Oh, Chris Lilley. Why do you do this to us? I get it. Summer Heights High was funny, and — to a degree — Mr. G at least had some genuinely funny moments. But that was 2007. And I like to think that by now, Australians have started to realise something: it’s actually never OK to appropriate from other cultures. Particularly if those cultures are minorities. And particularly within a current political climate that’s seeing racial divides head towards a fast-approaching boiling point.
But hey. Who am I to judge? Surely Chris Lilley — celebrated white male that he is — knows best.
Lilley has already drawn ire for getting into blackface to portray a rapper named S.Mouse, and dropping racial slurs like it’s no big deal at all while in character. I’m not going to embed that video on our website, but you can watch that dumpster fire here if you want to ruin your day.
With Lilley’s new character, he appears to be wearing an afro wig and a dress that some are quick to call influenced Afro-influenced. To me, the dress looks like some it’s on some kind of neo-hippy-Coachella bullshit, but I’m still suss on the whole thing.
There’s absolutely no way this can go wrong pic.twitter.com/6W8fBjnqwG
— Dave Krantz (@weskrantz) 26 May 2018
I really, truly, hope that Chris Lilley has learnt from the backlash surrounding his clearly problematic characters. Subtlety has never been his strong suit. Time will tell, I suppose.
