Is Merely Impersonating An Accent Racist?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29722860

[andy-hughes]

AOG - "/// In reality though, I've got more chance of an evening out with Alison King that Ready hitting the charts! ///

Oh dear Andy is that your dream, what would your lovely wife say about that?"

My ongoing affection for the wonderful Ms King is something well known to AB regulars - as is the fact that it is entirely in my harmless imagination, where it remains, safe from the knowledge of my lovely wife.

Were she aware, she would quite correctly call me a stupid old fool and suggest that I aquire the dignity comensurate with my age!!!

[beegeebee]

only when they do it very badly, as in Peaky Blinders!

[Retrochic]

Well I support UKIP and I think the song is a disgrace and it is racist. Disgusting!

[anotheoldgit]

Retrochic

/// Well I support UKIP and I think the song is a disgrace and it is racist. Disgusting! ///

Always best to stand on the side of caution.

[ChillDoubt]

Was Felix Dexter racist when he took part in this(very funny) comedy sketch?

I only ask because a few years later he claimed that Sacha Baron Cohen was wrong as a white man to portray his Ali G character. Turns out Dexter was something of a hypocrite IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BV8KfpE3BA

[naomi24]

No, it isn't. I'm getting really fed up with all this PC racist nonsense.

[dunnitall]

Ridiculous to the extreme...wth is going on in this country! Oh I know, too soft, let anyone other than the indigenous people walk all over us, kowtow to everyone other than those who were born here years ago and let 'em run riot over our culture so that we don't offend them. Whoever THEY are! Typical British institution now... Appease anyone except indigenous folk...and culture

[sp1814]

TTT

Absolutely not racist.

However, there are more than a few people of my generation who are secretly thrilled at anything 'anti-Mike Read' because of his refusal to play 'Relax'.

And also because he, like Paul McCartney dies his hair dark mauve.

That alone deserves a modicum of ridicule.

[sp1814]

Guh!

'dyes'.

[Hypognosis]

@T3

Impersonating an accent? No.
Making the voice reinforce the prejudice of others? Yes. (Whatever mud you may sling at Jim Davidson, his audiences laughed, so he shouldn't be taken to task alone).

I was taken aback just to see him associating with UKIP. Taking a performance fee through gritted teeth is one thing but he's not a hard-up
musician and his song echoed their views - an additional surprise.

It's a shame he didn't try lampooning a living dictator though. That might have got more laughs

[sp1814]

For goodness sake!

It's a calypso. It's meant to be sung in a cod-West Indian accent. It would actually have been much funnier/ironic if he'd sung it putting on (say) Brian Sewell's accent, but it's not a big deal.

It's only Mike Read, not someone with a high profile like Zane Lowe or Calvin Harris.

(Neither of whom, may I add...have purple hair).

[sp1814]

Hypognosis

My 'for goodness sake' wasn't aimed directly at you - just aimed at those on both sides of this ridiculous debate.

One side gets their knickers in a twist shouting 'racist', and the other gets their knickers in a twist shouting, 'PC'.

Once again - it's only Mike Read / UKIP...

...not Disclosure / Tories

[whiskeryron]

Am I still allowed to move my head from side to side when talking in a Asian accent ?

[sp1814]

WR

On the condition that you know what it actually means (I do, by the way)...

[Hypognosis]

@sp1814

I'm sure Michael Palin explained the head nodding thing but you make it sound like it's a bit deeper than "side to side = yes ; nodding = no". Is that so?

[FrogNog]

Hypognosis, the yes and no movements are not what are being discussed.
Imagine that bloke waving the fan in It Ain't half Hot Mum. That head nodding.

[sp1814]

I have a 'virtual team' with some in South Africa, some in France and some in Bangalore, India.

Last time I was out there, I asked them about the 'side to side' thing.

I was told it neither means 'yes' nor 'no'. It means 'I acknowledge what you're saying without necessarily agreeing with it'.

Personally, I think that's a pretty useful little gesture.

[ludwig]

// Personally, I think that's a pretty useful little gesture. //

I'm doing it right now.

[Gromit]

// .... but he's not a hard-up musician //

Mike Read has been declared Bankrupt - TWICE.

[andy-hughes]

"...a hard-up musician".

The last word is a bit iffy!!!!