David Baddiel - Blackface
- Thread starter Ice Tea
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Associate
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it was 30 years ago, a lot of things went on in the past that are not acceptable nowadays
Exactly this - it seems idiotic that people wring their hands today, whilst bemoaning comedy from a different era.... I remember watching something on TV many years back, where they had a few B-list comedians look back at shows from the 70s that joked about rape; and they were all going off on how it's unacceptable. You think? But this was back in another time, so don't watch it!
Oh that's right, judge people's actions from 20+ years ago by today's standards.... Very sensible
Yeah same rubbish when Netflix put Friends on amd the soft tissue youth of today tried to get that cancelled! Sorry but nobody forces you to watch things and when they are of a completely different generation and society you can't put today's standards and views in the same context.
Just imagine what they would do to Benny Hill, Till Death Us Do Part and others now. It is pointless to complain about what a different era found acceptable. The current lot just want to ban and are afraid to speak openly. That doesn't bode well for the future.
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I think it's funny he was chosen to be the face of an anti-jewish hate documentary when he had plenty of masked racist hate for Jason Lee (aka the constant pinapple head jokes) and then only apologies decades later when he has to get things squared away so as not to look like a hypocrite.
If you read any recent interview with David Baddiel, you'll see that he's actually doing that himself. He's mentioned regretting it loads of times over the years and has recently apologised to Jason Lee (a black footballer) for mocking his hair and wearing blackface. Even at the time blackface was only used for cheap laughs. It was the 1990s, not the 1890s. We all knew what racism was.
Caporegime
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Have a look at Curry and chips on YouTube with Spike Milligan. That was so racist that it was cancelled and that was in the 70’s!
I‘m quite pleased that YouTube haven’t taken it down.
I‘m quite pleased that YouTube haven’t taken it down.
Another one by Spike Milligan is Pakistani Dalek. It's cringe worthy but was apparently acceptable at the time.
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Caporegime
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Like the OP's posting but that's only been for the last miserable 18 years, nowhere near as good as 30, low energy sad face.
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I remember watching the joke on Fantasy Football when it happened and assumed that Baddiel had some friendship with him to be doing a joke like that. It was the same situation with Leigh Francis and his impression of Craig David. If they don't know the person then the banter defense isn't there.
That's because in this day and age, you have to get ahead of it and self-flagellate before someone else cottons on to it and tries to cancel you
The one that always made me laugh was the Waiter, Waiter joke with a eurovision style host giving points for each country
EDIT - Found it!
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I think a lot of humour in the 90s was ironic pokes at the past. In the 80s people thought it was acceptable to make racist jokes like any other joke. In the 90s we took the racist joke and took it to absurd lengths.
But its easy to see how people looking back now can't tell the difference.
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If it's OK for the Canadian Prime Minister to black up it's OK for most 
I went to a posh fancy dress not three years ago, the theme being wealthy people. A bloke was there with cut off pieces of neck ties pinned all over his dinner suit. I heard not a squeak of outrage when the significance dawned, only laughter, people are far too sensitive.
I went to a posh fancy dress not three years ago, the theme being wealthy people. A bloke was there with cut off pieces of neck ties pinned all over his dinner suit. I heard not a squeak of outrage when the significance dawned, only laughter, people are far too sensitive.
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But there isn't anything to suggest that it was "racist" hate or even hate for that matter... he just mocked his hairstyle. Hardly the only person ever to be mocked by them on a TV show.
Blackface has expanded these days from Minstrel makeup to encompass dressing as a character who is black, but to retrospectively apply today's standards to a couple of decades ago is a bit silly, the context was simply a comedian on a football show dressing up as a footballer to take the mickey out of him.
You wouldn't do it today as people are hypersensitive about it and it's seen as a taboo but the context back then was more like: