A poll conducted by NineMSN has found that 60.22% of Australians did not find the controversial Hey Hey It`s Saturday Jackson Jive sketch racist.
143,326 people responded to the NineMSN poll following the Harry Connick Jr outrage on Wednesday. Connick, a judge on the comedy segment Red Faces, took offense when the comedy act Jackson Jive did a send-up of The Jacksons in Black Face.“If they turned up looking like that in the United States ... it would be Hey Hey there’s no more show,” the shocked Connick commented when ask to judge the sketch.
While the sketch indeed was questionable in a political correct world, it was a repeat performance of a sketch the Jackson Jive did on the same show 20 years earlier... but the world wasn’t so politically correct then.
Had Connick not been on the panel, had it been another Aussie sitting with Jackie McDonald and Red Symons, there is no doubt the controversy would not have erupted.
Connick was within his rights to say the sketch was racist but the New Orleans performer was also applying American values to an Australian show. Jackson Jive may have been politically incorrect but it was not mean spirited like a Kyle Sandilands stunt for instance.
It later emerged that he himself had appeared on an American television show MadTV a decade ago dressed as a black preacher.
See how the US CBS network covered the story:
Watch the original performance here:
