Si Hunt Brings Down... Lenny Henry

[Si Hunt]

Lenny Henry always used to get on my nerves. Do you know why? Because he was so racist.

His stand-up routines always used to make me feel uncomfortable as a child because they go on about black people so much. It sounds simplistic, but I'd not even really registered that he was a BLACK comedian, just A comedian, until he started spouting on mocking black culture and ways, because it's funny and allowed, rather than racist, when he does it.

And yet today he was banging on about racism yet again:

Lenny Henry has accused the British TV industry of being racist.

The comedian said the attitudes of the Alf Garnett era are alive and well and that a plan is needed to increase the number of ethnic minority staff at the major channels.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society, he said: "When I started, I was surrounded by a predominantly white workforce, but 32 years later, not a lot has changed."

He claimed that urgent action was required to give people without a degree from Oxbridge an opportunity to work in the industry.

The 49-year-old added: "I'm not talking about cleaners or security guys. I'm talking about decision-makers. To find a black or Asian boom operator is as rare as seeing John McCririck on the cover of Vanity Fair."

Henry also highlighted the lack of black actors in British costume dramas, saying: "By the time Queen Victoria was on the throne, this country had a sizable black population, so where are they? You can't move for bonnets and crinolines and the people wearing them are all white."

The clincher is that his TV shows were never actually funny either.

But don't take my word for it - you decide. Lenny Henry - courageous comic or lame loser?



Henry, yesterday. Laughs not pictured.

[Dirk Gently]

Nope! I like him. His routines may seem racist but just like every other 'comic', he makes fun of what he knows. He grew up in a black house hold in the Black Country which, joking aside, has a large Black population. So he makes fun of that, but he also had a lot of White friends & neighbours & that's what he knows too.
Reading between the lines it seems he has a point. I've never seen or heard of a senior BBC bod being Black or Asian. The BBC (and other TV companies) seem to have an all White board from what I can see, and if that belief is wrong the they don't go out of their way to prove me wrong.

Also, I happened to think his TV programmes were funny.

[Wayne]

I can't really comment on his experiences with racism, & what kind of bloke he is etc... But i voted against him purely for the fact that he's not the slightest bit funny.
Some people don't even have to speak before they're making me laugh, but Lenny Henry has never made me laugh. Ever. He's just crap. And it's nothing to do with being black.

[Si Hunt]

He grew up in a black house hold in the Black Country which, joking aside, has a large Black population. So he makes fun of that

But I genuinely don't understand how he can make fun of black or foreign people (funny voices etc.) and not think that's bad for race relations. Even if you suppose that it IS ok to mock a minority if you yourself are part of it, surely white kids are just as likely to copy his hilarious African voices etc. and that then makes them racist by his standards.

Si.

[Lissa]

Golly, about 15 years ago there was a magazine about comedy - it lasted half a dozen issues and was largely up its own arse - which deconstructed what was wrong with Lenny Henry as a comedian. He is too safe, too mainstream, too loud, too big and could never decide what he wanted to be. Most of the characters in his act were crude racial stereotypes, he's always seemed about ten years behind the times ("Lenny Henry.tv" would've been a dynamic title in the late 90s but not in 2007) and he's never quite found a role or show which suited him.

The speech he made was surprising - partly because of the safeness which meant he never did or said anything even vaguely edgy in his act and partly because it was so badly written. If this -

I'm talking about decision-makers. To find a black or Asian boom operator is as rare as seeing John McCririck on the cover of Vanity Fair

- is a direct quote then whoever wrote that speech is a moron. Boom operators are hardly "decision makers" and since when is it ok in a speech about judging people by how they look to have a go at someone for being old and fat?

Then there is -

He claimed that urgent action was required to give people without a degree from Oxbridge an opportunity to work in the industry.

- which is an entirely different issue about class and the Oxbridge mafia which has been alleged in television for as long as there has been television and has absolutely nothing to do with race.

Ultimately, Lenny Henry is one of those performers who - because he isn't a white man - we're supposed to like. Just like his wife who is also not a white man and therefore constantly gets series despite not being funny. He is talented - a good mimic, a good teller of jokes, a good actor, a good singer - but has never concentrated on any of them long enough to become great at them. If he'd been white he would probably have disappeared like his former colleague David Copperfield. He's had a good career out of being black so he shouldn't knock the industry which gave him far more than he otherwise would've had.

[Jon Masters]

No, you're wrong in so many ways - Lenny can be a very funny guy (and just like every other comedian he's had his mistakes).

I'll mount a greater defence when I've recovered from reading the other replies

[Paul Clement]

I'm with Jon, he's a funny guy who's had one or two failures along the way. I also agree with Lissa when she says that he's got talent in a variety of spheres but never honed one of them to perfection. I loved Chef, but it was by no means as good as it could have been, and I enjoyed the Delbert Wilkins character he created a few years before that. The TV film he did with Robbie Coltrane where he played a heroin addict was excellent and showed he could be a fine actor if he wanted to.

[Perry Vale]

He was funny when he was about 16, but that was bloody years ago. He only gets a new series these days because he's "one of the establishment", imo.

[Pip Madeley]

I'll give him his due, he's done a lot for charity (Comic Relief) but he's never been 'hilarious' in my eyes. Just average. Chef was alright, but again, not really hilarious. I won't vote as I'm on the fence.

[P-Bal]

He's my daddy as sure as Joan Collins is my real mum and Su Pollard the surrogate.

[Ralph]

I feel completely indifferent to Mr Henry and therefore like Pip will be a fence sitter on this occasion - I can only hope Si pics a more inspiring personality next time

[Captain Tancredi]

Like several others, I don't have particularly strong opinions on the man- I suspect he broke out in the late 1970s and early 1980s because the country was ready for a young black comedian and he was in the right place at the right time. The down side of that was that his comedy (and it's a while since I've seen him do stand-up) had to be accessible to middle-class white people so it probably reinforced as many stereotypes as it broke down. I can remember when his show was practically essential viewing in the Delbert Wilkins days, but I think what's happened is that Comic Relief came along and while he could have spent the last 15 years or so sharpening his act and inventing new characters, he's spread his energies over a number of different areas and not really become a giant in any one field. That said, I suspect that if you asked him, he'd say making a success of Comic Relief was at least as important as anything he did in comedy if not more so.

The question of representation is a tricky one- although ethnic minorities are more visible in society than at any time in the past, we're still only talking about 10-15% of the population, and indeed if anything the latest wave of migration from Eastern Europe has probably pushed the percentage down a point or two. The black or Asian experience of life in Britain is worth listening to, and that includes comedy- one of the great things about 'Goodness Gracious Me' was that it managed to be both a very sharp sketch show and also tell jokes about life as a British Asian that everybody could understand. So I think that speech was misjudged if those are direct quotations- Henry himself may not have gone to Oxbridge, but he's certainly connected to that kind of group, and as one of the most prominent black figures in television, he'd also be on most shortlists if anybody ever were so stupid as to look to impose a token ethnic presence on, say, the board of the BBC.

[enzo1701]

Yeah I have to give a thumbs up to Lenny Henry (I refuse to vote against anyone who was in Tiswas). If he's racist though, is Omid Djalili? He tells the same kind of jokes in a more modern environment.

[Jon Masters]

OK - standup - very funny (well, I've never seen him live, but I have seen the odd 'live' gig onTV/ video and enjoyed them)

Sketch shows - early ones good, less so later on - too much fiddling with the format.

Chef - very good; other 'serious' roles less so (that headmaster one was awful)

Racism - now I really don't get this. I can't see how his comedy can be classified as such, if he's using people that he knows as the basis for his comedy AND doesn't just get a laugh because they are black. Otherwise you would have to accuse every other comedian of being racist against white people because the characters they mimic or stereotype are white, not black ?
It would make Catherine Tate ageist, Goodness Gracious Me bannable, Father Ted blaspehmous etc. If anything he could be accused of being 'anti- Dudley' but since he comes from there and patently loves the place that would be a stretch.

The only material I have ever heard him do which was aimed directly against whites was him taking the piss out of some National Front thugs he's had persoanl experience of, and I don't have any sympathy for them.

I agree his talent has been somewhat wasted, and some of his choices (like Len.tv) are just awful, but then I would say that about many other comedians. Jack Dee makes me laugh every time, but Lead Balloon was desperate.

Ultimately, Lenny Henry is one of those performers who - because he isn't a white man - we're supposed to like.

I think comedy is such a personal thing that you're not expected to like everyone, but also have to accept that other people might actually like things you don't. Otherwise, in my world, Ricky Gervaise, Joan Rivers & Graham Norton would be doing time for crimes against comedy, LOTSW and My Family would have been axed after one series and we'd be on the sixth Red Dwarf film by now

Maybe Len should be the 11th Doctor

[Si Hunt]

Otherwise you would have to accuse every other comedian of being racist against white people because the characters they mimic or stereotype are white, not black ?

Not really, because they arn't making fun of them BECAUSE they're white. Let alone JUST because they're white. I always found that 90% of Lenny's act was actually pointing out that he was black. Growing up you often feel quite affronted by someone who is black (especially if they are very black) because you try to get past the stark appearance, because you know that's the right thing to do. And here's not only a very black comedian, but one who keeps reminding you of the fact.

It would make Catherine Tate ageist, Goodness Gracious Me bannable, Father Ted blaspehmous etc.

And indeed they are, but briefly and not offensively so. If Henry had made the odd joke poking fun at e.g the brashness of the caribbean accent, it would have been fine...

Si.

[Captain Tancredi]

I always found that 90% of Lenny's act was actually pointing out that he was black. Growing up you often feel quite affronted by someone who is black (especially if they are very black) because you try to get past the stark appearance, because you know that's the right thing to do.

Ah, the Oprah Winfrey effect. Yes, dear, we've noticed that you're a black woman with a fluctuating weight problem, but what do you actually have to say?

[Lissa]

It's a long time since I've seen Lenny Henry's act and I wonder if he - as the country's most famous black comedian - gets unfairly blamed for the glut of ethnic comedians who really do have nothing else to offer. For all his faults, Henry at least has other strings to his bow while they base all their material on either jokes about being black or jokes about how rubbish white people are.

Not that this is unique to race - gay comedians who base their entire routine on being gay are equally tiresome. And have you ever heard Jackie Mason's act?

[Jon Masters]

I always found that 90% of Lenny's act was actually pointing out that he was black.

Ah, see I've never seen it like that. All the characters I can think of that I find funny are funny because of their attitude or behaviour, and the accent is just a way of distinguishing the character rather than being the source of the comedy.

Out of interest, what do you think of Little Miss Jocelyn ?

[Si Hunt]

Never heard of her!

Si.

[Lissa]

If you can't find 30 seconds of decent material for the trailer from 3 hours of sketches, the show is almost certainly crap. LMJ had the worst trailer I've ever seen. A woman with Bob Grant false teeth doing her best to squawk over canned laughter was chosen to sell this series. I made a mental note to avoid it at all cost.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one to think the series looked crap just from the trailer.

[sugartongs]

I'm gonna say no just for the awful sketch on the Trial DVD

Seriously though, I'm sitting here trying to remember any memorable routine or memorable lines and I'm coming up empty. I did like the Delbert Wilkins show, but he hasn't been funny for years.

[SiHart]

His advert for Premier Inns is really, really annoying.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

And now he's doing Shakin Stevens' Othello!

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't really have any great opinion, other than I've never really thought of Lenny H as a particularly great comedian. He was an OK-ish impersonator when he started, and over the years he's had some good material and some bad material. The one thing I can remember from his old shows is the character Decus (the old guy) who used to make me chuckle. Other than that, not sure - although I hasten to add he usually comes over (rightly or wrongly) as quite a nice guy.