On the reunion special for long-running Australian variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday, which aired yesterday, a group of singers calling themselves the "Jackson Jive" performed the Jackson 5's "Can You Feel It" in Afro wigs and blackface during the show's mock talent segment. Guest judge singer Harry Connick Jr. made it known he was offended and the "act" was racially insensitive, telling the show's host Daryl Somers, "If they turned up like that in the United States, it’d be like Hey Hey There's No More Show."
Damn straight!
Update: The show's host later issued an on-air apology. Telling Harry, “I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologize.” Harry then told him: “I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that, we take it really to heart....If I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably - I definitely - wouldn’t have done it.”
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