Fawlty Towers “Don’t mention the war” removed.

[boredtotears11]

Aibu to say I think that is a ridiculous decision by the BBC.Theyve removed it from its streaming service because of its “racist slurs”. It was a classic piece of comedy. I mean if they start picking apart old classic comedy how far are they going to go. Dads Army next?

Chinese Alan isn't Chinese though its not a racist joke. the nickname is never explained but he comes in and asks if anyone fancies a Chinese at one point, so it's about the food...

It’s only that one episode so yes it was to do with that ItsgoingTibiak.

It's much more likely to be because of the racist terms in it. The Major even goes as far as to say that he corrected his companion at the cricket for referring to India as n**s. "That's the West Indies. These people are w*s."

ItsGoingTibiaK
Calm down with the nasty tone for goodness sake. I didn’t know that ok. I thought it was because of the Nazi slur. No need to go on attack mode.

So now I know that, they should just remove that scene.

@boredtotears11

Have you even seen this “classic piece of comedy” that you know nothing about but are so desperate to prtoect?

Yes, the N word is not "Nazi" ...
Agree that the whole point is that the Major is being horribly racist, and the audience is supposed to laugh at him because of that. In the same way that Basil is shown as being ridiculous for being xenophobic. But this does make light of racism, turning it into a silly flaw. I can easily imagine sitting there with a black grandchild and finding it very unpleasant as family viewing.

This rewriting and removal of history is terrible. Things are of their time. Some things like statues do need to go to museums perhaps now but it's getting silly. I winder if we should get rid of Vikings and films with Romans because they harassed the folk of Britain.

Indeed. Nothing to do with the war.

Everything to do with the unacceptable racist language.

The racist scenes from that have been edited on BBC/Gold for years now. Deleting the whole episode is going a bit far though. I remember John Cleese saying he was uneasy about half of that episode and it hasn't dated well.

I don't like censorship though.

Do they have to remove the whole episode though? I only remember one short scene with the Major with the offensive words.

Couldnt they have cut that part out instead of shelving the whole episode?

Someone once complained about the House of Eliot because of all the fur, which was a disgrace 'in this day and age.'

The point about the Major's racism was that he was a racist and that was the joke. It was 1975. There were lots of Majors around. It was a racism-saturated society in which you undermined racism by pointing it out.

Flag it. Maybe bleep it. The joke still works.

Now what about the scene where Basil is caught apprently sodomising Manuel?

ItsgoingTibiak Yes I’ve seen every episode. I didn’t know that the racial slurs were in that particular episode. I’ve always thought those references were vile. However I think they should be written out. I love Fawlty Towers, don’t understand how you think I’m “desperate to protect” them though, 🤔

Christ on a bike, who the hell even wants to watch old comedy shows with awful racist language in?! How nice to have the luxury of pontificating whether to bleep or cut a scene or remove the episode or the series. And deciding if this has all 'gone too far'.

We can make NEW programmes which are not racist, sexist, disablist, homophobic.

Black lives matter and white people still don't seem to grasp that.

Yes, it is all slightly ridiculous. Maybe we will ban all Classic films, books, plays, operas, etc if they don’t comply with certain new rules and standards.

It'll be Father Ted next. 'I hear you're a racist now, Father'

James Bond?

"In the 1973 James Bond movie Live and Let Die, Bond is referred to as "the honky" on three occasions when captured by exclusively black adversaries."

I think the plan is either to edit out the offensive bit or add a disclaimer at the start. The episode will be put back on air when this is done. If it isn't I think that is the time to start criticising the bbc.

Oh get over I've seen films recently where they make jokes about both white and black people in slapstick comedy how about white chick's, Norbit.How about the ginger people??

@boredtotears11

So you’ve seen every episode, have previously been repulsed by the racist language used in this episode, but decided this one had been removed because of references to the Second World War, despite the large number of news stories that explain exactly why the episode is a problem.

I wish people would think before starting threads.

That episode also contains a scene where Basil goes to visit Sybil in hospital where she’s having an operation on her toenail, and when her doctor, a black man, comes through the door, Basil leaps back in horror

I expect fools & horses will be next!

Actually, I remember thinking years ago that Fools and Horses needed reviewing because in at least one episode Del refers to the corner shop as a ‘paki shop’ and the Chinese takeaway as ‘the chinky’ and that’s coming from a loving fan of the show.

Yes, it was made in a time when casual language like that acceptable but it isn’t anymore. We don’t all have to live in the 70s and 80s anymore, that’s progress.

Live and Let Die is also gobsmackingly homophobic.

I thought this would happen. Watched Fawlty Towers again a few years ago with my kids. I cringed at the N word. They were too young to notice, but if they had I would have used it as an opportunity to discuss the topic (why did the major use it, is it ever acceptable now etc).

Fools and Horses refers to the "paki shop" at least once. I'm sure that will be next.

Rather than erase all of these (on the whole) great comedy shows, shouldn't we use them to discuss how the world has changed for the better and why we don't use that language any more?

I expect fools & horses will be next!

OFAH has been cut to ribbons for afternoon tv. John Sullivan's sons protested and it was eventually taken off air.

It's not the racism, which is depicted as being a "bad thing" and to be looked askance at, it's the way everyone in thr episode just sort of rolls their eyes at it, or (as in Basil and the Major), laughs along even though they think he's mad.

A major issue is that this is exactly what UK work places etc are still like. Some twat will make some outrageous racist comments (usually thinking it's funny) and people around either just ignore or laugh along even though they dont exactly "agree". I've been on the receiving end myself multiple times and had to respond in a way which both shuts it down and doesn't lose my job. It's exhausting.

It's the normalisation of racism as comedy which I think is difficult.