Kamahl has launched an extraordinary attack on his former Hey Hey It’s Saturday co-stars, saying they resorted to ‘humiliating’ him with racist skits because they were jealous of his success.
The Malaysian-born singer, whose real name is Kandiah Kamalesvaran, was asked on Studio 10 on Tuesday about a notorious sketch in which a stage hand covered his face with white powder as presenter John Blackman yelled out from off screen: ‘You’re a real white man now, Kamahl, you know that?’
The 86-year-old said he felt ‘hurt and humiliated’ by the segment, which resurfaced on Twitter last week after Hey Hey host Daryl Somers said political correctness and ‘cancel culture’ was killing Australian television.
‘They wouldn’t hit Jimmy Barnes in the face with a powder puff’: Kamahl has launched an extraordinary attack on his former Hey Hey It’s Saturday co-stars, saying they resorted to ‘humiliating’ him with racist skits because they were jealous of his success
‘It hurt. It’s terrible to be humiliated. They wouldn’t hit John Farnham or Jimmy Barnes in the face with powder puff,’ Kamahl said.
He continued: ‘The real problem was I was too successful for them, and I was too tall a poppy for them, and that’s the real crux of it all.’
‘If I was a nobody, they would not have done anything, they wouldn’t have cared. But please, be kind.’
‘Tall poppy syndrome’ is a cultural phenomenon common in Australia of mocking people who become more successful than their peers.
‘Terrible’: The Malaysian-born singer, 86, was asked on Studio 10 on Tuesday about a notorious sketch in which a stage hand covered his face with white powder as presenter John Blackman yelled out from off screen: ‘You’re a real white man now, Kamahl, you know that?’ Pictured with Studio 10 hosts Sarah Harris and Tristan MacManus
Response: The 86-year-old said he felt ‘hurt and humiliated’ by the segment, adding: ‘The real problem was I was too successful for them, and I was too tall a poppy for them, and that’s the real crux of it all.’ Pictured on January 10, 2019, in Sydney
It comes after Kamahl graciously hit back at a white Hey Hey It’s Saturday star after he questioned the singer for waiting 37 years to say that he was the target of racism on the show.
Kamahl said in an interview on Saturday that he felt ‘humiliated’ by the ‘offensive’ skit, prompting presenter John Blackman to fire up and say he would have stopped ‘making any further ‘racist’ remarks’ had it been mentioned at the time.
But on Sunday, Kamahl responded to the 73-year-old and said he did not respond to the incident almost four decades ago because ‘it’s all about timing’.
‘John Blackman wants to know why I did not make any complaints then,’ he wrote on Twitter.
‘Mr Blackman, you of all people know that it’s all about timing. There’s a time for everything. Why are so many people so unkind?’
Dignified response: It comes after Kamahl graciously hit back at a white Hey Hey It’s Saturday star after he questioned the singer for waiting 37 years to say that he was the target of racism on the show. Pictured: the notorious white powder scene
In his interview on Saturday, the 86-year-old told The Guardian: ‘There were a number of instances where I felt humiliated, but I didn’t want to raise any objections or protest about it.’
‘I kept smiling and pretending all was OK.’
He said the 1984 skit was one of the worst instances on the program, which ran on Nine from 1971 to 1999, and said ‘I found that quite offensive’.
‘Friends of mine in America saw that and to this day they can’t believe that somebody would treat an artist with that amount of disrespect.’
John Blackman (pictured) took to Facebook to question why Kamahl had not raised concerns with him about the comment at the time
‘John Blackman wants to know why I did not make any complaints then,’ Kamahl wrote on Twitter
Following the interview, Blackman used Facebook to lash out at Kamahl.
‘Goodness me Kamahl, 37 years and you’re still ‘humiliated’,’ Blackman wrote.
‘You knew where my booth was!
‘If you felt so aggrieved by my ‘quip’ you should have had marched up to it, had a quiet word in my ear and I would have desisted from making any further ‘racist’ remarks forever.’
While the former voice over artist conceded that he sometimes ‘cringes at what we got away with’ when looking back at old episodes, he doubled down on his remarks in a fiery tweet on Monday.
Pictured: A scene on Hey Hey It’s Saturday where Kamahl was doused in white powder. On Saturday, the singer said the skit left him ‘humiliated’
John Blackman worked on the show for its entire 28-year run, from 1971 to 1999 (the cast are pictured)
‘Kamahl joins the ranks of the Cancel Culture Club – strikes retrospectively at [Hey Hey It’s Saturday],’ Blackman wrote.
He likened firing shots at HHIS to ‘shooting Bambi or fish in a barrel’, and said ‘good one, Kamahl.’
Asked whether he thought Hey Hey could return, Kamahl carefully told The Guardian he was in favour of ‘clever’ and ‘witty’ humour, but ‘if it’s c**p, maybe we can do without it’.
His comments came days after Daryl Somers, who is returning to the small screen to host Dancing With The Stars All-Stars, sparked controversy when he said Hey Hey would not survive today’s ‘cancel culture’ climate.
‘You probably could not get away with half the stuff you could on Hey Hey now because of the political correctness and the cancel culture,’ he told News Corp.
‘It is a shame because showbiz does not get much of a chance.’
One comment was also made about Kamahl needing to smile so ‘we can see him’ (pictured) during the show
In one scene, Daryl Somers wore blackface as he impersonated Malaysian-born singer Kamahl
Hitting back at the remarks, Kamahl said he believed some people missed the point when using the term ‘cancel culture’.
‘They’re only trying to limit unnecessarily vulgar or crude terminology or gags or whatever,’ he said.
Kamahl accepted his profile had been helped by appearing on shows such as Hey Hey, admitting he needed the exposure to build his career and popularity – though he didn’t realise what a ‘minefield’ it would be.
‘There were a number of instances where I felt humiliated, but I didn’t want to raise any objections or protest about it,’ he said.
He explained he coped with it by smiling and ‘pretending everything was OK’, not wanting to ruin his own career.
The show regularly used cartoons and drawings, one of which depicted Kamahl with a bone through his nose
‘You were born and bred in Sydney?’ In another, Somers (right) appeared to make fun of a third-generation Chinese-Australian audience member (centre) as he introduced her on camera
A montage of some of the most controversial Hey Hey gags involving Kamahl was shared on social media this week, drawing reactions mostly in support of the singer.
One particularly outrageous gag saw the lighting department asking Kamahl to smile so ‘we can see him’.
Another extraordinary clip to since reemerge shows a much younger Somers wearing blackface and impersonating Kamahl.
Somers darkened his skin with makeup and wore a wig as he performed with the singer on stage.
In one segment, Kamahl’s face was covered with white chalk dust while he sang – in one of many examples of controversial skits
Other gags depicted cartoon versions of him with a bone through his nose, and as a pair of bright white teeth against a black background.
In one scene an off-screen voice pondered whether his new album might ‘go black’ instead of gold.
One clip showed Somers appeared to make fun of a third-generation Chinese-Australian audience member as he introduced her on camera.
‘I’m originally from Sydney,’ the woman said.
Somers then asked: ‘You were born and bred in Sydney? I thought you were going to say your background is from overseas somewhere. So no one in the family speaks Chinese?’
Kamahl did not blame host Somers and implied he wasn’t to blame, saying he was a ‘bystander’ who neither ‘encouraged nor stopped’ the jokes.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Somers has said he wasn’t happy about the shift in public taste towards more ‘politically correct’ jokes, but accepted that the world is changing.
‘A lot of comics can’t work much because what would have been just tongue-in-cheek previously now can easily get them into trouble,’ he said.
‘I can’t say I am enamoured with it, but it is a changing world in which we live and you just have to work around things.’
Somers is now set to host Seven’s reboot of Dancing with the Stars, after hosting the original seven seasons from 2004 to 2007. Pictured with Sonia Kruger
Hey Hey It’s Saturday ran for 28 years on the Nine Network from 1971 to 1999, before returning for special episodes in 2009.
A new season of 20 episodes was commissioned in 2010, but the variety program did not return in 2011.
During its run, Hey Hey It’s Saturday had its fair share of controversy.
Last year, TV veteran Somers was called out for performing Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World in blackface on the show in the 1980s.
Another incident in 2009 involved a comedy troupe dressed up as the Jackson Five in blackface for Hey Hey’s regular Red Faces talent show segment.
American singer Harry Connick Jr. was a guest judge on the program and gave the performance a score of zero, saying he never would have appeared on the show if he had known it would involve blackface.
Somers apologised to Harry at the end of the live segment, saying: ‘We may have offended you with that act and I deeply apologise on behalf of all of us.
‘Because I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologise to you.’
Footage has resurfaced of Daryl Somers’ most shocking moments on classic variety show Hey Hey It’s Saturday which ran for 28 years in its first run