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BBC: Now Monty Python Is Racist or Something


https://pjmedia.com/trending/now-monty-python-is-racist-or-something/

A fellow named Shane Allen works for the BBC in the capacity of "Controller, Comedy Commissioning, Television." Which sounds like a job title right out of a Python sketch. Recently, Allen explained the Beeb's new diversity push, insisting that Monty Python is a thing of the past: "If you're going to assemble a team now it’s not going to be six Oxbridge white blokes. It’s going to be a diverse range of people who reflect the modern world."

And Terry Gilliam was even more blunt:

“It made me cry: the idea that … no longer six white Oxbridge men can make a comedy show,” he said. “Now we need one of this, one of that, everybody represented... this is bullshit. I no longer want to be a white male, I don’t want to be blamed for everything wrong in the world: I tell the world now I’m a black lesbian... My name is Loretta and I’m a BLT, a black lesbian in transition.”

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I thought the Pythons "assembled " themselves?

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I thought the Pythons "assembled " themselves?

You expect someone with a title like "Controller, Comedy Commissioning, Television" to know anything about comedy history?

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I'm sure some of this isn't just about the racial makeup of the troupe, but also about sketches like the second(?) one in the Money Programme episode, with the Japanese film director impersonating an Italian director. A generous reading is that the sketch is saying something about racism in Britain at the time, the veneration of the Italian film director vs. the rather horrible stereotype of the Japanese impersonator. (Interesting given that both Italy and Japan were Axis powers in WWII, and references to WWII abound in Python.)

Of course, a less generous reading is that the sketch is horribly racist and has aged terribly, if it wasn't seen as horrible at the time.

Reminds one a bit of the more recent trouble Stephen Colbert had with his Ching Chong character.

In any case, it's perhaps an inevitable issue with satire -- satirize something offensive, and the audience may be confused whether it should be read as satire or offending.

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Well put, Ducks.

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Well done, Gilliam! The Pythons were and are brilliant. Anybody who doesn't recognise this definitely shouldn't be involved in comedy commissioning.

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Reminds me a little of something from Douglas Adams. The Electronic Monk (IIRC) was invented so that it could believe things for people who don't have the time to believe things. The modern PC crowd seem to be efficient at being insulted by things no one else has the time nor desire to be insulted by.

I'm happy that I have the dvd collection of MPFC. I hope I don't get raided in 20 years for owning it.

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