Harry Connick Jr. Clashes with Blackface Jackson Family on Aussie TV
Apparently enough time had elapsed since Michael Jackson's death that a cheeky comic tribute to him and the Jackson 5 seemed in good taste. At least it seemed that way a troupe of Aussie TV performers, who rounded out last night's performance as the "Jackson Jive" in full-on blackface. The crowd ate it up, but an American judge who knew better ground the show to a halt until somebody apologized. Video after the jump.
It wasn't supposed to be like this for Harry Connick Jr. or the iconic Aussie variety series Hey Hey It's Saturday, for whom the midweek show represented a much-anticipated reunion special. But there they were: The Jackson Jive, all Afro wigs and black face paint, led by their late superstar brother, Michael, done up with a pasty clown visage and aviator sunglasses. Not cool, said Connick: "If they turned up looking like that in the United States, it'd be like Hey Hey There's No More Show," the crooner spat, giving the group a score of zero in the episode's mock-talent competition. (The Aussie judge beside him was much more forgiving, allowing for a smile and a 7.)
The host brought Connick -- who'd appeared on the show before -- back out after the break for an official mea culpa: "I know that to your countrymen, that's an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologize." Connick thanked him, adding, "I know it was done humorously, but we've spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that, we take it really to heart." As if this weren't the year two-thousand-and-freaking-nine. "If I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably - I definitely - wouldn't have done it."
Our Aussie moles tipped us to the full video below, but feel free to skip ahead to 2:15 if cringeworthy ethnic tone-deafness is NSFW, or if you just want Connick's priceless reaction, or both.
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Comments
That's really not a great example. That role wasn't intended to mock but to examine something cultural in an intelligent way. Apples to oranges. Please, stop embarrassing yourselves.
I really didn't see HC Jr's reaction as an accusation of racism on the part of the performers as much as a natural reaction to the act of blackface performance itself, which I am assuming has had a much more entrenched and insidious history as popular entertainment in the States than it has in Australia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45g3YP7JOk
I doubt that the Jackson impersonators meant any harm, but I think most Americans would respond to the sight of that in a similar way (hello Roger Sterling).
I think it's kind of hard to make a compelling argument for racial tolerance the second shoe-polish-as-stage-makeup makes its first appearance.
Oh, this is wicked fun.
Jack O'Leary old mate yes I am aware that there is racisim in Australia if you look at every race on this globe we call earth you'll find some form of racisim unlike a lot of other countries our government stood up and publicly apologised to our aboriginal brothers thank you PM Rudd
Timmy Edgar
you are a gronk ben
I'm really surprised by how many people think this is ok, then use Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder to defend it. Do you also use movies when talking about other real life scenarios? Because movies are, you know...made up stories.
Blackface is insulting. That's it. No spin, no white guilt perspective, no angry black perspective. It's just wrong.
And even if you look at from just the humor perspective, the whole skit wasn't funny...blackface or not.
Yes, there was that charming "stolen generations" policy of kidnapping indigenous children for their "betterment" and forcing them to act as free help to white people (dismantled in the the 1970's), but that wasn't slavery, no. Australia also had a "White Australia" immigration policy that clamped down on non-white immigrants (also changed the '70's). But, no racism there. You say this is just "American guilt" talking, and that we shouldn't "go treating the rest of the world harshly because [we] were/are racists"?
Oh, it ain't just a river in Egypt, (or the States), De Nile has hit your shores, too.
you are a gronk ben
I think this skit was insensitive, and offensive. But I don't think it was racist per se. I don't think they intended to offend.
All Americans who have any sense of our country's racist history would find it more than rude. It's appalling.
FTW
Wow. That's just the dumbest comment I've read in a long time. Ignorance is never an excuse, in the law or in real life. You have no excuse for being a dingaling, and the show's producers have no excuse for letting that happen on stage.
Tropic Thunder was satire. RDJ's character was poking fun at Hollywood actors and the length one may go to for an Oscar. (Think Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart playing a Bi-Racial woman) This was jut plain uncouth.
For all you nitwit Aussies defending this appalling display of nitwittery, please read this lovely wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface. Then STFU.
This controversy is silly. Fact is, their whole act was crap. Fuck 'em.
His core audience are Jazz loving white people. Despite it's origins, Jazz is not that popular amongst African Americans anymore. He's offended because he's grown up amongst a multiracial community and knows better than to see Black people as bewigged shoe polished freaks.
Australian Rules Raceball
you are a gronk ben
I'm Aussie and the first thing I thought of watching this was blackface...
it was uncomfortable (though it probably wasn't done to offend, minstrel shows just don't have a history over here :P)
but still...
To compare black as tar faces and gigantic fro wigs to Downey in Tropic Thunder is like comparing Brϋno to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. (well, almost)
SunnyDaze
Well, an American finds it racist, so of course everyone else must! God forbid!
Do you realise that two of the members are actually from Indian descent, with dark skin?
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a crap show....thank God it finished - 28 years on Aussie TV was FAR too long....why did they bring it back!??
As for the skit....well, black face or not, it was in really poor taste to do anything to do with Michael Jackson!
real racism on australian tv, from last month. why didn't this go round the world?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzkECOPp9Qs
I'm an Australian. We were taught about world history in high school. Including that of the US. Add to this a lifetime of media, the internet and US movies & TV shows all over our screens in Aus too. So, obviously there could be something wrong with airing this. The fact that it wasn't picked up on and aired wasn't racism. It was stupidity. Innocent stupidity.
Amusing is the irony of Harry Connick Jr playing an African American man in Tropic Thunder, though it was done in better taste, it probably got some beef too I imagine.
Pete
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