I think it gets a bit more complicated than has been portrayed. The original reports suggested that it was about Basil saying, "Don't mention the war!" to some German guests at his hotel. This episode has become so famous in British culture for this scene that it trumps everything else. The major does use offensive racist language that today simply wouldn't be allowed to be broadcast pre-watershed (pre-9pm) in the UK. And that episode, which is in pretty solid rotation on channels like Gold in the UK, is regularly edited to remove that language. So this is nothing really new.
I do think that leaving it in situ on streaming platforms seems more sensible. But language does change, as does our reactions to what that language conveys. We've also seen a number of other comedies like Little Britain (something I've never liked) and Bo' Selecta being withdrawn from iPlayer, Netflix and All4 since characters appear in blackface. Last night on Newsnight, a talkshow presenter who was mimicked on Bo' Selecta by the white impressionist Leigh Francis, explained how her kids were bullied at school over the portrayal. Both of those series aired in the early 2000s. Not exactly an age ago. Sadly, I'm not sure that Cleese would be my go-to for the last word on this sort of thing today. On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 3:28 PM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV < tvornottv@googlegroups.com> wrote: > > Joe Hass, to moi, today (6/12): >> >> This is literally on par with saying "We're never showing Blazing Saddles >> again because they say the n-word". >> >> I know there's a stronger word than "stupid", but this has pissed me off >> so much I can't think of it. >> > > That, and Cleese already used that. > > > https://variety.com/2020/tv/global/john-cleese-fawlty-towers-uktv-1234632743/ > (link) > > B > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e9bf78d2-0a28-4624-9768-537b9abeecfco%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e9bf78d2-0a28-4624-9768-537b9abeecfco%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGBNLavHtzo0JxLe9tULXimLDxPmeH6fxq8QTHUS-T4m-Q%40mail.gmail.com.
