From the Telegraph:
Although he did not name names, comedies like ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ and ‘Mind Your Language’ have all been criticised in recent years for their racial stereotyping.
In ‘Mind Your Language’ which ran from 1977 to 1986, Germans were represented as dour and humourless; the French as sexy and flirtatious and the Chinese as communist agitators.
'Love Thy Neighbour' saw a black man referred to as ‘nig-nog’ and ‘Sambo’ while 'It Ain’t Half Hot Mum' regularly made jokes about the cultural differences between the Indians, Burmese and Japanese.
The thing about Love Thy Neighbour was that the bigoted while character, Eddie, generally got outsmarted by the black character, Bill.
And we racially stereotype all the time. Lots of romantic movies set in Paris and Venice. Munich and Berlin? Not so much.
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
Well, no, not really
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4 comments:
The racist white man was a labour voter and a union activist. The black man was a tory. I suspect this has more to do with the dislike the left has of programs like this than the racism they pilloried.
Daniel,
Well, not really. It's because someone said "nig-nog" and some people just can't deal with context.
I know Alf Garnett's son!
"But he's a fictional character!" the audience shouts.
Yes of course, but the script writer named the character after my friend's father to spite him, because my friend's father was a proper leftie and the scriptwriter was not and he wanted to piss him off.
There is a great scene in the movie .... up in the air.... george clooney makes a comment at airport security..... his side kick accuses him of racism.... he turns to her and says.... as my grandmother says... it's stereotyping...
And that's the thing.... there is a fundamental difference between the two and slowly but surely our mass media is eroding that difference to the point that the ill informed do not know the difference....
Alf Garnet was a bigot.... but by christ a funny bigot.... I miss him... although he and the silly moo can still be watched on youtube...
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