By Kelly Wynne
Culture Writer
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Netflix has removed most of Chris Lilley's catalog from its Australian and New Zealand platform because of blackface and racial discrimination. This comes in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and a global push for equality.
Angry Boys, Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes, and Jonah From Tonga were all removed from the streaming service because of ongoing controversy surrounding racist characters.
The series Little Britain was also removed because of blackface. Its follow up series, Come Fly With Me, was taken down on Friday, too.
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Lilley is a 45-year-old comedian, writer and actor from Sydney, Australia. His comedy has long been considered controversial because of racial insensitivities, which was made clear in Twitter conversations surrounding the Netflix decision.
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Others stand by Lilley's comedy, despite the blackface. Some Twitter users argued that comedy doesn't need to be politically correct, and that viewers can learn something from Lilley's content.
Two of Lilley's comedies are still streaming on Netflix: Lunatics, which aired in 2019, and Ja'mie: Private School Girl. Lilley has been slammed for Lunatics, in which one of Lilley's characters is a South African woman named Jana, and his look is complete with darker skin and an afro. But Lilley is "not portraying a woman of colour," according to producer Laura Walters.
Some of Twitter wants to see Lunatics removed, too.
While Netflix has made decisions to remove much of Lilley's content from its platform, the BBC isn't doing the same. The British channel removed Little Britain at the same time as Netflix but kept Lilley's other content streaming. Viewers can still watch Angry Boys, Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes and Jonah From Tonga on the BBC's website.
This is far from the first time Lilley has been called out for blackface and racial insensitivity. In 2017, a song he wrote and performed called "Squashed N****" resurfaced on his Instagram. He'd originally performed the song in blackface as a part of Angry Boys circa 2009. The song features Lilley saying the N-word multiple times.
The reason Lilley posted the song again eight years later? It was a remix created by a fan. His apology addressed the video's timing, which coincided with global events.
"My social media pages are run for me to give fans nostalgic pics or clips from previous TV shows," he wrote on Twitter. "A fan made a remix from a song from Angry Boys made in 2009 was posted recently. It is not connected in any way to current news stories. I apologize for any hurt caused by the misinterpretation."
Newsweek reached out to Lilley for comment but didn't immediately hear back.
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