Fuck off Tracey Spicer
When you defend racist hijinks, just be careful what exactly you are defending.
This from an opinion piece on news.com.au which, I think, I might stop reading:
A NEW division has been set up within the Federal Police to deal with a scourge on society. The Fun Police will conduct raids on homes across Australia searching for evidence of jokes about blacks, Jews, sex, cyclists or fatties.
Anyone seen laughing, snickering or smirking at jokes deemed to be in poor taste will be punished.
Cause I know I personally have LONG enjoyed hilarious caricatures of Jews with big noses, or animals for heads or jokes about stealing or pinching money! Hell, some of my own relatives were marched off to the camps and gassed, encouraged by such mature, well developed hilarity such as jokes about Jews. (It was actually propoganda, but like, whatever)
hahahahahah.
I commented this on their website and think I will go looking for a new news source:
I know I've LONG found evidence of jokes like Jews with huge noses or animal heads *hilarious*. So mature and not at all racist or used for persecution. No. Just a good old innocent laugh. Nothing in it at all. So long as you get your laugh, eh Spicer?!
You know, I haven't commented on the Hey Hey Fiasco up till now. Maybe I should have. Maybe I only speak out when my own minority is picked on and maybe that's wrong. But I'll say this, when I was about 6 I saw an old film with minstrels in it and I was greatly offended and my parents explained to me why that was utterly insulting and the history behind such acts. It wasn't funny then, and it's not funny almost 3 decades later. I didn't watch the Hey Hey Reunion because my humour has evolved over the last 20 years. I think it's really sad and upsetting that theirs hasn't.
I am embarrassed and appalled at the defense of what happened on that show. It was racist and the commentary that's following that seems to suggest this it was ok, or that it was all part of the Aussie fun. The Aussie sense of humour also pretty much thinks footballers dressing up as women for hijinks is high-browed humour too. It seems most of Australia likes its toilet humour and fart jokes. You can see why often I find myself feeling quite "unAustralian".
I for one, prefer a more intellectual joke. One that doesn't have that subtle streak of nastiness in it, that most people are too immature or ignorant to understand.
ETA: The defense of the Hey Hey skit was that satire is a strong and important element in the Aussie humour. From Wikipedia, satire is defined as:
In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humour in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit.
In this skit, some men dressed up as the Jackson 5 by wearing big afro wigs and painting their faces black and then they performed in a very familiar Jackson 5 type way, but exaggerated. What I am struggling with is the defense of this act being called "satire". What exactly about this was satirical? What was being satirised? Being black? Being a motown act? Being the Jackson family? Being Michael Jackson? Nothing in here looks like an attack on something that the performers disapprove of ... other than being a successful, black performance group. Perhaps if the defenders of this skit took a moment to think through what the humour relies on or what actually was being satirised, they might be able to explain to me how it's not actually racist?
Cause I don't get it.
Furthermore, we live in a global community now. It is no longer ok to ignore imagery or use propaganda that is highly offensive but triggery to a group of people who are not you, and not expect that to rebound and kick you in the arse.
This from an opinion piece on news.com.au which, I think, I might stop reading:
A NEW division has been set up within the Federal Police to deal with a scourge on society. The Fun Police will conduct raids on homes across Australia searching for evidence of jokes about blacks, Jews, sex, cyclists or fatties.
Anyone seen laughing, snickering or smirking at jokes deemed to be in poor taste will be punished.
Cause I know I personally have LONG enjoyed hilarious caricatures of Jews with big noses, or animals for heads or jokes about stealing or pinching money! Hell, some of my own relatives were marched off to the camps and gassed, encouraged by such mature, well developed hilarity such as jokes about Jews. (It was actually propoganda, but like, whatever)
hahahahahah.
I commented this on their website and think I will go looking for a new news source:
I know I've LONG found evidence of jokes like Jews with huge noses or animal heads *hilarious*. So mature and not at all racist or used for persecution. No. Just a good old innocent laugh. Nothing in it at all. So long as you get your laugh, eh Spicer?!
You know, I haven't commented on the Hey Hey Fiasco up till now. Maybe I should have. Maybe I only speak out when my own minority is picked on and maybe that's wrong. But I'll say this, when I was about 6 I saw an old film with minstrels in it and I was greatly offended and my parents explained to me why that was utterly insulting and the history behind such acts. It wasn't funny then, and it's not funny almost 3 decades later. I didn't watch the Hey Hey Reunion because my humour has evolved over the last 20 years. I think it's really sad and upsetting that theirs hasn't.
I am embarrassed and appalled at the defense of what happened on that show. It was racist and the commentary that's following that seems to suggest this it was ok, or that it was all part of the Aussie fun. The Aussie sense of humour also pretty much thinks footballers dressing up as women for hijinks is high-browed humour too. It seems most of Australia likes its toilet humour and fart jokes. You can see why often I find myself feeling quite "unAustralian".
I for one, prefer a more intellectual joke. One that doesn't have that subtle streak of nastiness in it, that most people are too immature or ignorant to understand.
ETA: The defense of the Hey Hey skit was that satire is a strong and important element in the Aussie humour. From Wikipedia, satire is defined as:
In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humour in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit.
In this skit, some men dressed up as the Jackson 5 by wearing big afro wigs and painting their faces black and then they performed in a very familiar Jackson 5 type way, but exaggerated. What I am struggling with is the defense of this act being called "satire". What exactly about this was satirical? What was being satirised? Being black? Being a motown act? Being the Jackson family? Being Michael Jackson? Nothing in here looks like an attack on something that the performers disapprove of ... other than being a successful, black performance group. Perhaps if the defenders of this skit took a moment to think through what the humour relies on or what actually was being satirised, they might be able to explain to me how it's not actually racist?
Cause I don't get it.
Furthermore, we live in a global community now. It is no longer ok to ignore imagery or use propaganda that is highly offensive but triggery to a group of people who are not you, and not expect that to rebound and kick you in the arse.