Hey Hey faces the music
"If I knew it was going to be part of the show I definitely wouldn't have done it," Harry Connick Jr tells Daryl Somers. Did Hey Hey manage to make it into 2009 after all?
- Published by David Knox
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In the lead up to the first Hey Hey reunion there was a huge section of the audience screaming for live variety back on television. And they were right. They got it with last week’s seamless reunion show.
And there was another part of the the audience who reminded us the show had ended its 28 year run because it had arguably passed its use-by date. After the second reunion show, they may also have a point.
The Red Faces ‘Jackson Jive’ revival, which saw 5 men in black face -and one in fake white- might have been better left to the archives, particularly given the show had Harry Connick Jr. as a guest.
Connick Jr., who hails from New Orleans, sat grim-faced through the sketch, scoring it 0 points.
A polite Connick Jr. said, “Man if they turned up lookin’ like that in the United States….”
“You’re right actually,” replied Daryl Somers.
“It would be like Hey Hey, there’s no more show,” said Connick Jr.
The issue was so significant it resulted in an on-air discussion between Connick Jr. and Somers later in the show.
“It didn’t occur to me afterwards. I think we may have offended you with that act,” said Somers. “And I deeply apologise on behalf of all of us. I know that your countrymen …that’s an insult to have a black face routine. So I do apologise to you.”
“Thanks Daryl,” replied Connick Jr. “and I just want to say on behalf of my country, I know it was done humourously, but we’ve spent so much time trying not to make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that we take it really to heart. And I know it was in good fun and the last thing I want to do is to take this show to a down level, because you know how much I love this show and this country….. I feel like I’m at home here.
“If I knew it was going to be part of the show I definitely wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
“But thankyou for the opportunity. I gotta give it up to Daryl, because I told him at the break, ‘Man, you need to speak up, as an American. Not as a white American or as a black American, but as an American I need to say that.’ So thanks for giving me the opportunity.”
For better or worse, Hey Hey remained true to its history on both of its reunion specials.
Yes it brought back broad variety, spontaneity, madcap live television. It took us back to simpler times before recessions, terorrism and when the word entertainment became closely aligned with SMS votes and eliminations. To have strided into the GTV9 studio like they had never left was an achievement in itself.
But amid the nostalgia both shows were also punctuated by jokes about people’s appearances and race, particularly with the cartoons and subtitles scrawled on the bottom of the screen. Last week an overweight Red Faces singer had to endure the words “Deflate him” supered over his performance and references to “Super Mario.” The boy who smeared Vegemite over his body was branded “It’s Michael Jackson.”
Surely a contestant going on Red Faces knows they are in for a ribbing.
But the question in comedy, as other television shows are currently finding, is where to draw the line. While we are seeing a number of incidents of media running stories on distatesful comedy before the audience has had a chance to respond, it is also worth asking what post-mortems the Hey Hey team did after its first show before staging the second.
Hey Hey was also at pains to point out it had progressed to a modern era, with email, Facebook and Twitter. But does that include its comic sensibility too -or would that be a sell-out?
For Nine the questions it faces will be driven more by economics than morality, or any lack thereof. How will it package the show moving forward? Dismissing unanswered questions about its on-going cast, the show proved it has legs and an audience, which would seem to override politically incorrect hiccups. After all The Footy Show is still here…
Meanwhile it seems clear there remains a ferocious majority of Middle Australia that adores Hey Hey and a polite minority happy to acknowledge its comedy as part of their youth.
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- Tagged with Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Hey Hey the Reunion, The Footy Show
95 Responses
Racist, sexist, old fashioned and old hat. A perfect fit for the Nine brand.
I found it pretty offensive. Although I’m not sure if I found it so because it is actually offensive or I’ve been conditioned to think it is. Either way it’s not something that should be on tv these days I guess.
How can you people condemn a program for one incident? How many programs have had one incident in the past few years, God, how much has Californication caused a stir in the last few years?
You have to remember, this skit was performed by a third party outside of the show, sure the producers allowed this skit to be on air, however if they didn’t, we’d probably start discussing censorship. It’s a no win situation.
I don’t mind if the program gets a series or not, I’ll go on living my life either way, however Nine need more hits, thats no secret.
It would be interesting to get in the TARDIS and see if any complaints were registered when the act screened originally, are we just a bunch of namby-pambys that are scared of alienating anyone? I can’t see how it ha anything to do with black people, it was more to do with the fact MJ started out black… Now his recent death should have been more of a concern of performing the act.
Go back home…the thing is we’re not in America Harry and Australian’s can find something funny without seeing it as racist. What about 20 years ago when this skit aired on Hey Hey? Was there complaints then? Just shows you how politically correct we have become, when we can’t see past the appearance and see the humour. What about the Chasers and Kyle, they were much worse.
I thought it was more risky that it featured the now dead Michael Jackson than any racism. Even though I disagree with the reactions, I probably wouldn’t have allowed the groups performance to air.
It definitely is past its use-by date, seeing the reunions brought that into sharp relief. It certainly had a place on TV in its day, but no longer. Yes we need more variety TV, but new shows, not propped up old ones.
It’s like seeing the rock groups of your youth reform, most things are better left as a fond memory, not shoehorned into ill fitting leather garb and caked with makeup.
It wasn’t Daryl’s fault with the Red Faces act. He thought he was booking Hamish and Andy but got Amos and Andy instead!
You’ve got to be kidding me. They allowed an act to perform in blackface? In front of a visiting American guest? And it sent up a man recently dead and his family? The whole thing just beggars belief. Whoever alliowed this to air needs their head read. It has made its way to the US, apparently it is on the defamer website and is building up quite a head of steam over there. How embarrassing. HHIS has passed its use-by date, for sure. Channel Nine stuffs up yet again.
OK he found it distatsful, but I have seen worse, and to me it wasnt done in bad taste, it was just a skit on red faces, cmon, it is the 21st century, take it as it was intended, fun, I think Daryl did the right thing in apologising, it did offend Mr Connick Jr, but the media is beating it up into somethign it wasnt and isnt…………
Get over it Harry. You’re in Australia not America.
get over it
Harry Connick was spot on. This was pure racism.
The act made me cringe. I couldn’t believe that we are in 2009 and this passes for entertainment.
The producer of the segment should be fired immediately.
if an australian does something that makes it less racist than if an american did it? that’s news to me. being australian does not give us a licence to be ignorant. did they really not have any better material? is this the only way they could think of to get a laugh? i’m not really offended, just think it was stupid.
Here is the reason this show is past it used by date. Racism, Insulting, victimisation and degrading and just plain stupid. What an insult to our intelligence.
What’s this world comming to, we are all so sensitive about everything. When is this PC crap gunna stop. Did we all loose our sense of humor somewhere, if so can we please find it again. I am so sick to death of being told what i can laugh at by the do-gooders, who feel it is their right to pass their moral judgements on everything that happens. I read a comment this morning would it had been such a big deal had Harry Connick Jnr not said anything, the simple answer to that is no. People are going to make it an issue because they can, do they really care, no, but hey they get their face out there.
I didn’t see the first Hey Hey reunion but from what I saw of last night’s, that’s probably a good thing. Last night’s performance wasn’t just a sad indictment on the state of Australian TV but Australia in general.
In what century is five men in black facepaint dancing considered humourous? And who at Somers Carroll and/or Nine thought it would be a great thing to show I don’t say this as an offended party or member of the PC brigade — personally I saw nothing wrong with The Chaser’s Make a Realistic wish (the key difference being it at least tried a comedic and satirical idea) — surely this is yet another example of why it should have stayed dead.
David – big claim from you – ‘a ferocious majority of Middle Australia that adores Hey Hey’ . 2.5 million is a large TV audience not a ‘ferocious majority’. It was always a show that had as many detractors as defenders and spent the last half-dozen years as the TV equivalent of wallpaper – like the NRL Footy show is now – just something to have on in the background in the hope of something may happen – and I suspect a new series would quickly become the same thing.
During the Jackson skit there were subtitled and cartoon references to Kamahl, and audio references to Marcia Hines. Taken as a whole, it was an opportunity to make fun of people who have dark skin. And totally racist.
Nicely written David. It is interesting that Nine seems to have this as part of its programming DNA. I find Border Security offensively racist but its nothing in comparison to Nine’s Footy Show and what happened last night on Hey Hey
Thank you for a very articulate review David !
I’m part of the ‘polite minority’ and won’t be watching again.
Enough said.
Aside from the black issue the MJ act was just in bad taste IMO, I know there was a reason I didn’t watch the show.
BTW how much did they run over by, I heard it was almost an hour!
I did not watch either reunion show. Theres a reason that this show was cancelled 10 years ago.
the return for this show for these specials reminds me of a time I caught up with an ex for dinner, we chatted about good times and remembered the fun and the laughs, in the ensuing weeks, we discussed getting back together again, thankfully before we commited to anything we both thought long and hard about the reasons we were no longer together and decided to move forward with our lives, not backwards. The moral of the story, most of us remember Hey, Hey fondly from our younger years and yes from a time when things were simpler and we’ve loved seeing the gang and having a laugh with them again and remembering the good times, but as with most things in our past, there is a reason it is in the past and its best left there! Despite claims it has modernised Hey, Hey is not at all relevant in 2009 and should be left consigned to the TV history vaults.
HeyHey its over! Now its time to stop living in the 20th century. Can we all please move on???
Yes your never going to please everyone.When Sam Newman took off Nicky Winmar for example was fun to watch,then there was what followed afterwards