[Clive]
One of the liveliest stand-up comedy shows playing in London right now is Reginald D. Hunter’s "Pride & Prejudice & N***as". Actually, that’s not quite the exact title, as Hunter – an African-American who now lives over here – prefers not to use the asterisks. As a result, posters were banned from the Tube, and some newspapers refused to print the taboo word. Hunter got very agitated about this, claiming that nobody had complained when the same posters were festooned all over the Edinburgh Fringe. But as I said in my review, it all comes down to context: Edinburgh in manic festival mode is a very different place from the West End in a sweaty, over-crowded rush hour.
Still, Hunter has a lot of interesting things to say about racial sensitivities. I was thinking of him last night when I came across a clip of the film version of the British sitcom, "Love Thy Neighbour". A hit in the early Seventies (the US version bombed, apparently) the show depicts a working-class racist, Eddie, swapping insults with a hot-tempered West Indian, Bill, who has moved in next door. The battle continues at the factory. Don’t watch if colourful language upsets you …
OK, not exactly "Seinfeld", was it? (Although it beats Michael Richards’ recent effort). I was about 13 when the series was at its most popular. And although I watched it every week (I was a hopeless telly addict in those days) it always made me feel uncomfortable. I’m half-Jamaican, and every morning after the show I could be sure that a couple of tormenters in the playground would give me a barrage of "nig-nogs" (Eddie’s favourite insult). To me, at the time, the jokes in "Love Thy Neighbour" never really seemed, well, even-handed. Eddie had most of the country on his side, and could I really be sure all those people in the audience were laughing at him, or with him?
Yet, looking back, maybe the scriptwriters deserve more credit than they got at the time. TV often does its best to shy away from the realities of race, usually out of the best of motives. "Love They Neighbour" wasn’t classic comedy, but at least, in its clumsy way, it tried to tell it as it is.
On the subject of stereotypes, I also found these wonderfully old-fashioned Peter Sellers commercials for TWA . Would the lecherous Italian be allowed on-air now? And what does Alex make of the parsimonious Scotsman?
The Dish 