Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

Elmo wrote: »

TBH I don't care who's on the Board of RTÉ as long as they do their job. The introduction of gender quotas has not helped the Board of RTÉ. (Since 2009) So I really don't think that more diversity on the board will make it do a better job, other then to seem as if they are diverse.

Plus RTE don't have much success when they push for diversity, or do 'all female' shows.
(Whatever the reason-it's just a bizarre curse RTE have. Xpose wouldnt' have lasted 13 episodes if RTE tried it-never mind 13 years on VM1).

For Irish television, 'diversity' usually means 'one gaelgeor, one English speaker'.

The media over here is pretty slack for hiring any new talent- unless you're connected- so getting any non-white faces on TV is gonna be a LONNNGggg fight.

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Plus RTE don't have much success when they push for diversity, or do 'all female' shows.
(Whatever the reason-it's just a bizarre curse RTE have. Xpose wouldnt' have lasted 13 episodes if RTE tried it-never mind 13 years on VM1).

Seriously if RTÉ have produced Xpose we'd all being giving out. Firstly, as an women only show it is about fashion, entertainment and not much else this if RTÉ had produced it would have accused of stereotyping women's interestest.

On the other hand over the last 20 years RTÉ have produced a huge number of female news and sports anchors.

A report by the BAI into the media interests of immigrants in Ireland showed that most interviewed said that Irish TV was more American and British and not very Irish, they all seemed to enjoy FM104's Strawberry Alarm Clock also!

Basically getting anyone from Ireland or living in Ireland on Irish TV is difficult. Indeed all the praise that Normal People was give failed to point out how white the series was and how the Actress playing an Irish girl was actually English because we've no talent living in Ireland.

bossdrum wrote: »

What exactly was questionable about it?
If it was a white character leading the parade would that be any different or am I totally missing something in the advert?

The Crows are made up of black stereotypes-from the 'mammy/ aunt jemima caricature' to the basketball player.

That and the phrase 'Kia Ora'-it's a Maori greeting, but people of Maori descent were legally not allowed used to phrase (as well as other words) because of the government sanctioned racism when the drink was created in 1903. But if you were white, you could use the phrase.

bossdrum wrote: »

Fair enough if that is your interpretation of the advert.
I had never heard of Aunt Jemima until now and embarrassingly my knowledge of the Maori history isn't very good.
I just enjoyed the advert at the time for being like a cartooon with a catchy tune:D

Oh you can still enjoy it- I personally really like the animation. (I'm a sucker for hand drawn animation done well).

But it kind of highlights how Britain and even Ireland were kind of ignorant of racism in media.
I mean black face was being used in UK media until the 2000s-and nobody batted an eyelid, bizarrely.

Elmo wrote: »

Seriously if RTÉ have produced Xpose we'd all being giving out. Firstly, as an women only show it is about fashion, entertainment and not much else this if RTÉ had produced it would have accused of stereotyping women's interestest.

My point was more, that if RTE made it, we'd have heard stories of sniping, catfights and whole lots of awful stuff going on behind the scenes. (As has happened with too many RTE shows).

Meanwhile, in the 13 years the show was on, there were very little stories of disagreement.

A report by the BAI into the media interests of immigrants in Ireland showed that most interviewed said that Irish TV was more American and British and not very Irish, they all seemed to enjoy FM104's Strawberry Alarm Clock also!

Basically getting anyone from Ireland or living in Ireland on Irish TV is difficult. Indeed all the praise that Normal People was give failed to point out how white the series was and how the Actress playing an Irish girl was actually English because we've no talent living in Ireland.

Interesting-I know they gave him an 'Asian' girlfriend (I've not watched it, I just know. I also don't know where her character is meant to hail from), played by the real life daughter of Ciaran Hinds.
As for the lack of talent... well, they're all booked on better shows that are produced in the UK.
Derry Girls,Normal People, and Young Offenders, to name a few. (And Young Offenders gets some rattling from the media, yet has a more diverse cast than other shows).
Even Amy Huberman's show was criticized for it's lack of diversity.

But I agree, the calibre of actors in Ireland are rather poor.

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Interesting-I know they gave him an 'Asian' girlfriend (I've not watched it, I just know. I also don't know where her character is meant to hail from), played by the real life daughter of Ciaran Hinds.

she's 1/4 vietnamese, her mother is Helene Patarot

goose2005 wrote: »

It was weird, because how many Irish people in the 80s/90s even knew these stereotypes?

Mike Murphy and Twink were doing blackface around that time, so probably not many.

Elmo wrote: »

Think twink was possibly doing it in the early 1980’s I don’t think anyone was going it past 1990, could be wrong but I don’t think mike ever blackfaced.

I am always surprised at people who seemed to think it was “okay” in the early 2000s to blackface, even in the 1990s, you might forgive the late 1980s.

One good thing is that Keith lemon has been forced to admit he isn’t funny and never was.

Ant and Dec did blackface, two or three times, one as Jamaican Emmerdale fans, then as two black rappers. They also did Yellowface. Both in the 2000s.

Little Britain did blackface, quite often.

As did Jon Culshaw (case in point-skip to the 1.30 minute mark).



I remember on one of Gerry Ryan's 'Top 30 shows' that he showed clips of twink and Mike wearing it. Mike was playing some Cuban/ black fellow while smoking a cigar. Just pointing it out as 'the times'. Tho pretty much everyone agreed, they were all horribly unfunny.

Gen.Zhukov wrote: »

I just can't understand why RTE don't let one of their many black reporters, report on the direct provisions situation and the 'black lives matter' protests.

And in a similar vein, why aren't the RTE reporters from the traveller community the ones that get to report on TC issues?

Can't get my head around it at all.

Because they may not be impartial.

Elmo wrote: »

Well lucky for us RTÉ don’t make much TV, and never did, so we’re lucky blackface on Irish TV didn’t continue passed the 1980s !!!!

Sadly, they hired this idiot (the one in the photo) to make Damo and Ivor (yup, Andy Quirke). The 'skit' has been taken down-tho you could probably find it with waybackmachine...

And that clip aired around 2010, I think. He may have used the 'N' word too, according to broadhseet.ie anyways.

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/03/11/you-did-see-wesley-quirkes-brother-doing-blackface-on-prime-time-last-night-didnt-you/

I did not know Quirke's connections. Makes his comedy even more shallow. In fairness RTÉ aired that as part of a Prime Time investigation programme, possibly to show up the Quirkes.

Cann't find the Prime Time programme it featured in.

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Little Britain did blackface, quite often.

Even after that, Come Fly with Me had a few regular ethnic stereotype + "blackface" characters though I believe the wecome in the UK may have been wearing out for that sort of humour by then!

Wikipedia says it was aired first 2010/11 (which seems amazing to me when I look at it now...)!

bossdrum wrote: »

I just enjoyed the advert at the time for being like a cartooon with a catchy tune:D

Yeah, perceptions of these things, how it changes with time etc it is a very interesting subject. I enjoyed that ad too. Doubt most Irish people [at the time] would have seen any problems.
You need some context/background (from US history/media) to see any issues with it.

I suppose you could think of it like this.

If someone knew nothing about Ireland, history, the Irish people + relationship with the UK etc + saw a funny cartoon with some old "Punch magazine" type stereotypes getting blown up by their own bombs, Wiley Coyote style, they'd propbably think it was a really great laugh but "we" might see it another way.

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

Sadly, they hired this idiot (the one in the photo) to make Damo and Ivor (yup, Andy Quirke). The 'skit' has been taken down-tho you could probably find it with waybackmachine...

And that clip aired around 2010, I think. He may have used the 'N' word too, according to broadhseet.ie anyways.

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/03/11/you-did-see-wesley-quirkes-brother-doing-blackface-on-prime-time-last-night-didnt-you/

The release in to the new wild of that video would cause some embarrassment to the higher uppers in all inclusive champion of the underclass RTE so to speak.

Niall Horan, Dara O’Briain, Hozier, Soulé, Chris O’Dowd, Jason Byrne, 'Normal People' stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones, Aisling Bea, Andrew Scott, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Dustin, Ray D’Arcy, Zig & Zag, Una Healy, Conor McPherson, John Bishop, Oliver Jeffers, The cast of 'Derry Girls', Paths To Freedom, Waterford Whispers News, Anne Doyle, Andrew Maxwell, Ed Byrne, Roisin O, Jimmy Carr, Adam Hills, Mairead Farrell, Brigid & Eamon, Risteard Cooper, Neil Delamere, Brian O’Driscoll, Lenny Abrahamson, Nathan Carter, Paul Howard, Christy Moore, Dawn O’Porter,The 2 Johnnies, and Amy Huberman.

RTÉ’s comic relief