{"id":3639,"date":"2014-08-07T19:52:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T23:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3639"},"modified":"2015-01-03T06:12:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T11:12:19","slug":"hbo-steps-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3639","title":{"rendered":"HBO Steps in It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jonah<\/a>

Jonah from Tonga cast (photo: bbc.co)<\/p><\/div>\n

HBO this month is demonstrating that political correctness has not yet smothered bad judgment. Instead, it\u2019s showing why those acute sensitivities developed in the first place, by airing the unbelievably tone-deaf Australian Broadcasting Corporation program, Jonah from Tonga<\/em>. Created by Australian actor Chris Lilley, the program is styled as a comedic mockumentary about a group of trouble-prone Tongan teens. Lilley\u201439 and white\u2014plays 14-year-old schoolboy Jonah, by wearing a wig and \u201cbrownface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll such attempts at making travesties of who we really are, perpetuate long-held and faulty assumptions of our values, self-worth, beliefs, culture and our tangible contributions to American life, Australian life, and Tongan life,\u201d said the National Tongan American Society. According to organizers of a petition asking HBO to pull the show from its schedule, \u201cAll of the teenage \u2018Tongan\u2019 boys in the show are low achievers, gang members or in jail. Much of the \u2018comedy\u2019 is derived from Jonah\u2019s acts of violence, sexual aggression, ignorance and profanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Japanese American Citizens League<\/a> (representing another group of Americans affected by racist prejudices) weighed in, noting that satire can be \u201ca powerful weapon for revealing and skewering the irrationality and absurdity of the racist ideas,\u201d but pointing out that \u201cthe juvenile and crude characterizations in \u2018Jonah from Tonga\u2019 only reveal Lilley\u2019s deep ignorance and disrespect for the Tongan people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In describing the show, HBO says \u201cJonah tries to leave his naughty ways behind and be a \u2018good boy,\u2019 but with Jonah, things never quite go as planned.\u201d Let\u2019s hope this fate applies to the series, as well. While it aired earlier this year in Australia and on BBC Three in the UK, it was a ratings \u201cdisaster\u201d<\/a> for these networks. The Australian producers\u2019 defense, reported here, is weak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Huh? In 2014? Who is HBO trying to entertain with this crude racism? You can sign the petition here<\/a>. I did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HBO this month is demonstrating that political correctness has not yet smothered bad judgment. Instead, it\u2019s showing why those acute sensitivities developed in the first place, by airing the unbelievably tone-deaf Australian Broadcasting Corporation program, Jonah from Tonga. Created by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"HBO Steps in It","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[67,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","category-the-morgue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-WH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3640,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions\/3640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}