Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Channel 4 enflame my PC gland???

The Sinister Haiku Bureau

21:53 / 03.03.02

Okay, something that kinda pissed me off or possibly confused me on saturday night, and I was wondering what you thought of it, or if you had an explanation for. I was watching the 'heroes of comedy' show, for spike milligan. All well and good, nice tribute to the guy, etc, etc. But then, the next show was 'heroes of BLACK comedy: Richard Pryor'(sp?). And I was wondering- why do they need a special seperate show for black people? Is it some kind of weirdi comedy ghettoisation? That they don't want those evil negroes stealing all our nice, well brought up white jokes, and telling them with their infamous sense of rhythm?
Or is there a kinder explanation? Is it that Blacks and Whites are percieved as having an entirely different sense of humour? Is it some kind of attempt to promote positive black identities within the field of comedy? And if so, does having a seperate 'blacks only' (and by implication, a whites only) show help this? Or do they feel that they need to have black heroes of comedy, but they aren't funny enough to get onto 'heroes of comedy' itself? If it was music instead of comedy, would this situation be different?
In all honesty, I have absolutely no idea. Am I missing something really obvious here? So I was wondering what the good people of Barbelith thought....

[ 04-03-2002: Message edited by: Johnny Haiku ]

13:47 / 04.03.02

Couldn’t agree more; I think this is an oddly divisive move on C4’s part – and somewhat hypocritical given that Hattie Jacques is next-up on ‘Heroes of Comedy’. How is it that she isn’t in a separate series devoted to female comedy greats ? Bizarre.

Though I am interested to see that Pryor merits 65mins to himself*, whereas Murphy, Goldberg, “and others” (said the voiceover) have to share a show. Can’t be for lack of material to show, surely ?

DBC

*For the record : quite rightly, I feel.

14:05 / 04.03.02

I thought the Heros of Comedy (white version) was more based on older British comedians like Spike, Tommy Cooper etc. and as far as I know and I may be mistaken there aren't many famous black British Comedians from years gone by? Does that make sense - Pryor couldn't be included as he's not British, doesn't really make it much better... I dunno....write to Terry Wogan?

14:06 / 04.03.02

Don't quite see the fuss here. Pryor bases a lot of comedy on his blackness. Most black comedians draw on the social implications of their race and comment on it. That makes it entirely appropriate to have a documentary on black comedians. Doesn't it?

the rake at the gates

17:41 / 04.03.02

i think that the hero's of comedy was more of a look back at popular comedians of yesterday,
while the hero's of black comedy was more about black comedians who broke the mold, ie sammy davis junior, was the first mainstream black comedian on tv, richard pryor, had huge crossover apeal, and was the first comedian to be given his own film production company. also i think that the heros of black comedy show was an american production bought by channel 4, although i have no basis for his statement. so i dont think there was an intentional seperation, of white and black comedians

but this has got me thinking about the mobo's (music of black origin awards), surely with the mix of black and white music that led to rock and roll, almost every type of music has in some way black origins (except country, which just sucks). so why the distinction?