Just a thought on it all.

I think the Father Ted Black Face gets a pass because it paints fun at the white priests trying to black face as opposed to being a dig at Black People. I could be wrong on that if you are a black person but thats my take. Much like Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder, the Black Face isn't lampooning the person or culture being imitated, it's mocking the person doing the imitation.

Similarly in another Father Ted episode (the Chinese one) Ted does an impression of a Chinese man with a lantern on his head. This is a little more tricky because he is doing it to make fun of the Chinese BUT he gets shown up for it throughout the show and the actual Chinese in the show are shown to be not at all like the caricatures Ted thinks they are.

But - Father Ted is a serious which really takes the piss out of Catholics and particular the priesthood. None of the priest characters come out of it well and many of the things are both spot on but also mocking. I always found people who complained about this aspect of the show needed to lighten up and I still do, but for arguments sake, can that approach be taken to all mocking comedy. Where does Goodness Gracious Me sit in all this? I always felt it played on stereotypes but some stereotypes seem ok to make fun of and others less so. 

Even looking at that Irish Noughts and Crosses thing ... I'm not offended by it. Yet for a long while the Irish role under England was effectively Slaves and we suffered huge cruelty. I just see it as bad comedy to be honest. And yet, I remember seeing a clip of the American tv series 'All in the family' and being very offended at the racism and bigotry in that show. I cant explain why I was ok with one and not the other. Possibly it's because Milligan's comedy is set in a comedy world, as is Father Ted. Much of Craggy Island is a farce (albeit based on reality) All in the family was jokes (and I use the term loosely) made in a real world setting. Archie Bunker was not the butt of the jokes in the same way Father Ted was.

I think whoever made the comment about punching-down had it right, stuff like LB was punching down and cruel, whereas the examples in Ted aren't.

Having said that, I speak as a white guy so if a poc had issue with it I'd listen to their perspective.

I think title card at the start to inform of outdated views is the way to go.

hunk wrote:

Just add context to your media. Pretending the racism was never mainstream and on display is just stupid.

I'd personally agree, then I think of the post war German attitude and laws surrounding right wing symbols

davyK wrote:

His buddy Mr Sellers was fond of blacking up too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFKJuzrCGj4

Hasn't done Desmond Swayne any harm

Anything that lampoons racism - by allowing it to be expressed in a context that's set up to reflect on and laugh at its horrible weirdness, e.g. that Fawlty scene - seems like a good thing, but maybe I'm too cool.

^

FFS @ wot Brooks said.

Larry post also solid

Diluted Dante wrote:

Well thats a problem with the reporting. It's the "N*****s and W**s episode that has been deemed too offensive. The Mail and the Express kicked up a fit when the BBC removed the scene in 2013, but the world continued to spin.

Dialogue like that is on wild side - even for me who probably errs in comparison to the majority. I can't even remember that line but I wonder did it get a laugh back then and why...was it laughing at the Major or the words themselves?  That's what's at the bottom of this. I doubt it would raise a laugh now no matter which anyhow.

EDIT: just watched it - it isn't as bad as I thought it would be and I can see the humour in the exercise of bigoty-classification. Others may not of course and I can see why - maybe that's the point - seeing why it would offend. Not seeing it exposes the real problem.

But a warning would be appropriate no matter what.

Diluted Dante wrote:

Well thats a problem with the reporting. It's the "N*****s and W**s episode that has been deemed too offensive. The Mail and the Express kicked up a fit when the BBC removed the scene in 2013, but the world continued to spin.

It’s the reporting, the sharing of only headlines, no one reading the articles they’re getting furious about. The whole chain.

It’s also the white boys sitting on racist content for years and only going “Oh shit let’s not be racist because it’s not a great look right now”.

I mean, the lol is the consequence of setting up an excruciatingly uncomfortable situation where all one can do is lol. There are entire schools of comedy that do cringe in this way, still.

I wonder if we could take back the word "Paki" at some point, probably just because it's closer to me, but seeing Jim Davidson on YouTube last week using it and attempting to justify it's use made me a very very angry man

They already edit it out of OFAH I think.

@cocko

monkey wrote:

It’s also the white boys sitting on racist content for years and only going “Oh shit let’s not be racist because it’s not a great look right now”.

Exactly, which goes back to this

Diluted Dante wrote:

I think its more likely that broadcasters know they have offensive material, but until now it's been in their financial interests not to do anything about it, but they're now judging they're better off doing something.

I landed on "only an actual fucking monster would wear blackface"? As TV psychos goes, one of the greats.

Papa Lazarou dons white makeup to be in disguise in later episodes, god knows what he's meant to be.

My experience of the Spanish is that Manuel was one of the better workers.



*I kid