'Blacking up' / 'Blackface' Page 3

Didn't Lenny Henry do a film where he pretended to be a talented actor?

His early material was notoriously racist. Check out Tiswas. Or don't. I think people just admired him as one of the firsts. File under Victoria Wood. And 'trying too hard'.

His Trevor McDoughnut was superb

Not

Does anyone remember a racist Chinese character on kids TV in the 80s? The person portraying was white, but did the slanty-eye, ridiculous accent thing.

I'm thinking possible Trevor/Simon or for some reason Terry Nutkins.

May or may not have been called something along the lines of "Joe King"

Ring any bells?

Spike Milligan did that, and Lenny Henry on Tiswas. Cute.

Quote: KM378 @ 14th June 2020, 6:14 PM

Does anyone remember a racist Chinese character on kids TV in the 80s? The person portraying was white, but did the slanty-eye, ridiculous accent thing.

I'm thinking possible Trevor/Simon or for some reason Terry Nutkins.

May or may not have been called something along the lines of "Joe King"

Ring any bells?

The Krankies did a Chinese restaurant sketch.

Benny Hill has a regular Chinese character

"Sirry iriot!"

What a disappointment. After his right-on sexual politics I expected so much more of his racial sensitivity.
Even alternative comedy's In One Ear had a nasty Japanese accent in one show (Series 2, episode 2).

Do people still use the phrase "Jap's eye" on telly? It's always struck me as extraordinarily racist (even though I was well into my 20s before I figured out what it meant) but I've definitely heard it used in comedy in the last decade.

It escaped my Jap's eye when I looked through a chink fearing the black man. And I worked like a black. Sorry, a Trojan.

Quote: KM378 @ 14th June 2020, 7:29 PM

Do people still use the phrase "Jap's eye" on telly? It's always struck me as extraordinarily racist .

There isn't a strong Japanese lobby in the UK, so I guess not many complaints. Same with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the Simpsons, they don't have a big Hindi population. When I first visited America we couldn't find an Indian restaurant, there probably is one.

At school I was singing the Goons Ying Tang song to make my mates laugh and my Chinese friend overhear and rugby tackled me to the ground - once explained he was very apologetic and I got free prawn crackers and chow mein (his family owned a restaurant). Talk about singing for your dinner.

Quote: Robbo88 @ 7th April 2014, 1:13 PM

can anyone think of still later examples of 'blacking up' since 1983? Benny Hill maybe?

Derren Litten did a black-face Al Jolson impression in the first series of Benidorm - 2007 I think.

The protesters need to track down the producers and stars of The Black and White Minstrel Show and hang then from the nearest lamp post

Quote: Firkin @ 14th June 2020, 9:50 PM

When I first visited America we couldn't find an Indian restaurant, there probably is one.

Google says there are 5000. Looks like there are 20 in my city, but I've only eaten at two of them.

Nothing to get hung about. Let me take you down...
I remember Spike Milligan got a lot of complaints about 'There's a lot of it about' and that was as late as the mid-eighties. The BBC had just run The Black and White Media Show, a high-profile programme about subtle and notsosubtle racism in mass communication, and the very next night good ole Spike was there, accused of 'racism, sexism and soft porn'. He blackened his face, grotesquely stereotyped Orientals and made a hilarious quip about Ethiopian airlines being cancelled 'after they ate the crew'. The icing on the cack? Gratuitous, seemingly endless shots of top-shelfer Linzi Drew in half a bikini. Hours of fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2bukgOJ6L0