I took me glasses to an Irish optician on Friday. He said I've no glass so I'll board 'em up while monday mornin'.
Bernard was actually an incredibly talented comedian. I will never understand why he felt the need to put the racist crap in there. Totally self-defeating, as 99% of his act was absolutely fine and very funny.
I didn't watch it at the time, as I wasn't born, but I was watching some Monty Python's Flying Circus on Youtube a while back. There are quite a few sketches that wouldn't be considered acceptable today.
I remember "It Ain't Half Hot Mum"was full of racist and homophobic jokes.
I'm also pretty sure some of the Indian characters were actually white actors blacked up!
IAHHM was innuendo, funny, tongue in cheek but I don't think it was homophobic and racist though the BBC would agree with you and has said it was so racist that it has been banned from ever being repeated again.
Personally I think its a silly decision and as for "blacked up" Muhammad the Char Wallah was played by Dino Shafeek a Bangladeshi actor, Rumxna Punkha Wallah played by Babar Bhatti, a Brit actor of Pakistini origin, and rangi ram the bearer played by Michael Bates used a tan not blacked up.
Dads Army. Depicted British soldiers as elderly buffoons. Typical leftie BBC stuff.
Surely it only featured the home guard. Whenever actual soldiers appeared they were portrayed as immensely professional.
When I was a child, before native americans were universally depicted as spiritual and wise, I used to watch a programme that featured Big Chief Dirtyface and Little He-He. I have no idea what it was.
I never thought of Mind Your Language as vile, it was just of its time. I used to love the Pakistani guy with the hat who sat at the front.
There was plenty of racism in Fawlty Towers too, but it was harmless stuff really. Basil 's face when that black doctor comes in in The Germans. :D
You see I would fall short of calling MYL real racism, they all took the pi** and picked at each other , to me racism is nasty and used to hurt , degrade and denigrate a person. This was done in humour and one does question was it really racist when Nigeria, Kenya and Sri Lanka for example liked it so much they made their own versions and lets face it the residents of those countries have all been victims of racism themselves so you would think they would think hard before doing so .
The Professionals, The Sweeney and other British cop shows that saw a fair share of smoking, slapping women around, stomping over the legal boundaries (such as beating up a suspect) and drinking on the job.
There was plenty of racism in Fawlty Towers too, but it was harmless stuff really. Basil's face when that black doctor comes in in The Germans. :D
I've always felt that was allowable as Basil was concussed at the time, normally he's too busy avoiding Sybil to be racist;-)
An interesting point on "Mind your language", "It aint alf hot mum" and "Love thy neighbour" is that they were often one of the few places where we did see non-white actors - and they usually got one over on the stupid bigots too.
I suppose "Rising damp" still stands up though, as Rigsby is clearly a buffoon who always falls for Phillip's tales:D
You see I would fall short of calling MYL real racism, they all took the pi** and picked at each other , to me racism is nasty and used to hurt a degrade and denigrate a person. This was done in humour and one does question was it really racist when Nigeria, Kenya and Sri Lanka for example liked it so much they made their own versions and lets face it the residents of those countries have all been victims of racism themselves so you would think they would think hard before doing so .
I absolutely agree. It merely had a lighthearted and playful tone with national stereotypes, and was never malicious. Nobody was shown up as being stupid, and all the characters bounced off each other, with often cheesy misunderstanding, farce and other gags. I loved all the characters because as a kid, to me they were kind of different and exciting.
I think some things like 'Love Thy Neighbour' and, to some extent, Alf Garnett, walked a fine line as they were actually trying to make the racist characters hateful or laughable, but accidentally Alf Garnett had some people agreeing with him. (They'd be UKIP or Tory voters now, I guess). Harry Enfield had the same problem with Loadsamoney, which he had to kill as he created the character to make people hate that mentality - and yet some loved him and identified with him. I was on an American forum the other day and saw someone from the US say 'peeps' and thought 'I bet you have no idea where that came from in our culture....' Stavros was an affectionate portrayal, (nice bit of early Paul Whitehouse writing, I think?) but now would offend many.
I recently watched some episodes of "The Goodies" and noticed that in quite a few of them, they blacked up. I'm sure the "South Africa" (Apart-height) episode would be considered very un-PC these days (in particular for the use of a variation of the N-word) despite the fact that they were savaging the concept of racial discrimination.
I think some things like 'Love Thy Neighbour' and, to some extent, Alf Garnett, walked a fine line as they were actually trying to make the racist characters hateful or laughable, but accidentally Alf Garnett had some people agreeing with him. (They'd be UKIP or Tory voters now, I guess).
Wasn't there a story where a member of the public shouted something congratulatory about Alf Garnett's racism to Warren Mitchell and he replied along the lines of. "We're taking the piss out of people like you" or something?
I have only seen clips of that show and it did not appeal to me. Ironically, that is where Lenny Henry made his first TV appearance?
OMG.
He started on something called 'New Faces' which was an early forerunner of those talent shows we have now where someone is sarcastic to hopefuls. In those days we didn't have sob stories, though. Lenny's schtick played on the innate racism of his audience, as he started (I think?) doing an impersonation of someone very white, with his back to audience, then turned round - he was not only a good impersonator, but also very, very young.
He started on something called 'New Faces' which was an early forerunner of those talent shows we have now where someone is sarcastic to hopefuls. In those days we didn't have sob stories, though. Lenny's schtick played on the innate racism of his audience, as he started (I think?) doing an impersonation of someone very white, with his back to audience, then turned round - he was not only a good impersonator, but also very, very young.
Yes I have just looked it up. You are right, he did start on New Faces, but in 1976 he went to tour on the Black and White Minstrel Show.
The following article refers to it on the 5th paragraph down:
Allo Allo for me too. Certain episodes of Only Fools had some pretty un-PC elements, too. Oh, and George and Mildred. What else...?
Only Fools and Horses is an interesting example. There are certainly references made by Dell Boy. Examples I can remember is the episode Danger UXD with the inflatable dolls and how he describes them. Also, the way he refers to women can be seen un pc.
In contrast, Rodney who is of a younger generation would not refer to ethnicity in derogatory way. This is because he represents the first generation of people that would go to school with people from West Indian backgrounds. Therefore, he would be more likely to receptive to integration whereas Dell came from a different generation.
That makes ask the question, is the racial references implicit in order to highlight this contrast?
Comments
Bernard was actually an incredibly talented comedian. I will never understand why he felt the need to put the racist crap in there. Totally self-defeating, as 99% of his act was absolutely fine and very funny.
Mind your language, again it just made us giggle
First one that came to my mind!
IAHHM was innuendo, funny, tongue in cheek but I don't think it was homophobic and racist though the BBC would agree with you and has said it was so racist that it has been banned from ever being repeated again.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2583111/It-aint-half-daft-BBC-ban-racist-Dads-Army-creator-JIMMY-PERRY-BBCs-refusal-repeats-greatest-hits.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10321781/Banning-It-Aint-Half-Hot-Mum-from-TV-is-a-shame-creator-says-as-non-PC-moments-are-just-historical-truth.html
http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/252180/It-Ain-t-Half-Hot-Mum-racist-Don-t-make-me-laugh
Personally I think its a silly decision and as for "blacked up" Muhammad the Char Wallah was played by Dino Shafeek a Bangladeshi actor, Rumxna Punkha Wallah played by Babar Bhatti, a Brit actor of Pakistini origin, and rangi ram the bearer played by Michael Bates used a tan not blacked up.
Surely it only featured the home guard. Whenever actual soldiers appeared they were portrayed as immensely professional.
When I was a child, before native americans were universally depicted as spiritual and wise, I used to watch a programme that featured Big Chief Dirtyface and Little He-He. I have no idea what it was.
I never thought of Mind Your Language as vile, it was just of its time. I used to love the Pakistani guy with the hat who sat at the front.
There was plenty of racism in Fawlty Towers too, but it was harmless stuff really. Basil 's face when that black doctor comes in in The Germans.
You see I would fall short of calling MYL real racism, they all took the pi** and picked at each other , to me racism is nasty and used to hurt , degrade and denigrate a person. This was done in humour and one does question was it really racist when Nigeria, Kenya and Sri Lanka for example liked it so much they made their own versions and lets face it the residents of those countries have all been victims of racism themselves so you would think they would think hard before doing so .
I've always felt that was allowable as Basil was concussed at the time, normally he's too busy avoiding Sybil to be racist;-)
An interesting point on "Mind your language", "It aint alf hot mum" and "Love thy neighbour" is that they were often one of the few places where we did see non-white actors - and they usually got one over on the stupid bigots too.
I suppose "Rising damp" still stands up though, as Rigsby is clearly a buffoon who always falls for Phillip's tales:D
ETA: Sorry wonkey, that'll teach me not to refresh the page!
I absolutely agree. It merely had a lighthearted and playful tone with national stereotypes, and was never malicious. Nobody was shown up as being stupid, and all the characters bounced off each other, with often cheesy misunderstanding, farce and other gags. I loved all the characters because as a kid, to me they were kind of different and exciting.
I did like that. Then again, I always had a soft spot for Leonard Rossiter.
I have only seen clips of that show and it did not appeal to me. Ironically, that is where Lenny Henry made his first TV appearance?
Wasn't there a story where a member of the public shouted something congratulatory about Alf Garnett's racism to Warren Mitchell and he replied along the lines of. "We're taking the piss out of people like you" or something?
OMG.
He started on something called 'New Faces' which was an early forerunner of those talent shows we have now where someone is sarcastic to hopefuls. In those days we didn't have sob stories, though. Lenny's schtick played on the innate racism of his audience, as he started (I think?) doing an impersonation of someone very white, with his back to audience, then turned round - he was not only a good impersonator, but also very, very young.
Yes I have just looked it up. You are right, he did start on New Faces, but in 1976 he went to tour on the Black and White Minstrel Show.
The following article refers to it on the 5th paragraph down:
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/feb/06/lenny-henry-career-family-othello
http://youtu.be/u1QxzpWbbdI
And when EastEnders had Irish people going about on donkeys.
I can only imagine the backlash against Men Behaving Badly if it were starting today :eek:[/QUOTE]
Only Fools and Horses is an interesting example. There are certainly references made by Dell Boy. Examples I can remember is the episode Danger UXD with the inflatable dolls and how he describes them. Also, the way he refers to women can be seen un pc.
In contrast, Rodney who is of a younger generation would not refer to ethnicity in derogatory way. This is because he represents the first generation of people that would go to school with people from West Indian backgrounds. Therefore, he would be more likely to receptive to integration whereas Dell came from a different generation.
That makes ask the question, is the racial references implicit in order to highlight this contrast?