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
@Buzz – I genuinely think they didn’t see the controversy coming. Maybe its just me, but nothing about Hey Hey suggests a level of sophistication behind the scenes, and certainly not in front of the cameras. The whole creative team seems to be so out of touch that they just let it go through to the goal posts without another thought.
Who cares. Its all for publicity.
Lallo…… How old are you? What comedy do you like? Do tell! What do you do for fun? Spicks and specks racist In the title, yeh right only cause you want it to be. You seem to know lots about all those shows. Dont like it, theres a off button on the remote. Better still maybe sell your TV.
I thought the act was a bit silly really,they could have done a different act, it was a good laugh any how!
It was good of harry to sick up for himself and Darryl to say his bit knowing that he was only doing what was right.
It was a good show, they need to work on different things in the future if they are ever to bring it back on air rather than living in the last century.
Dooga @ 10.46: are you kidding me?! I have no doubt the producers knew exactly what sort of train wreck they were causing – HCjr + minstrel lookalikes? = Publicity gold. Darryl may have been out of the loop, but still, someone knew exactly what would happen.
oh how I love online ad banner networks.
I’m seeing a Nat Geo med rect top right with an African face and the title of the show is Taboo.
Free Tv Australia – Code of Practice:
1.2.3 the Commercial Television Industry Advisory Notes, which are designed to help and encourage industry employees to understand and be responsive to community concerns about privacy, the portrayal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, cultural diversity, women and men, people with disabilities and commercials or community service announcements directed to children.
1.8.5 seriously offend the cultural sensitivities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or of ethnic groups or racial groups in the Australian community;
1.8.6 provoke or perpetuate intense dislike, serious contempt or severe ridicule against a person or group of persons on the grounds of age, colour, gender, national or ethnic origin, disability, race, religion or sexual preference.
and I don’t really think this covers it.
1.9 Except for Clause 1.8.3, none of the matters in Clause 1.8 will be contrary to this Section if:
1.9.1 said or done reasonably and in good faith in broadcasting an artistic work (including comedy or satire);
Free TV Australia, First Floor, 44 Avenue Road, Mosman NSW 2088
or The Programming Department PO Box 27 Willoughby, NSW 2068
Yup, there’s certainly cultural insensitivity here .. on Connick’s part.
I’m sick of this rubbish: If I were going to dress up as Streissland, I’d don a big nose. If I were going to be Rosanne I’d wear a fat suit. If I were going to perform as Howard I’d wear a bald wig. If I’m going to play the part of someone who’s black, I’d paint my face black.
Get over it.
I”ll get straight to the point here.People are Way Too sensitive.Stop the whinging.I didnt see them disrepecting michael or any black person in any way shape or form.I cant see what all the fuss is about.
This was appalling and a major error of judgement from the producers.
It appeared from the showing of the old footage that they had speciallly dug up this act 20 years later, assuming it would go down a storm.
Made worse by Daryl’s apology to Harry that he acknowledged it was offensive to Americans, somehow failing to comprehend that it would also be offensive to a large number of Australians.
I shall certainly be writing to nine to make an official complaint.
The only plus I can see from this is that it will make it very hard for nine to commission anymore of this pitiful TV.
lallaloo @ 9.20 Try The Jesters on Movie Extra, 30 Seconds on Comedy or the new Safran show on ABC – you’r wasting your time looking for decent comedy on 7/9/10.
@ Richard W – I totally agree.
I didn’t see it last night but saw Sunrise this morning and the comments from some people were just unbelievable. So sad that we as a nation would accept this kind of racism – and be so uneducated about it at the same time.
middle australia – responsible for pauline hanson and hey hey
must be so proud…
For people who don’t understand the issue around “black face” maybe now is a good time to educate yourself around the origns on Wikipedia.
They were dergoratory connotations around them then and their is no reason for them to be reprised other than in a historical context, eg. The Al Jolson Story.
Personally I thought the sketch wasn’t even funny to warrant taking the risk – who remembers them from 20 years ago anyway? Their poor taste show why many people thing HHiS passed it’s use by date.
I don’t see why people are so surprised, Hey, Hey was a tired old format then and obviously 10 years later they have simply picked up where they left off. I tuned in for 5 mins. during their first re union show and saw Maurie Fields doing a tired old joke.
Was the skit in bad taste? Probably but then Hey, Hey is all about bad taste and unfunny jokes.
I enjoyed the first show for the nostalgia factor, and missed all the fuss last night. I don’t think anyone was out to be racist, but yeah it wasn’t a good look at all and certainly a big oversight by the producers.
The fact that Harry was on the panel brought focus and attention to something that may have just slid by unnoticed for some, and would have still been offensive for others who would have rung talkback radio this morning anyway. It was good that they apologised on air, and that’s the first thing that you should do when you’ve offended someone (even if you aren’t offended yourself. It costs nothing to apologise).
I don’t know if the show was cancelled 10 years ago, I believe the show called it quits. If you don’t like the show change the channel. Im black South African and I liked it. (well brown) Dad was Irish, mum South African, hence the name.
Tout – it’s different to Downey Jnr in Tropic Thunder because in that the joke was about the ridiculously extreme lengths he went to as an actor. The Hey Hey act has none of that depth or intelligence – it is a lame, tired, archaic, offensive sight gag. Much like Daryl Sommers.
@ lallaloo, very well said, Rove, Good News Week, Spicks and Specks etc. don’t appeal to me either. Hey Hey is what live variety should be like.
I cant belive you people… So you’re saying if Harry wasn’t there it would have been okay? This just proves how big racism is still in this country.
@Thinker: “this is Australia and this is our sense of humour”. God help us then if our sense of humor is this lame.
I didn’t watch it but I saw the post mortem on Sunrise this morning. I agree with most of the comments here – it was in bad taste, offensive, and should not have went to air. Regardless of the intent (and I seriously beleive there was no malice behind it), this sort of ‘entertainment’ just doesn’t have a place in 2009. That there was an American judge from New Orleans on the panel is proof positive that the producers were asleep behind the wheel with this segment. Was there no meeting between the booking agents and the segment producers beforehand? No one piping up during pre-production saying ‘maybe we should rethink this’?
It just goes to show that Hey Hey is an outdated dinosaur, and that the humour that made this show popular in the 1980s is seriously unfunny and just plain unpleasant to watch now. Darryl’s bewilderment at Harry Connick Jr’s reaction says it all really.
This show is a dinosaur, it belongs in the past, and this skit just proves it. So glad I didn’t waste my time watching either of the shows. But then what else to expect from Nine- the whole network is living in the past.
And to make it up to the americans we must send another 500 troops to afghanistan and voluntarily resign from the G20, making it G19. Oh, and plus we must make sure our spell check on microsoft word is set to English (US).
I don’t support racism, in fact, I hate it, but I fail to see the racism in that act.
Even worse was the comments made on Kerri-Anne this morning, someone claiming “it’s not racist because we give them plenty of welfare when they get here.”
That comment sickened me worse than the original skit.
wow, i see why Aussies “humour” is not that acceptable anywhere else in the world…i was not a fan of the act at all, but i wasn’t offended either,
but then iam a white male that is not racist and do not see people of other race being inferior at all, I think the point iam making is that that those who cry the loudest, may have had similar thoughts in their past and now jump on the soapbox to defend, when they may have had bad thoughts, plus there are plenty of other examples that could be mentioned, that have never raised an eyebrow, I agree with the zero on all fronts and I think on the whole Hey Hey is still a good beast. I cant speak for howHarry Connick jnr, i dont know his past and dont know his oppressions, but if he is offended then iam sorry that he had to sit through the skit and he did well not to walk off
@ lallaloo… I’d hate to live in your household. You probably all sit around watching paint dry. You don’t seem to like any form of comedy.
As for Harry… he has every right to be offended when he grew up in a town where racism is high on the agenda.
Would this have been an issue if Harry wasn’t on the panel, probably not. But he Was on the panel. And it should be an issue even if he wasn’t on the panel.
It’s like saying you can crack racist jokes so long as there is no black people around. Or ‘let’s all make fun of the gays’ until Molly is around… ooops… so many double standards and points to be made. I’m just confusing myself and I’ll probably start to offend, so I’ll stop there.