Interested to hear your thoughts about s.mouse. I was actually interviewed for an Australian article that delves deeply into s.mouse, hip-hop caricatures, and blackface.
i don’t know much about Chris Lilley as a person, just as what he has done with Summer Heights High and Angry Boys, both shows, i find hilarious and kind of just deemed him as a comedic genius in many ways just bc i find those shows really creative, hilarious, and possibly with social commentary (like with the Jonah and the racism in Australia with Polynesian people)? i’ve tried to google Lilley, but not much about him.
when i first saw that he was playing a black kid and an Asian mom in Angry Boys, i was just struck with a laugh based on “OH SHIT, HE WENT THERE!” i just kind of shook it off bc he’s Australian and i don’t know what the stigmas are in Australia surrounding blackface, if there even is stigmas about it there. that’s a whole world away from our American bullshit, so i just brushed it off.
but it definitely, at times, was awkward to watch S.MOUSE, ~just bc~, but i can’t deny that Chris Lilley isn’t just playing “Chris Lilley as a bunch of people,” i view him as “being people he won’t hire actors to portray.” hah. when you block that out, it’s so funny.
i have this belief about comedy in that nothing is too sacred to make fun of. but it has to be funny. underline that sentence! you have to be aiming for comedy and not being nasty or hurtful. bc if you’re not making people find a laugh, you’re just a fucking asshole in blackface who doesn’t know how to make a story or say something about a character or make quality jokes.
soooo… if you’re still reading… Chris Lilley, i don’t believe is a racist. i don’t want to be an idiot who can’t see whatever he’s trying to do and not wanting to get the joke. life’s too short to attack non-Santorum people. hah. also, i ~get~ what he’s doing. i think. again, i don’t know much about him, he could be a prick.
ok… sorry, this went on for forever. i just have so many thoughts. hahah
