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Racism blah blah - blah. Blah blah blah !
darkisland
Posts: 3,178 Forum Member
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'Love Thy Neighbour ' was a British sitcom from the early 1970's which ridiculed the stupidity of preconceptions and bigotry.
Sadly, given that any serious debate on the subject of assimilation of immigrants to the UK, and differences (real or imagined) between 'races' is not tolerated in these post-Macphserson times, I'm not sure how to view this programme. Watching it though, I instinctively cringed at some of the script.. Any thoughts ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASytk7s4o0A
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Sadly, given that any serious debate on the subject of assimilation of immigrants to the UK, and differences (real or imagined) between 'races' is not tolerated in these post-Macphserson times, I'm not sure how to view this programme. Watching it though, I instinctively cringed at some of the script.. Any thoughts ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASytk7s4o0A
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I think most of us will take that as read..
End thread.
I rest my case...
I remember being gobsmacked several years later seeing Rudolph Walker playing Othello at the Young Vic - he was mesmerizingly good and it seemed ridiculous that he's been in a load of old toss like LTN.
I was quite taken aback by the prog in question and wondered if those who defended it in the past, as had a leg to stand on.
Fairly straightforward...sorry if 'any thought's ?' was confusing.
Unfortunately many people these days have difficulties appreciating apparently complex ideas like irony and sarcasm.
Whether it is particularly funny now (or was then) is another question, which has nothing to do with whether it was racist. It is a show from the 1970s - few programme shown then have aged very well, and since I wasn't around back then I can't say whether anyone found it particularly amusing at the time either. -But the intent of the makers was very clearly to ridicule racist attitudes, not to condone them.
The same people who complain about stuff like love thy neighbor wanted Brass Eye banned for promoting paedophillia, and think Randy Newman's 'short people' is actually an attack on short people.
Of course actual racists loved the show, but that's because they're as thick as the people who complained about it: they just didn't 'get it'.
I'm sure there are idiots who watch Al Murray's pub landlord routine and actually agree with everything he says, completely oblivious to the fact that Al Murray is sending up xenophobia.
I said it was meant to be satirical.
Indeed.
Funny thing is, some people didn't "get it" even then, hence the arrival of shows like "Mind Your Langage" too, which happily indulged in all the piss-taking of johnny foreigner without any of the attempts at satire.
Ian.
You are naughty
Damn..for some reason this made me miss Desmond's. Loved that show.
EDIT:
"am I coloured? yeah, white all over!" - I actually found this funny!
Also
"you don't sound like you're coloured" - it's blatantly for us to laugh at this foolish character.
Desmond's was very good. Featuring a young Lenny H.
Give it a rest and retreat to the PC caves.
Lenny Henry wasn't in Desmonds, he was in The Fosters many years earlier.
My mistake - the common link was the late Norman Beaton !
Thanks
I loved Lenny Henry when he was Delbert "Crucial!" Wilkins.