Hey Hey It's Saturday Jackson 5 skit is racist? (2 Viewers)

[Jeee]

Political correctness to the extreme.
Put it in perspective; they were parodying the Jackson 5*, not the global black population.

*Very low of them to be mocking MJ

 

[Jeee]

[youtube]5tnhUEEqCSc[/youtube]

Okay, wtf, I'm never sleeping again.

 

[rokkuguhyo]

I don't really see how the skit is racist. I watched it again on Youtube, and while it the singing and dancing were pretty lame, it was all in good fun, and I don't think they planned it out like "Hey, for our HHIS skit, why don't we try to offend as many people as we possibly can, and make our country look bad while we're at it?"

Have any of you seen the racial debates going on on Youtube? People are condemning ALL of us for this. For example:

This IS very offensive and RACIST, Australia. You should feel shame for this instead of amusement, but then again, what can the world expect from a country that was created by the scum thrown out by another country?
At least America has fought and continues to fight every day to change it's past.

So fucking ignorant. Makes me sick.

 

[Comrade Lenin]

dont worry they were indian, sri-lankan, lebanese, greek and italian

so they can be racist

 

[mirakon]

I think this is a bit of karma. I mean a couple of months ago Indian students were complaining about racism in Australia (even though the attacks most of the time had absolutely nothing to do with race) and now ex-Indian students do a skit that was not even racially-charged and are deemed racist in turn.

Interesting.

 

[Bigboyjames lol]

the skit was shit, but racist? Wtf is wrong with people. It had absalutly zero anti black agenda....some people are just fucking retarded...and that yank then went on to say that the skit made black people look like baboons? Wtf wtf wtf wtf wtf what a stupid white guy

 

[Sprangler]

Buffoons*.

 

[JonathanM]

I'm sorry, but the day America can criticise us is a long way away, in the non-existent future when they're a millionth as fucked up as they are now.

 

[Serius]

There is nothing inherently racist with dressing up as a black band and parodying one of their songs.
I understand that some in america would consider this racist because of their history with blackface, but this was an Aussie group that performed for an Aussie audience. We dont learn indepth american history [nor should we be expected to] and as such, this is not offensive to most of us. Some yank coming over here and trying to force his morals and ethics onto us because of some fucked up things that happened in his country's past is the problem here.

Jesus christ, this reminds me of that south park episode where they need a new flag because it has a picture of 4 white guys hanging a black guy. The kids dont see it as white people linching a black guy, they just see it as 4 people hanging another person.

 

[gnrlies]

It may have been of bad taste / insensitive but definately not racist. Racism implies intent to offend and given the multicultural background of the performers it was definately not racist. The Australian culture is very easy going and as a result Australians themselves have a pretty thick skin. As such it is quite acceptable to make light of something / someone that might be regarded with more respect and sensitivity abroad. One example includes the way we treat our political leaders. Our style of humour reflects this and what is deemed acceptable (without being racist) within Australia may not be acceptable in other countries.

But this does not mean that we should have a 'harden the fuck up' sort of attitude about it. To kind of turn it around and say 'Its your fault for being offended' is a deplorable attitude. It is like calling your Japanese friend a 'Jap'. Most Australians would say this without any malice intended, but Japanese people are apparantly offended by the term. So to continue calling your friend a 'Jap' hardly reflects well on you.

I think we should be proud of our easy going attitude, but sensitive to what might offend others, particularly when race is involved. I think it is correct to defend the skit as non-racist but aknowledge that it was offensive to some people and be more carefull next time. The only thing that I hate about the whole thing is that there are so many other examples of comedy that is equally offensive to a particular group of people yet no-one vocalises concern then. What about Borat? South Park? The Chaser? Bruno? They kind of all thrive off being politically correct.

 

[jb_nc]

lmao at all you bogans defending hey hey its saturday.

It may have been of bad taste / insensitive but definately not racist. Racism implies intent to offend and given the multicultural background of the performers it was definately not racist. The Australian culture is very easy going and as a result Australians themselves have a pretty thick skin. As such it is quite acceptable to make light of something / someone that might be regarded with more respect and sensitivity abroad. One example includes the way we treat our political leaders. Our style of humour reflects this and what is deemed acceptable (without being racist) within Australia may not be acceptable in other countries.

But this does not mean that we should have a 'harden the fuck up' sort of attitude about it. To kind of turn it around and say 'Its your fault for being offended' is a deplorable attitude. It is like calling your Japanese friend a 'Jap'. Most Australians would say this without any malice intended, but Japanese people are apparantly offended by the term. So to continue calling your friend a 'Jap' hardly reflects well on you.

I think we should be proud of our easy going attitude, but sensitive to what might offend others, particularly when race is involved. I think it is correct to defend the skit as non-racist but aknowledge that it was offensive to some people and be more carefull next time. The only thing that I hate about the whole thing is that there are so many other examples of comedy that is equally offensive to a particular group of people yet no-one vocalises concern then. What about Borat? South Park? The Chaser? Bruno? They kind of all thrive off being politically correct.

lol mate keep telling yourself that

blackface is very racist, no ifs or buts, and you're just trying to "rationalise" it away

IN HUMOUR = NOT RACIST
AUSTRALIAN CULTURE = NOT RACIST

given the multicultural background of the performers it was definately not racist.

oh right, yes, i forgot. anyone with skin darker than #FFFFFF cannot be racist.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

It was funny. Fuck off you American hacks and grow a sense of humour.

God dammit yanks annoy me.

 

[Sprangler]

There is nothing inherently racist with dressing up as a black band and parodying one of their songs.
I understand that some in america would consider this racist because of their history with blackface, but this was an Aussie group that performed for an Aussie audience. We dont learn indepth american history [nor should we be expected to] and as such, this is not offensive to most of us. Some yank coming over here and trying to force his morals and ethics onto us because of some fucked up things that happened in his country's past is the problem here.

Jesus christ, this reminds me of that south park episode where they need a new flag because it has a picture of 4 white guys hanging a black guy. The kids dont see it as white people linching a black guy, they just see it as 4 people hanging another person.

That's pretty much what queen Latifah or Oprah or whatever on The View said.

 

[niloony]

They did the same skit 20 years ago so i guess we see that their social experiment was a success.... The media has become more tabloid ....and of course because hey hey its saturday is run on nine and Consolidated Media owns so much of the media in Australia i'm sure they are keen to push the story for more viewers

 

[gnrlies]

lmao at all you bogans defending hey hey its saturday.

lol mate keep telling yourself that

blackface is very racist, no ifs or buts, and you're just trying to "rationalise" it away

IN HUMOUR = NOT RACIST
AUSTRALIAN CULTURE = NOT RACIST

given the multicultural background of the performers it was definately not racist.

oh right, yes, i forgot. anyone with skin darker than #FFFFFF cannot be racist.

Do you even know what the word racist means? Racist is probably the most over-used word in the english language. There is a difference between blackface being offensive (which it is) and racist. It can only be racist if there is a racist intent which there wasn't. The historical context of blackface in the United States means that it is offensive and someone who dons blackface in the US may be delibrately provoking racial issues, but we don't have that same history in Australia. Nonetheless it may still be offensive for other reasons which doesn't make it any more acceptable, but just NOT racist. The backgrounds of the performers make it less likely that there was a racist intent as most racism stems from the insecurities of a majority.

 

[ad infinitum]

Yes I was deeply offended by the 'Whiteface' make up on one on the performers. As a white person I feel completely offended. I mean this is obviously a direct personal attack agianst me. I simply can not go on living.

 

[Bigboyjames lol]

i dont even care. they should do it again though for more lolz

 

[rokkuguhyo]

Do you even know what the word racist means? Racist is probably the most over-used word in the english language. There is a difference between blackface being offensive (which it is) and racist. It can only be racist if there is a racist intent which there wasn't. The historical context of blackface in the United States means that it is offensive and someone who dons blackface in the US may be delibrately provoking racial issues, but we don't have that same history in Australia. Nonetheless it may still be offensive for other reasons which doesn't make it any more acceptable, but just NOT racist. The backgrounds of the performers make it less likely that there was a racist intent as most racism stems from the insecurities of a majority.

I agree with what you said here. Silly Americans, for thinking, yet again, that the world revolves around themselves.

 

[Bigboyjames lol]

hey hey your mum is a jew

 

[mirakon]

Do you even know what the word racist means? Racist is probably the most over-used word in the english language. There is a difference between blackface being offensive (which it is) and racist. It can only be racist if there is a racist intent which there wasn't. The historical context of blackface in the United States means that it is offensive and someone who dons blackface in the US may be delibrately provoking racial issues, but we don't have that same history in Australia. Nonetheless it may still be offensive for other reasons which doesn't make it any more acceptable, but just NOT racist.

Agreed. US citizens may find such a skit racist considering that the blackface actors had a surprising resemblance to the racist piccaninny dolls from several decades back. However, Australia has no such historical context, there was no such piccaninny phenomenon in Australia and any racist intentions as a result are highly improbable (it was probably a simple coincidence).

Admittedly though, I do think it was a bit slack to mock Michael Jackson after he's dead, but there still shouldn't be such a fuss.

Anyway, I heard this skit was performed several years ago already. Does anyone know what the reaction was back then?