- comedy and censorship
- Radio National's Breakfast Program reporter Chris Bullock's story on the censorship of a racist joke from RN's The Boxseat comedy program
Comment:
- Chris Bullock on why the breakfast program team aired the joke when The Boxseat program team chose not to.
Please note that none of the reports in the case studies have been the subject of complaints or queries under the Racial Hatred Act.
Chris Bullock's on-air introduction to the joke:
Cultural correctness or cultural sensitivity, depending on your perspective, is the most commonly cited example of political correctness in Australia. Several members of the Coalition Government, including the Prime Minister, argue it's the mantra of the Aboriginal and multicultural industries.
Cultural sensitivities meant that this joke by Lee Perry did not make it to air on Radio National's comedy program, The Box Seat:
The joke:
I'm lucky to be alive. I nearly didn't make it here tonight. I had a car accident with an Asian driver who was coming up a one-way street the wrong way. I felt sorry for him, it's an easy mistake to make. I mean those huge one way arrow signs can be bloody confusing (audience laughter).
The scary thing about it, right, is that they have Asian driving schools. Like, what the hell are they teaching their students? (In an accented voice): OK, now get in the right lane. No, no. What are you doing? You don't use the indicator, just get in the right lane (audience laughter). OK. Now we're going to reverse park. Back, back, back, keep going, back, back. Good. You hit him. You're doing really well (audience laughter).
OK. Now you have a green light, but don't go yet. Wait till guy behind you get the shit. OK now go. But very slow (more laughter).
Chris Bullock's on-air interview with Libby Douglas, The Box Seat producer, reveals her team's deliberations in reaching their decision not to air the joke:
CB:The decision not to use the joke was made in a program meeting. Libby Douglas is one of the producers.
LD: The joke got a very positive response at the venue. People laughed almost in spite of themselves. You get a lot of that now in the kind of correct nineties. People still want to laugh at things like that and look around them to see who's laughing first. The comedian will often say: hey, if you think it's funny, laugh.
CB: Was there disagreement in the production meeting about whether this particular joke should be in?
LD: There was, and I argued that we should run it as a reflection, whether good or bad, of what was happening in the venues in Sydney. And this was something recorded as a current performer on the circuit. My executive producer disagreed and felt that, taken out of context of the live venue, where people have chosen to go and pay to see a particular performer, (compared) to what's coming out of the end of their radio are quite different things and therefore you have to be a little more selective about what we allow into essentially people's living rooms.
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