Kamahl re-opens old Hey Hey wounds
Kamahl vs Hey Hey again? Is it really fair to be criticising shows from the past with a 2011 point of view?
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Last night on A Current Affair, Kamahl revisited a complaint he levelled at Hey Hey it’s Saturday two years ago in which he complained about being the target of gags.
In 2009 following the now-infamous Jackson Jive “blackface” sketch, media turned to Kamahl for comment. Having been a regular on the show this made sense. At the time he said “Hey, Hey is devoid of any real wit. It’s desperate. It’s toilet humour and it should be flushed.” Ouch.
Last night Kamahl again took aim at Hey Hey and Daryl Somers for years of ethnic comedy.
“How can somebody treat a person with this sort of background like that? With such disrespect?” he said.
“They didn’t do it to John Farnham or any of the others. All of their favourites they put on a pedestal, with respect.”
But Molly Meldrum, who was the target of gay innuendo and Jackie MacDonald, who was subjected to repeated “folks are dumb where I come from” gags, may not agree.
Comedy in the 1970s and 1980s applied different rules we would never accept today. Whether it was Hey Hey, Are You Being Served?, Kingswood Country or The Comedy Company, it is easy to look back now and frown upon what we laughed at. In many ways, we’re embarrassed about what society accepted as a source of comic mirth.
But that was then and this is now.
Kamahl told ACA it was a catch 22, in order to promote his albums and tours he had to cop the gags.
“I wanted the exposure, but the quality of it was never what I had hoped for,” he said.
That exposure saw him beamed into lounge-rooms across the country when Hey Hey was a top-rating primetime show. Indeed, there are very possibly millions of Australians who are familiar with Kamahl principally because of Hey Hey -that has no doubt generated plenty of gigs ever since.
Hey Hey‘s real crime was in 2009 when it failed to realise we had moved on, reviving gags about blackface and the weight of Red Faces contestants. Its enthusiasm for nostalgia got in the way of contemporary thinking.
But it has apologised for this. Why are we revisiting it?
Last night host Daryl Somers gave ACA a statement that said, “I am very fond of Kamahl and have the greatest respect for him and always will. And I think this is all rather silly.”
Last night, Kamahl conceded his wife had told him he was biting the hand that feeds him.
ACA host Tracy Grimshaw even added, “It’s a shame. You just wish he had spoken up sooner.”
First rule of comedy: timing.
Updated.
30 Responses
Do we even know if ACA approached Kamahl or the other way ’round? I’m sure if enough questions were asked by the reporter then they would’ve got the response they wanted.
Kamahl? Is that a new brand of sour grapes. I will look out for it at my local supermarket. Please remove this comment if I offended anyone 20 years ago.
@John, really? So that show is still kicking around? LOL. My memory of it is fairly sketchy, and I could swear he used to call his neighbour the N-word racial epithet, but I stand corrected if he didn’t. Maybe they used a similar sounding word or something or maybe my memory is shot!! I agree with you, I’d be much more worried about a person who watched LTN po faced than someone who laughed uproariously at it. There were a slew of similar shows to that in the 70’s that used race and the attitudes of white racists as a point of humour. Remember “All in the Family” (so brilliant, I loved that show), “Mind Your Language”, “Me Mammy” (a brilliant spoof on Irish Catholics) and “Kingswood Country”?
You could be the next host of MediaWatch David.
Brian, “all of it was done in good humour, ” is an excuse usually raised by people who are not themselves being discriminated against.
I am yet to hear a persecuted person say that.
For the record, I, myself, am a white male.
Does anyone seriously think Kamahl is the only performer who went along with the crassness of Hey, Hey for the sake of the exposure and the publicity? The only difference is that at this stage of his career he can afford to speak out. Younger artists still hoping for a few crumbs from what’s left of the TV industry don’t have the same luxury.
@Allie Actually Love Thy Neighbour has seen the light of day on 7mate last year.I watched a couple of episodes because as yourself I had not seen it since the seventies.Maybe it was shows like this that shaped the more tolerant attitudes of today.Eddie the white guy was shown to be the buffoon and each episode ridiculed his racist attitude that in parts was the normal attitude of the period,I’d be much more worried about somebody watching LTN straight faced than somebody laughing at it.Reading some of the gutter comments about refugees and Muslims maybe we need a few of these type of shows to make a comeback…Oh and I think you’ll find bigoted Eddie never used the actual ‘N word’ that your referring to
I agree with Kamahl’s wife 100% — all of it was done in good humour, never mean spirited and usually gave Kamahl the chance to come back with a zinger that was usually funnier than the original gag.
Was going through the dvd set of “The Don Lane Show” and on disc 1 is a show from May 1980, with Kamahl on the show promoting his new album that Don predicts will sell through the roof as usual — he introduces him with Kamahl’s famous line from his original big hit “The Elephant Song” — “Why, why are people so unkind?”. If there was any Kamahl jokes, it was usually about this famous line, never anything about his background — Bert carried on this to always call Kamahl “a wonderful, wonderful man” and probably does to this day.
Consider performers like Phillip Brady or Issi Dye who made a career out of one-liners that either Graham Kennedy or Paul Hogan would make about them (and Bruce Mansfield carries on that tradition nightly working with Phillip on 3AW, although these days Phillip gives as good as he gets) — thanks to these lines we mainly remember these performers, more often than not, with great fondness because they were on the tail end of these lines and carried on their lives.
I can understand how Kamahl would have got sick of being on the receiving end of this humour for over 40 years–but you can bet it didn’t hurt his record sales over the years. His demographic these days would be best suited to the oldies circuit but I admired the ways he tried to keep current — his great sense of humour helps in these circumstances but people like Daryl Somers and co mean no harm as they’re usually with people than at them and no humour aimed at Kamahl was ever meant to offend him.
Kamahl never appeared on the reunion shows.
I’m hoping TEN still has those first colour tapes of “The Black & White Minstrel Show”, and may find somewhere to rerun them. Oh the squealing and the wringing of hands from the politically-correct sect. I can hear it all now.
(in a deep voice) Why are people so unkind?
I don’t know what he moaning about.
No joke they played on Kamahl was as anywhere near as nasty as John Blackman continually singing ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ whenever Molly did a spot on Micheal Jackson. That was probably grounds for a lawsuit!
For that amount of Publicity I’d almost let Daryl set fire to me.
I understand what he’s saying, but the fact is he was willing to participate in it at the time as he needed the exposure to further his career. Ergo, he cannot suddenly put in a retrospective complaint about perceived racism and how hurt he was by it. Nobody held a gun at his head and forced him to appear on the show, he did it off his own back. On one level, whilst I understand his sense of humiliation, he must also remember it gave him very valuable, free exposure to millions of people.
In retrospect, much of what we laughed at 25-30 years ago is unacceptable in today’s politically correct environment. For example, an openly racist sitcom like the British comedy from the late ’70’s, “Love Thy Neighbour” (which embarrassingly, I’m old enough to remember watching!) would never, ever see the light of day now, yet I remember it ran for several seasons, with the main white character bemoaning the English immigration policy and openly calling his West Indian neighbour the N-word. And no, it wasn’t bleeped out.
It will never be back. Ever.
The people have spoken.
@ BundyNelle, Channel 9 would have paid for every guests flights and accomodation for the HeyHey reunions, just as every network does. All network guests at the Logies for example will have their flights and hotels paid for by their respective networks, including transfers from airport to hotel etc.
I have been going through some old Hey Hey VHS tapes from 15-20 years ago – and it has made me realise how far we have come as a country. Having a joke at other peoples expense due to race or sex is just not funny any more in a public forum. It’s no fault of Hey Hey…that’s just how we were back then. What is Hey Hey’s fault is in 2009-10 they thought they could still get away with it.
When Kamahl appeared on Hey Hey in the 1980s, my friends and I had never heard of him as we were just school kids at the time. Hey Hey introduced us “Gen Xers” to Kamahl’s talents. I share Kamahl’s wife’s opinion that he is biting the hand that fed him. Also I don’t understand why Channel Nine had to pay his airfares and hotel for him to appear on the HH reunion shows. Just my opinion but I thought that that sounded a tad egotistic. Also Kamahl stated on ACA that he said on a 612ABC Brisbane interview that his “Taking the P**s” comment was something he said off air. Incorrect. Spencer Howson, the host of that interview, said there was no ‘off air’ discussion at all and Kamahl said that comment in the middle of the interview. And Paul Murray had some interesting comments regarding Kamahl on his 2UE radio show with Peter Forde yesterday at 3.55pm.
Three sides to every story ….
Sounds like Kamahl must have a new album coming out and he’s just reminding everyone he’s still alive.
Good article by the way David, very well written, expressed my feelings on this too.
Why is Kamahl saying this again…it’s a waste of time. He already voiced his opinion, we know he was insulted. Get over it.
Bring Back Hey Hey!
Still can’t believe he reminds us of this, two years later.
To this day he still has nothing to mention, other than those days on Hey Hey…
..And this is why ACA is for tossers.
I really don’t understand these people that bring up this crap when in all honesty the Australian television industry has been more than generous to a man who is far from being a major talent regardless of background.
He should be thanking them for having so much exposure over the years.
He was a participant regardless of what he says. As far as Molly goes he took it in his stride,so to speak.
However the “roast” done some years ago is another story altogether.Eeeeew.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I never realized the brief clip of music played for Jackie McDonald actually said “folks are dumb where I come from”!!!
I get where his coming from but i think it has made him far more popular.. does he have a new album coming out? Maybe his after publicity? Gosh i hope Hey Hey comes back!