoms. I only renewed my subscription for lockdown and am about to cancel it again as I don't really use it.

VPN

Regarding Fawlty Towers, is there any reason the offensive words can't be deleted and the episode left to stand? If they can edit songs if someone deems a word offensive then why not a TV programme?

I agree pink sparkly - they already edit friends, Big Bang etc for day time viewing.

Regarding Fawlty Towers, is there any reason the offensive words can't be deleted and the episode left to stand? If they can edit songs if someone deems a word offensive then why not a TV programme?

I'd rather it was banned than buggered about with.

And you write as if editing a song is a Good Thing, whereas I am less convinced.

The danger with this subtle airbrushing is that it distorts the history in the exact same way GWTW does.

It's impossible (try it) to use a word without any context to it. And it's the context that places something. In the case of Fawlty Towers that context is 45 years ago when digital watches were still considered pretty wild.