Hey Hey, It's Controversial Skit Day

An Australian television show has caused conflict and controversy after airing a skit based around Michael Jackson and the Jackson five.

The popular Hey Hey It’s Saturday television show was doing a reunion special after going off air in 1999. During a talent show segment the ‘Jackson Jive’ painted their faces black and donned black afro wigs, whilst another painted his face white as they performed a Jackson Five hit.

American Entertainer, Harry Connick Jr. was a guest star on the panel of judges during the show and took immediate offence to the act, claiming that had it aired in the US, it would be “Hey Hey No Show”. Host of the show, Daryl Somers apologised on air to Connick later in the program, and Connick replied that he would not have agreed to appear on the show if he knew that was going to be on it.

Somers said that it was not meant to be racist or to offend anyone. The skit was meant to be used to revisit the past during the show as this same act had been performed by the same group 20 years earlier, when the behaviour was acceptable, and had won the talent segment.

The front man of the act, Anand Deva, a prominent Sydney plastic surgeon also apologised the next morning, but said it was ironic that he’d been labeled as racist, given his Indian background.

Suresh de Silva, another group member was “genuinely horrified” that people have reacted the way they did. He also posted on The Punch that "Out of the six of us, only one is Anglo-Celtic Australian. I’m Sri Lankan-Australian, there’s an Indian Australian, a Greek Australian, an Irish-Italian Australian and a Lebanese Australian. We’re all Australian.”

The skit sparked a media storm of controversy, flooding news programs and social networking sites. Viewers labeled the show as “tasteless and racist” on Twitter. It has also caused a problem for the nation as many are now calling Australia “a racist country”.