"Aint half hot mum":- racist?
bearfraser
Posts: 435
Just read that the BBC has deemed that it's never going to re-broadcast "Its aint half hot mum" for fear of upsetting various ethnicities as they have deemed it racist . Is this P.C. gone mad again ?? Aparantly it had a great following in the Indian population in the U.K.
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Give it ten years and Perry and Croft will be seen as the masters of Britain's darkest and most shameful days of inciting hatred and discrimination in every word they ever committed to paper.
Alternatively, we could accept that it was of its time. Although not explicitly racist it played to social norms and values at that time but could be deemed offensive by some. I'd rather consider it in context rather than judge it by the values of a different era and by trying to deny our history we end up with a skewed view of our history and how we reached our current reality.0 -
Ain't half hot mum" racist, possibly.
Funny, definitely.
As BillyMansell says, it was a show of its time and I feel we should not judge it retrospectively.
Croft and Perry were writing/creative genius.Tail end Charlie
The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.0 -
I used to really enjoy this show when I was growing up, and would love to see it again.
Sadly I don't think it is just the sterotyping of the punka wallah and the tea man that would be a problem.
The Sergeant Major didn't half have a go at calling all the actors "Poofs" which probably wouldn't be on any more
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Yes defintely racist.
It portrays white British as bunch of fools and holds them up to ridicule.
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
no i dont think it was racist - it was all about that british mentality of treating everyone as genial dimwits - these just happened to be set in india. I have to laugh at the BBC though and the way they use small -isms to mask big isms. There used to be a program aimed primarily at the asian community, but not exclusively so, it had articles about food, and music and culture, very inclusive, really entertaining - I was quite addicted to it - it was called Network East - and in all of its none racist programming it was slotted away at 2 oclock on a saturday afternoon (iirc). had a massive audience too.The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
There were a few programmes on at around the same time that may not be acceptable today. Mind Your Language was one, Till Death Us Do Part certainly had lines in it that would make you squirm. None of these to me were racist though. There was one that I did think was unpleasant and that was Love Thy Neighbour, that seemed to have a nasty edge to it.
In a similar vein, I've often thought, would The Cure have been allowed to release a single called 'Killing An Arab' today? Probably not.0 -
What I've learned in recent times is that it's not the ethnic people themselves that object to certain things, it's the PC brigade getting all uppity just in case someone is offended.
I grew up watching Mind Your Language (friday night 7. o clock?) and racism never came into my little mind because I didn't know what racism was. I do now because it's rammed down my throat all the time!
Also, the press likes to highlight an issue when there's no need to. Example - when Louis Hamilton won the F1 Championship, whenever it was, the press where going on about him being the first black F1 champ but to most people he was the new British F1 champ, skin colour did not need to come into it.Cannondale Trail 6 - crap brakes!
Cannondale CAAD80 -
Blimey, you're bringing it all back now (plus I watched the documentary about Skippy on BBC4 last night - unbelievably sexist and misogynistic times).Cornerblock wrote:There were a few programmes on at around the same time that may not be acceptable today. Mind Your Language was one, Till Death Us Do Part certainly had lines in it that would make you squirm. None of these to me were racist though, there was one that I did think was unpleasant and that was Love Thy Neighbour. That seemed to have a nasty edge to it.
There was a perception that Till Death Us Do Part was racist although it was written and played to mock the ridiculous prejudices of racists and their racism. I think Love Thy Neighbour tried to play it the same way but failed miserably.
Mind Your Language was just juvenile stereotyping.0 -
BillyMansell wrote:
Blimey, you're bringing it all back now (plus I watched the documentary about Skippy on BBC4 last night - unbelievably sexist and misogynistic times).Cornerblock wrote:There were a few programmes on at around the same time that may not be acceptable today. Mind Your Language was one, Till Death Us Do Part certainly had lines in it that would make you squirm. None of these to me were racist though, there was one that I did think was unpleasant and that was Love Thy Neighbour. That seemed to have a nasty edge to it.
There was a perception that Till Death Us Do Part was racist although it was written and played to mock the ridiculous prejudices of racists and their racism. I think Love Thy Neighbour tried to play it the same way but failed miserably.
Mind Your Language was just juvenile stereotyping.
As I said, none of them were racist. Maybe Love Thy Neighbour did try and play it the same way as TDUDP, but because it was so poorly written and acted it just came across as nasty and vindictive.
As for Skippy being sexist and misogynistic, I always thought he was a real bounder.0 -
Why didn't they say they weren't showing it because it's 40 years old and dated?
No-one would have batted an eyelid.0 -
Lovely boys.
Purveyor of "up"0 -
Who gives a stuff about the BBC; it'll be re-run and re-run on Dave and I will watch it, enjoying every moment. Sooner the BBC are privatised the better in my opinion. Overpaid luvvies.I ride a bike. Doesn't make me green or a tree hugger. I drive a car too.0
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For good reason we have a separate concept in the language: xenophobic, which is about all you could pin on Hot Mum which reflects attitudes very much of their time, a blacked up Michael Bates a bit like Harry Enfield's kebab shop Stavros.
I get hacked off with people who can't or won't distinguish between the two notions. Suppose I'm a xenophobe, well then it's my problem - in other words I fear something. If on the other hand I'm a racist then it's likely to turn into someone else's problem very quickly. To my way of thinking, instantly playing the racist card is used as a way of shutting down genuine nuanced debate and understanding."Consider the grebe..."0 -
philthy3 wrote:Who gives a stuff about the BBC; it'll be re-run and re-run on Dave and I will watch it, enjoying every moment. Sooner the BBC are privatised the better in my opinion. Overpaid luvvies.
it will then descend to itv levels- wall to wall crap! (with adverts every 10 minutes)'dont forget lads, one evertonian is worth twenty kopites'0 -
A sports writer friend of ours recently told us that Ruud Gullit was a massive fan of It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, which we didn’t believe. Just like you’re probably not believing us. A week later he called us to say he had to interview Ruud again for his paper’s World Cup previews and would actually ask him on the record. This is what the great Dutch midfielder had to say.
“Yes. I was a massive fan of It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, the sitcom set in India at the end of the second World War. I definitely think it’s the funniest situation comedy ever, I liked it so much I based my management style on Sergeant Major Williams who was always shouting ‘Shaaaaaaaaaaaaat Up!.”
I used to regularly call my players at Newcastle and Chelsea My Lovely Boys. My favourite other characters were Gloria the camp concert party female impersonator, Lofty played by Don Estelle and Michael Bates’ Indian narrator who seemed to be the only wise man there. I don’t think it was racist at all, there’s far too much political correcteness around, it was poking fun at everyone in the British Empire. Shaaaat Up!”
Lovely Boys"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."0 -
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Rick Chasey wrote:Why didn't they say they weren't showing it because it's 40 years old and dated?
No-one would have batted an eyelid.
Nail. Head. Hit. Etc...0 -
We've got La de la Moderator Chasey
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."0 -
I loved It Aint Half Hot Mum when I was a kid, and even then it was pretty obvious it was poking fun at the racial and social stereotypes prevalent at the time.
As usual, the BBC thinks we're all to thick to work it out for ourselves, so they have to do it for us...
There's a future for you in the fire escape trade...0 -
Anyone else have one of these belts holding their jeans up as a kid?...........................
“There is an old Hindu proverb which say that if you see two eyes looking at you in the dark, it is not always a Tiger. It might be two one-eyed Tigers!” (best read in an Indian accent)
Bearer Rangi Ram"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."0 -
Yep - held up my school shorts. School colours the same as the ones in the pic!
There's a future for you in the fire escape trade...0 -
mitchell_inman wrote:Yep - held up my school shorts. School colours the same as the ones in the pic!
Me too! Sheesh, that was a long time ago. Purveyor of "up"0 -
Aggieboy wrote:Anyone else have one of these belts holding their jeans up as a kid?...........................
“There is an old Hindu proverb which say that if you see two eyes looking at you in the dark, it is not always a Tiger. It might be two one-eyed Tigers!” (best read in an Indian accent)
Bearer Rangi Ram
haha indeedy and i still remember that quote when I see a motor bike head light in the dark. The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
I too remember Til death us do part and love thy neighbour.
'til death, was a brillant piece of work/comment on society by Johnny Speight which really didn't have jokes as such the comedy value came from the ludicrous rantings of Alf Garnett who always ended up coming off worst in the end.
Love thy neghbour (IMHO) was just poorly written,unfunny,tasteless,racist cr@p.Tail end Charlie
The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.0 -
Aggieboy wrote:“There is an old Hindu proverb which say that if you see two eyes looking at you in the dark, it is not always a Tiger. It might be two one-eyed Tigers!” (best read in an Indian accent)
Reminds me of an old Benny Hill hillbilly sketch,
Son; Hey Pa, that cat coming in only got one eye.
Pa; Son, that cat ain't coming in, that cat's going out.0 -
Aggieboy wrote:Anyone else have one of these belts holding their jeans up as a kid?...........................
“There is an old Hindu proverb which say that if you see two eyes looking at you in the dark, it is not always a Tiger. It might be two one-eyed Tigers!” (best read in an Indian accent)
Bearer Rangi Ram
God, yes! Mine was red and blue - loved it.
Back on topic, wasn't Windsor Davis Welshist?Head Hands Heart Lungs Legs0 -
Land of twang hope and twang glooory clung.... shaaaaaaaaaaaaatuuuup!
Priceless.
'Till death us do part' - always amazed me how people used to say "Oh I don't like that Alf Garnett - he's racist"seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
bearfraser wrote:Just read that the BBC has deemed that it's never going to re-broadcast "Its aint half hot mum" for fear of upsetting various ethnicities as they have deemed it racist . Is this P.C. gone mad again ?? Aparantly it had a great following in the Indian population in the U.K.
http://www.bbcshop.com/search?q=it+ain%27t+half+hot+mum
It's so racist and upsetting that the BBC have decided to carry on selling it in the BBC shop0 -
I always found "'Til Death Us Do Part", to be very funny.
Mostly because Alf Garnet's character was a dead ringer for my dad's views of those who had a bit more of a sun tan than we did!
Some of the funniest bits of IAHHM, involved the character of Bearer Rangi Ram, who reguarded himself as being "British" & put down the ignorant "natives".
I too think that these series took the piss out of the attitudes of the day, rather than the non-whites/gays/women etc.Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.0 -
OffTheBackAdam wrote:I always found "'Til Death Us Do Part", to be very funny.
Mostly because Alf Garnet's character was a dead ringer for my dad's views of those who had a bit more of a sun tan than we did!
Some of the funniest bits of IAHHM, involved the character of Bearer Rangi Ram, who reguarded himself as being "British" & put down the ignorant "natives".
I too think that these series took the wee-wee out of the attitudes of the day, rather than the non-whites/gays/women etc.
Nicely edited
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."0
