Let's all try to forget that happened.
'Blacking up' / 'Blackface' Page 2
Quite recently a Swiss comedienne blacked herself up for her crappy sketch and got critised for it in the media. And quite rightly so. Her portrayal of a black woman reminded me of those in that Tintin book (In The Congo) from the 40s. Michael Bates portrayal of the bearer in IAHHM was realistic in comparison.
Didn't Lenny Henry do a film where he pretended to be white?
Tropic Thunder really went to town on blackface.
Michael Barrymore blacked up to play a very un-PC caricature of John Barnes in the 1984 FA Cup build up, if you Google it you can probably find the cringeworthy clips of him being interviewed by Bob Wilson.
I blacked up in 2011 for an early YouTube outing after the Midsomer Murders producer said something along the lines of 'black people wouldn't fit into Midsomer'...
I imagined that the to fit a black face into the show they'd panic and write in a stereotyped black detective played by a white guy.
Just remembered Alan Carr blacked up as Obama on his stupid channel
4 show so last year
Quote: Guilbert @ 7th April 2014, 5:08 PM BSTI also saw a bit of Carry On Nurse on Gold the other day where a female doctor comes in to treat some of the male patients. She is quite attractive and has nice legs so the camera follows her legs all the way down the hospital ward, while all the men are doing wolf whistles. She plays no other part in the film.
Are you suggesting she should come back later, turn out to a brilliant doctor and they all realise how wrong they were to be sexist? Bit deep for Carry On...?
Mr sootyj I think you have found a good example here - just reading the press clippings from this incident. The Equality and Human Rights Commission were quoted as saying: "Blacking up carries deep racial overtones. It's not harmless fun, it's tasteless and offensive."
Channel 4 said "The sketch is intended to cause laughter not offence", which would presumably have been the rationale if you could have challenged the earlier generation of programme-makers on the same point.
Quote: Robbo88 @ 8th April 2014, 9:11 AM BST"Blacking up carries deep racial overtones. It's not harmless fun, it's tasteless and offensive."
While that's usually true, it's not correct to say that any white person putting on black make-up is automatically a racist, which is what seems to be the popular conception. For example, commandos 'black up' in order to avoid detection, and while that might seem a fatuous point, it does demonstrate that it's all about context.
'Blacking Up' - ie. a white person pretending to be a black person for entertainment purposes - is what we're talking about, on the assumption it's all 'harmless fun'. The Alan Carr example fits this category rather well I would say.
Quote: Robbo88 @ 8th April 2014, 9:52 AM BST'Blacking Up' - ie. a white person pretending to be a black person for entertainment purposes - is what we're talking about, on the assumption it's all 'harmless fun'.
My point is that some people seem to think that the application of black make-up is automatically taboo, regardless of the context.
We think progress has been made, and is being made now, and then we see something like this:
Quote: Matthew Stott @ 7th April 2014, 9:37 PMDidn't Lenny Henry do a film where he pretended to be white?
I think he also got made-up as Steve Martin in a pre-gig teaser, but I can't remember. Plus I hate Steve Martin.
I miss Michael Jackson.