HEY, HEY IT’S SATURDAY is the Australian version of the popular 70’s American contest THE GONG SHOW. Acts appear on the program usually high on humor and low on talent, then are rated by a panel of guest judges to determine a winner. Normally the performances are all in fun. But nobody was laughing last week when a team of Aussie medical students and junior doctors appeared on the show as The Jackson Five — IN BLACKFACE!
Actually, four of the performers appeared in Blackface, while one was in “Whiteface” to mimic Michael Jackson. Guest judge Harry Connick, Jr. was not amused and gave the act a score of zero, saying: “Coming from the country I’m from, where we’ve struggled for so long to not represent black people as buffoons, well if I’d known this was going to be on, I wouldn’t have appeared on the show.” Thank you, Harry! The studio audience looked on in visible horror and shame. But the most shocking element of the story is not that the act was tacky and promoted old stereotypical racial images. Perhaps the bigger shock is that no one at the TV Network (which happens to be Australia’s largest), ever had the smarts to say “STOP! You can’t do this. Are you insane?” Although the network has since apologized for the incident, it seems Harry Connick, Jr. was the only true ADULT in the room with real wisdom. And now reports are that Connick, who was scheduled to perform a concert in Sydney this Friday, has canceled his show over the incident and out of fear for his safety. I guess in Australia, standing up for what’s right comes with a cost.
props to harry conick for standin up to these fools