Published: Friday October 9, 2009 MYT 10:58:00 AM
Malaysian-born singer Kamahl offended by ‘racist skit’
MELBOURNE: After enduring years of casual racism at the hands of popular TV programme Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Malaysian-born singer Kamahl finally lashed out at the show over its controversial “blackfaces” skit aired on Wednesday.
Kamahl, aka K. Kamalesvaran, a former Hey Hey regular, was drawn into the Jackson Jive sketch featuring performers with afro wigs and blacked up faces when resident artiste Andrew Fyfe flashed a cartoon with the words “Where’s Kamahl?”.
Sydney-based Kamahl, whose “why are people so unkind” comment featured often as a punchline on Hey Hey, told the Daily Telegraph in Sydney he did not watch the show out of disgust.
“It’s really just a desperate attempt at notoriety and publicity,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
“I used to laugh along when I was a guest but deep down I was thinking why are people so unkind. It’s just the same old rubbish.”
Kamahl, who grew up in Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, said Hey Hey was “devoid of wit” and “desperate.”
“It’s toilet humour and it should be flushed.”
Lead performer in the Jackson Jive skit, Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Anand Deva, said he was genuinely horrified at the reaction the sketch received.
But he was quick to point out the multicultural nature of group.
“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,” he wrote on The Punch website.
“We all underestimated what the reaction would be, but in the end it was our decision to go on air dressed the way we did.”
While Hey Hey host Daryl Somers apologised on-air for the skit when American guest Harry Connick Jr took offence, Kamahl said he did not expect to receive a personal apology.
Wednesday’s broadcast was the second of two reunion shows for Hey Hey, which went off the air in 1999, and talk has circulated about bringing the show back. -- Bernama
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