So making fun of black people's skin colour is acceptable here then?

I'm racking my brains and I can't think of an instance of anyone blacking up and performing a dodgy rendition of an aboriginal dance...I bet it would get a different reponse though if it happened...if it was even allowed to happen.

One has to examine the point of the sketch, the joke, as it were.

Here you have five men dressed up as the Jackson Five. Ok. Fair enough. I haven't seen it, nor do I wish to. Australian comedy is pretty crap at the best of times.

But from what I can see the gag is that four of the five are black and one is white. This is therefore a joke about race, which is unacceptable. If it was anything more than a sight gag based on skin colour perhaps someone should point that out.

Who made fun of black people's skin colour? More importantly, how would that qualify as racism?

Let's not forget that racism is defined as:

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...ition&ct=title

Now, the challenge to you is this. Point out where the Jackson Jive explicitly (or hell, even implicitly) pushed the assertion that black people are intrinsically inferior to white people.

I was just embarassed at the crapness of it really, not nasty racism intended.

Harry CJ is just a hypocrite and a bit of a cock IMO after last nights performance. That was not about blacks, that was about protecting his image.



Of course blacking up never happens in America :

Depends on the context, amongst some of my Pacific islander friends it certainly is.

Don't really understand the Preacher thing? He isn't blacked up......

I love that film! Very funny indeed!

Sorry Renth, but it was racist, tasteless and unfunny in 1971 we are supposed to have moved on and be more enlightened now, so its equally racist, tasteless and unfunny in 2009.

The first thing i thought when i watched it was how old fashioned it was to make yourself black for comedy effect. It was immature and not funny at all. Let's face it the "talent" wasn't supposed to be the singing because that was crap, so we can assume the "black" dancers were supposed to be funny.

I was uncomfortable watching it. Whether it was racist or not is down to interpretation. I'm sure that they are so naive that they didn't think it would offend anyone. The sad thing about it was that it was so bad.

I think it's great that they showed the clip if for no other reason than that it has sparked a public debate on what is acceptable and unacceptable for transmission on the TV.

Nothing on Aus tv is acceptable for transmission but they do anyway.....

Even assuming it was a joke about race (*speculation*), why is it 'unacceptable'? Racism will no longer be a problem the day people of all races can laugh at jokes over such trivial differences, instead of acting all butthurt and expecting to be protected from speech their delicate sensibilities find 'offensive'.

*Newsflash* Australia may live under a nanny government and tremble at the though of an armed citizenry, but it isn't as uptight and politically correct as other cultures, and thank God for that. My advice to any white horse Yankees and Limeys: Suck it up. Australians give about as much as a shit about foreign condemnation as the Yanks do about U.N condemnation. Our sense of humour will continue to be 'abrasive' whether you like it or not.

That is a typical response for aussie TV/media/population, not we might be yobbish or backward or we need to move on a bit...

I think the act might have been slipped in there to raise ratings. There really is no great, or even funny aussie comedy, having to raise a what 20/30?? year old show for a comeback in the first place how stuck are they for ideas.

Agreed but watching mind rotting crap that is the general fodder of Australian TV and things that may be considered to be recist or offensive is another thing entirely.