Little Britain and Come Fly with Me

really?

 

Doesn't look to be any racial element to me:

 

ok you win, sorry trisha, ive enjoyed our little sparring session Mansfield red, we,ll have to do it again sometime..cheers

 

The thing about the Trisha sketch is why some of the stuff in Little Britain is also, I think, over the line re. racism.

Some of their sketches are definitely lampooning racists, the best example being the old woman who gets sick every time she touches something made by a black person. She's the joke, they're pointing out how ridiculous she is, which actually I think John Cleese was also doing with the Major on Fawlty Towers. He was the old, out of touch character. That's not to say the scene should be left in, as there has probably come a point where calling Indians and West Indians w*gs and n*ggers is no longer OK, even if the Major being so out of touch is the butt of the joke. Cleese is apparently OK with that scene being edited out.

However, as has been pointed out above, the Trisha sketch is deliberately asking you to laugh at her because she's black and plays up to black stereotypes. We're not being asked to laugh at someone who finds that funny, and so is a racist, we're being asked to find it funny. The same goes for the black coffee shop woman in Come Fly With Me. We are being asked to find it funnier because she's black and talks like a stereotypical black person. Same for the Japanese schoolgirls who love Martin Clunes.

Interestingly, also in CFWM, there is a sketch of a border agent. Again, in that sketch HE is the subject of the joke. He's OTT racist and invents a board game called Keep Em Out. We are asked to laugh at him, not the people he wants to keep out. But let's not pretend that's the same as blacking up and asking the audience to laugh because you're closing the coffee shop going 'Mi got no caffee.'

I'm not saying that means the programmes shouldn't be available, if you want to watch it then fine but I think there needs to be honesty about who and what is meant to be the joke.

 

It's really clear in that sketch that the policeman is the subject of the joke. He's made up loads of charges to arrest the unseen black man. We're not being asked to laugh at the black man, we're laughing at the idea a policeman could behave in such a way. He looks the fool.

Unless I'm missing something?

 

I think you'd probably find most reasonable people would accept these 3 things:

i) If the racist is the butt of the joke, then it's OK.
ii) If the black person is the butt of the joke, because they have stereotypically black characteristics, then it's not OK.

iii) There are a small number of sketches / programmes where even though the racist is the butt of the joke, it might be best not to broadcast the language they use on TV. This is the most controversial point but, as I said above, when was the last time you heard someone say 'n*gger' or 'w*g' on a BBC1 sitcom? It's probably for the best.

I don't think holding those fairly mainstream views should offend anyone on either side of the debate.