Harry Connick Jr. is being praised on the Web because he didn't find a blackface skit performed on long-running Australian variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday, funny - and he stepped up and said so.
A group of singers (they're actually all doctors) calling themselves the "Jackson Jive" performed a version of the Jackson 5's Can You Feel It in blackface makeup in a sort of American Idol type contest. Guest American judge Harry Connick Jr. took issue, giving the Jive a "0" and saying, "If they turned up like that in the United States, it’d be like Hey Hey There's No More Show."
Later, he elaborated, telling the host: "I just wanted to say on behalf of my country, I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that, we take it really to heart. ... and if I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably—I definitely wouldn’t have done it."
Later, Jackson Jive members later told Australia's Herald Sun they had flagged potential issues with the performance with producers before the show. Anand Deva, who played Michael Jackson in the skit, said the act was meant to be a tribute. "It certainly was not meant to be racist in any way at all." Source azcentral.com
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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