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
Hi Pluto,
I'm Australian and I think you're a disgusting piece of shit. Your inane fantasy that this is about some Australia vs America conflict that doesn't exist merely confirms your idiotic bigotry. It's a question of basic civility, you fucking ball sack.
Wow. Liberal American publications chastising Australians for being racist. How unexpected.
Sounds like just another excuse to transfer the white guilt to somebody other than yourselves.
Maybe if we took a street poll around America (not just the East and West coasts, kids) to see what they think, you'll get some alarming statistics of your own. So pull your heads out of your butts and stop trying to pretend that your own country doesn't have a racism problem far worse, per population percentage, than Australia does.
The only ones who deserve to be offended by this are African Americans or the Jackson family in particular. Reminds me of that recent South Park episode. Just because it's hip and PC to defend black people for past injustices, doesn't mean you 'get' it.
Brilliantly Put. It is in no way racist to use black makeup while impersonating a famous black person. What is sad is that this even caused any coverage at all.
I'm Austrailian and of African descent and the only reason people think it's racists is being American. otherwise I feel it would be just stupid comedy as other comedian acts. All and all it's pretty stupid but We Aussies don't think it was meant as racists.
Americans: please believe me when I say that not all Australians are simplistic, narrow-minded embarrassments like the guy who wrote "Americans are the stupiest people in the world; black or white. Australians rule and Australian TV rules."
So, the indigenous people of Australia? Where did they go? Why is their life expectancy, health, education and employment situation so dire? Oh, nothing to see here. No problem. It's all good, right? Your comments are a perfect example of why racism continues to be a problem in Australia.
It was about a bunch of guys done up as the jacksons not just random black guys there is a huge difference
You have to be dumb to not realise race came in the second a bunch of white guys painted their faces black and put on wigs which r called Afros. My god, do u realise how Australians treat Aboriginals? If you dont and think everythin is fine there too then you need to pick up a history book. And for god's sake, the history of african americans is just a wikipedia page away, READ IT BEFORE YOU START DEFENDING STUFF YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT !!!!!
The only reason Americans are offended by this harmless comedy satire is because it reminds them of their own racist past. Aussies take it for what it is - a parody of musical group that happens to be black.
Um, Liz, we didn't do hideous things to black folk here in Australia?? Are you serious? For god's sake, go get yourself an education about our country's history and pull your head out of the sand.
Did anybody notice with all the "Australians are Racist and we're not" bollocks going on, the some of these people all painted black - appeared to be of Indian decent? Racist? Please get all the facts and try to put this into perspective.
I watched that skit live in Australia and I was shaking my head from the get go. Daryl Somers and the producers are idiots for allowing that. There is no justification for it.
Hahah ure a genius.. Very good point mate.
This is just absolute stupid media created drama..
No t one person wouldve even thought of the word racist during that routine if it wasn't for all this crap
Nobody appears to have noticed a far less ambiguous “is this racist or not?” moment from the show.
I just posted on this here….
http://notesfromthebartender.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/hey-hey-whats-racist/
Look at the last video from those three…. in all the subsequent furore, that line of Somers appears to have been forgotten
Hey Ben,
Do us a favour, stay in USA and get ur citizenship cause ur crawling up the Americans arseholes brilliantly, lets hope our customs turn u around shall u ever want to come "home".
U must be from Tasmania with ur 2 heads!
Go the Aussies!
this is either the stupidest or funniest reason for an argumentive thread ive ever read in my life..
or maybe both..
u ppl are actually soo retarded..
the fact of the matter is that this was an australian cultural show aired in AUSTRALIA!.. not in the south of america which is something we arent aware of
its unfortunate that it offended harry and they apoligised but as for all u low lives who have nothing better to do than complain... get the hell over it.. noone cares..
the amount of australians watching that that wouldve even though the word racist would be an insanely low %..
and not because we are ignorant or racist...
but bcoz we didnt see it as racist..
which just shows the difference between racism in australia and america and that u ppl would chuck a hissy fit bcoz u r so aware of racism where as we.. as australians just go with the flow and couldnt care less about all this stupid crap..
i would like to officially thank the american media for turning nothing in to a media frenzy and giving the yanks another reason to complain about something...
AMERICANS ARE HYPOCRITES!!!
You have absolutely no problem vilifying Arabs and Muslim people through your media and movies - Rules of Engagement, Delta Force, True Lies...the list goes on, with no thought of remorse. But, if the shoes on the other foot, then political correctness goes into overdrive! Hypocrites!
And, if you want a perfect example of hypocrisy, then look at this skit. Apparently black face mockery dosent apply to an American.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
American society taking the moral high ground, what a joke. You lot should clean up your own backyard instead of patronising us. You are so racist you have to hyphenate your tribal pride:- African-American, Irish-American, Latino-American, etc. Your movies, music and media parade black people as morally bereft, uneducated and thugs, but you don't protest against the stereotype.
A bunch of highly educated "coloured" doctors do a spoof on the highly disfunctional Jacksons, complete with the Afro hairstyles, the dark skin and the silly dance routines and a bloke who has himself parodied a black reverend on TV, decides he's going to protect all the hard work and social engineering that's been put into rebranding the black population as acceptable.
The reason Australia does not have a countable black Afrian population is because they didn't subscribe to slavery unlike your much beloved forefathers did. They then observed the great social divides in the US and prohibited migration of peoples who would be disadvantaged by europoean attitudes pervalent in Australia at the time.
Everytime a white guy stands up and waxes lyrical about equality for coloureds, he reopens a festoring wound. In Australia we dont have special discriminatory laws to favour employment of the few, we call each other names, we don't like being told how to behave and between riding kangaroos and climbing Ayers Rock we manage a fairly egalatarian multi cultural society better than you guys will ever hope to experience.
The pattern here is plain to see. Australians cannot take criticism. They can be as insensitive as they can to other races (all under the guise of humour), but the moment you criticise their actions, they will respond with insults about your countries past and present history, even your race and culture. Take two examples this year – attacks on Indian people living in Australia. Many responses on news blogs were “Indians have no right to complain, they have a caste system”. True, they do, but does that make it all right? The Michael Jackson skit – immediate responses regarding Americans history against black people, starting wars, being over-weight etc etc. They cannot argue their point in a calm mature manner and their responses on blogs, such as this one and many others (in Australia) prove this. It makes you feel that many Australians are arrogant, racist and have the mentality of a school child. Australia can have a place on the world stage, but it will be and must be a long time before they can be taken seriously and have the respect of a world player.
Yes. This was racist. I am an Australian and I get that 'blackface' skits are clearly racist. I simply couldn't believe it when I saw the skit go to air. The people in the act may not have had the sense to see it was racist but the the producers of the show should have.
This is the same network that let's an ex footballer call a Malaysian man a monkey and compares Serena Williams to the same man implying she is a monkey.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2692254.htm
Channel Nine should hang their heads in shame. They are a disgrace to our country.
I never liked Hey Hey It's Saturday and only ever found one skit on red faces funny. It was a skit where raw chooks were used as string puppets doing very realistic dancing. I laughed until my sides split. Every other episode I tuned into was an epic fail. I hope Harry forgives and forgets soon. I think he will but still, he shouldn't have got on the "as an American" band wagon because it put people in his host country on the back foot. It was very condescending of him to hold up the show. I saw the skit where he himself played a black man (taking the mickey out of black preachers while plugging his CD). I wonder if his outburst on Hey Hey was an apology.
Does all this really matter? There are far more important things to worry about, tsunamis,earthquakes,floods, the war...etc Lets remain focused!
As one commenter above said "No one was thinking about racism, just singing and dancing. And that's the point NO ONE WAS THINKING. I love the excuses "we didn't know," "we didn't have slaves!" Yes, you didn't, instead the Aboriginals that were here, you tried to wipe them out (eg Appin Massacre), then the fair skin ones you stole from their parents and tried to turn them into servants, but you forgot to pay them (well you're still holding their money). You know, if someone acts as your servant and you don't pay him, hmmmmm sounds like slavery to me. But you wouldn't see it that way, would you? Too busy, trying to brush off your Federation's Whites only policy. Too busy, saying I never did anything to Aboriginal people and there you go again still not thinking. You know the reason why John Howard lost his seat of Bennelong? Because the Demographics changed and the new people of Bennelong didn't like his attitude toward Non-whites. Wake up.
Nicely said, Grace. High props to Harry Connick Jr for his response; restrained but also to the point. You couldn't ask for better.
What's most responsible for this making it to air, I think, is the Nine Network's been through round after round of staff cuts since Kerry Packer died. They've removed all the old experienced hands who might have had the better judgement to nip that act's appearance in the bud.
it was the americans, not the australians or any other race that kept the africans as slaves, so i can understand where the americans guilt comes from, but they should not expect everyone else to share it
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