Last night, American pop star/movie actor Harry Connick Jr. appeared as a judge on Australia’s Gong Show-styled TV program Hey Hey It’s Saturday. He was not entertained by what he saw, and in a friendly but pointed manner, eventually stops the show to explain why. Here’s the whole shebang:
“If I knew that was gonna be a part of the show, I definitely wouldn’t have done it,” says Connick of (and during) his appearance. Good for him. If I were a voter heading into the ballot booth that is my envelope, I would pull the lever for him.
Thank you, Melbourne-based Slog tipper Arion.
“Another Proud Aussie – Australia also doesn’t have terrorists flying jets into our buildings.”
You know you’re arguing with some of the most left wing Americans on Slog, from Seattle, one of the most left wing cities in America, right? Probably one of the most anti-Bush cities in the US? Do you know that Mr Bogan?
“Do you know that Mr Bogan?”
The fact that you’re calling me a bogan only highlights your own ignorance and hypocrisy. Again. Sigh.
“Do you have any evidence that the Americans criticising the ‘blackface’ skit are uncritical of their own country’s social problems as well? “
Do you have any evidence that the Proud Aussies typing here are uncritical of their country’s social problems? Personally I think the skit was not funny and I consider it poor taste for reasons other than racism. I don’t support racism at all. I did not consider the skit to be mocking a race. I doubt the producers of the show did either, since it is illegal in Australia.
No it’s not, it’s 92% white. The US is far more multicultural that ANY western country, only 66% white and in 20 yrs will only be 50% white at current trends.
..Posted by corey delaney
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LOL another typical ignorant and stupid American who defines race/ethnicity by skin colour.
This sums up this whole issue for mine. Americans judging Australia by their own narrowminded ignorant views of what is race while the racial legacy of US history is on full display in how they still pigeon hole people into “white”, “black” and “hispanic” categories.
Btw 24% of Australians were born overseas. Melbourne alone (35% born OS) has residents from 233 countries, with 180 different languages/dialects and 116 faiths. But hey don’t let facts get in the way Corey.
Quoting Australia calling,
“Big fat countries like ours have inland people, and coastal people. Country hicks, and educated city folk. We have less cities, and a lot of country. That bumps up our hick quota. But we also have educated people. The ignorant and proud of it culture we have here is sticking around like a bad smell, but our government does pay for some of our education, so that helps reduce the hick factor. So please don’t hate all of us when we come to visit you. Most Aussies are idiots, but a few of us are ok.”
I hope you’re not including yourself as one of the Australians who is ‘ok’. Claiming that people from the country are hicks and people from the city are educated is a pretty ordinary thing to say.
Again quoting Australia calling
“The more ‘proud aussies’ post on this thread, the more painful it gets to read.”
I’d say it’s more painful to read people like yourself making uninformed generalisations about others and their level of education. You clearly think that you are above other groups of people (those from the country, or ‘inland people’ as you put it, for instance). Take yourself down a few notches, remove your ignorant head from your arse and stop congratulating yourself for being so amazing; you’re not.
Corey Delany 132 – I’m English and we don’t drink VB over here. You have a go at the Australians for the way they treated your wife, that was only a couple of incidents ans i’m assuming you spent more than 3 days there, what about everyone else?
What about the Americans that were sitting beside me in Bruges back at the end of May who were critising the fact that all the menus were written in four languages, but no burgers were on the menu? Who would start shouting at the waiter while he was serving another table? Or the Americans in Paris in April who were told there were no tables available and offered the waiter money, told no tables were available and called them everything under the sun, most of it non-complimentry.
Or the ones on the Tube in London who turn around and said nice butt out loud and then whistled at the poor gentleman? Or … the list goes on about the arrogant nature of the Americans who act superior to all those around them.
Racism must have intent, if they don’t believe the race is inferior then they are not racist, you are putting your own thoughts feelings and experiences onto someone else and their actions. They don’t believe they are superior and are therefore not racist, poor taste, bad joke – yes, racist no.
And aren’t you yourself being racist by calling Australians bogan (what ever that means) and calling them other various names? You are showing intent when you are putting down the Australian race (a mainly white race maybe) but a race nonetheless.
You small minded racist bigot!
Australia also doesn’t have terrorists flying jets into our buildings.
No, they kill Aussies in their natural environment…a bar in Bali.
“Australia also doesn’t have terrorists flying jets into our buildings.”
No, they kill Aussies in their natural environment…a bar in Bali.
Natural environment? Natural environment? Seems to me you also fail at geography Corey Delaney. Bali is in Indonesia, not Australia. Still no comment about you, yourself being racist towards Australians. You know what, I’m glad you don’t like Australia, it means one less American to deal with when I travel there next. Is there anything we English can do to stop you from coming over here as well?
@144 – thank you for that. A thoughtful post that addresses so many of the distracting irrelevancies. Well said indeed. I don’t know why I was still following the responses here but I’m glad to have a little bit of my faith in human nature restored.
I had earlier defended the show against charges of overt racism though that seems less plausible now. Somehow I’d missed the cartoon sketch the first time through, and after hearing about Kamahl’s previous experiences and reading that the performers themselves, so they claim, had raised the possibilty that the skit might be considered inappropriate only to be overruled by the producers, I realise it’s impossible to accept the argument that this was just harmless, innocent fun. In retrospect, it was always implausible to maintain that people who had worked in entertainment for up to four decades could be so culturally ignorant. They knew it could offend, and why, and they didn’t care.
Well, so what? The sun comes up tomorrow as usual and life goes on while we all find something else to talk about. This was a forgettable moment on a trivially unimportant show. The deep, ingrained and systemic problems associated with race and otherness in this country that this episode has brought to light will remain. They won’t simply evaporate over time as I used to hope. As long as we focus on irrelevancies and dodge the hard questions nothing at all will change. In the meantime though, thanks again to the random voice of reason behind post #144. For what it’s worth, I wish I had your optimism.
” Bali is in Indonesia, not Australia. “
I guess you haven’t spent much time in Kuta Beach mate…..cuz if ya had, ya’d know Bali’s knee deep in bogans.
“”Harry Connick, Jr. on MadTV – Preachers Skit””
Yeah, he’s playing the part of a white southern preacher you half wit……without blackface. I know some Australians can be dumber than a bag of bricks but please, try to use the non-VB parts of your brains you bloody bogans.
Corey you seem to be here just to bag Australians. Whats up? Those statistics you gave earlier were obviously pulled out of your arse cos that is not even close.
92% white? Are people with Greek/Lebanese/Italian in your view classed as white? We dont generalise like yourself with black and white.
Get your facts right you imbecile.
Bluey on the last Census it was listed as 92% white Australians. The thing is both of you are confusing white with being native English speaking Australians. Australia has a large European population who are white, but are only first or second generation and therefore do not speak English at home. I seem to find most people here severly biased which will make an idiot of them all.
By the way Corey Delaney, still no comment on you being racist or ways that we English can prevent you lot from wanting to come over. Your help would be appreciated so that I can enjoy my country without you lot being loud rude and crude (oh and before you call me racist 7 of my best friends are American and all of them are embarressed by people like yourself).
@163
I had a look at the ABS site and there’s no “white” category I saw in the census. In fact I would expect uproar here if there was.
In Australian history especially pre-WWII, “white” meant Anglo-Saxon/Celt ethnicity; not mainland European. The mass European migration after WWII began with Italians, Greeks and other Southern Europeans but they were hardly seen as “white” with a natural olive Mediterranean complexion.
Since WWII Australia has had a number of mass migration waves which has created the multicultural country and society it is today. After the Europeans came Asians, Middle Easterns and more recently Africans. Over the past year migrants to Australia corresponded to an additional 1% of our population.
I should also add that unlike in the UK, people from the Indian subcontinent aren’t called Asians in Australia. Asian refers to East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc).
Every country’s culture and history is different which is something the dopey Americans posting here can’t seem to comprehend. It’s amusing on wikipedia that the US demographic page lists white and black categories yet the Australian page just lists the various specific nationalities. Skin colour is still Uncle Sam’s definition of race as it has always been.
The ABS actually does have this information, just not available unless a recognised authority with the ability to pay for it. Try these resources for a reality check.
http://www.indexmundi.com/australia/ethn…
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications…
You know what Proud Australian, I know what I’m talking about. I may be in the UK but I have lived in Australia for many years and know that Asian refers to South Pacific Asians and that Australia and Asia is Australasia not Oceania. Wikipedia is written by people like you and me and even (scarily enough Corey Delany) not by paid professionals, you’d be amazed what you can get on there for a period of time. Fiction not fact.
#165
I could not care less what Wikipedia says about Australia. All i know is that in my final year in high school (in Bondi may i add) there were 160 students,
giving or taking a couple:
10 born overseas
25 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese
20 2nd or 3rd gereration Italian
20 2nd or 3rd gereration Greek
1 2nd gereration Lebanese (my best mate)
5 2nd generation Eatern Europeans
To me, they are all Australian and i dont care if they speak Hindu at home and if they are black/white/yellow or bright pink. I
You arrogant twat! I taught in Brisbane at a school where I had 28 students with 26 languages at home, non of which was English. I damn well know the make up as I taught in Australia for 3 1/2 years! I have Australian relatives and visit them every couple of years. You’re just reacting to the fact that you have been pulled up, not once but twice, by somebody. Grow up, you give Australians a bad name.
PS, its ‘might I add, not may I add’ go back to school and learn English yourself, because if its may – then no, you can’t add it. You know there’s two parts of Bondi, both have the same problem, one has a sewerage pipe and the other half have their heads up their arse, either way the fumes must have gotten to you.
Nice joke(i havent heard it b4). I know where i would rather be living though.
I like how you have changed this whole debate from 5 blokes dressing up as the Jackson 5 into a grammar test.
And you know what? I dont even know the point you are trying to make in regards to Harry’s Blackface. You lost me with all of your “ive done this” and “i know that” dribble.
” if they speak Hindu at home”
Spoken like a true Aussie….
Pretty funny in Australia, Italians, Greeks and Eastern Europeans are not considered white, just wogs I guess. See in America, they are all considered caucasians, racially no different than Northern Europeans or Anglo Saxons, so using that standard Australia is 92% white. If we use the Aussie standard, the US goes from 62% white, to 42% white.
THe baby ate my dingo!
I’ll spell it out for you, since your IQ seems to be your shoe size. We were arguing with Corey Delaney about the racial profile of Australia. You claimed it wasn’t 92%, I was proving it was. However, when doing this profile it doesn’t actually look at ethnicity only skin colour. For people like Corey Delaney to keep harping on about colour means he is probably a closet racist, but the fact that he keeps putting Australians down proves he is a racist. Blackface is only racist in context, in an Australian context where this has not been an issue, its other peoples perception that is making it seem racist. Just the other day a French fashion magazine had white models paint themselves black for a photo shoot, again not the same context as the Americans and not considered racist. But having said all that, it imitation supposed to be the strongest form of flattery? In which case it definately isn’t racist.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/denied-a-mar…
Dumb fuckin’ americans, all living in denial.
So we are racists are we? I can tell you a mixed race couple would never have any dramas getting a marriage licence in this country based on the colour of their skin. I would know I’m of half Irish (6th generation Australian) and half Italian decent, whilst my wife is half Filipina and half English (5th generation Australian).
Americans think that their own country is so perfect, you have millions of people that still hate blacks and you think that you have changed just because you have a black president, think about it you guys have the biggest group of Klu klux klan (excuse me if i don’t spell it right as we don’t have that in Australia) in the world. Yes we treated our indigenous population bad, i’m sorry but that was 200 years ago and even though they have worse living conditions our current prime minister is doing a lot to change that. also thing about the hundreds of years that the African Americans were oppressed for in your country. I know that there have been several points about this before but it is the Australian way of life, not to make fun of different cultures or races but to jokingly make fun about other people without any intention of actually, intentionally offend them. In addition while the joke was meant to be harmless there is a large percentage of Australians that did not find that part of the show even remotely humorous. At the school that i went to about half were Caucasian, the rest were not and no one even pointed out this fact. Australians embrace culture and different ways of life. Now stop generalizing all Australians as racist, yes there are some, just as there are some in America and furthermore what you are doing to Australians with your comments is doing the same thing you are criticizing them for.
You wanna know something? remember the black power salute in the 1968 olympics where the two african american sprinters each raised a fist in the air on the podium? well do you know who the third man on the podium was? his name was Peter Norman – an aussie, he had supported them in their stand because no 1 else would, he was banned from the olympic games and was stripped of his medal because of it. No one in the US would even know his name.
And about this hey hey joke, that everyone thinks so offensive, you yanks always make jokes about “dingo got my baby” when a woman’s child had been killed by dingos and even when this joke is far more offensive and has been mentioned in several popular movies, there is no outcry by aussies at all because we know its a joke.
Also how many wars have we actually been involved in where we had a reason to be there other than to help out the U.S or the U.K? America on the other hand starts wars with other countries left right and centre.
take a poll of what country is more popular U.S.A or australia that is open to all countries beside Aus and U.S and see who wins you ignorant pricks!!!!
The ABS actually does have this information, just not available unless a recognised authority with the ability to pay for it. Try these resources for a reality check.
http://www.indexmundi.com/australia/ethn…
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications…
You know what Proud Australian, I know what I’m talking about. I may be in the UK but I have lived in Australia for many years and know that Asian refers to South Pacific Asians and that Australia and Asia is Australasia not Oceania. Wikipedia is written by people like you and me and even (scarily enough Corey Delany) not by paid professionals, you’d be amazed what you can get on there for a period of time. Fiction not fact.
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Both those links access that info from the same source (CIA) which is American. Sorry I have access to the ABS demographic data and there is no mention of “92% white”. I live in Australia (Melbourne) and can tell you if anyone or any organisation said publicly Australia is 92% “white” they would be howled down as racist. Pauline Hanson tried that rubbish feeding off fear but now virtually everyone sees she was and is just after a freebie income off taxpayers from the 4% of idiots who still vote for her to give her her financial quota of votes. She is not only a bigot but also a con merchant and a convicted criminal.
As for wikipedia – yes anybody can modify the text. That’s the point. Americans like Corey list their country demographics in terms of skin colour. Australians didn’t with theirs.
Btw Japan, Korea and China are on the North Pacific rim.