Little Britain removed from streaming platforms

Interesting, the expunging of Little Britain on Apple Services (iTunes) isn't quite as thorough as I thought it'd be, a couple of episodes are still on sale. Where I won't say here.

The BBC are reporting that several "blackface" episodes of "30 Rock" are to be pulled from Amazon and Hulu and Tina Fey has apologised:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53148316

Including one episode, where Jenna and Tracy 'blackface' to find out which one faced more discrimination in daily life and professionally.
Which, I'd have thought is making a very serious (and currently relivant point) through comedy - so, why take it down?

Didn't C4 do a documentary on that premise?

I've never watched 30 Rock so as with Little Britain or Bo Selecta I'm not able to comment on ether the characters or plots.

I do think in this case, however its a case of "treading on eggshells" of being worried about the possibility of causing offence.

They did, in My Week As a Muslim. A woman who was, shall we say, "narrow minded" was made up to look like a Muslim and have her subjected to the prejudice that existed in every day life. It wasn't full on Curry & Chips-tier but there was a bit of a hoo-hah about them darkening her skin and using some prosthetics to make it look "convincing".

I do think the 30 Rock situation is a bit silly. Not only have we got the discrimination episode, but 30 Rock is a show filled with characters who'll do anything they can to "look good" and have it backfire. IIRC there was an episode where Jenna tried to downplay a misunderstanding about her being anti-American by having a patriotic musical number in TGS, only for the fireworks at the end of it to accidentally display a swastika.

It's "intent" that Tina Fey has cited as the issue. She's been quoted as saying that intent isn't a free pass for her to use imagery that can be deemed offensive. But then that begs the question why the episode with the swastikas aren't being removed. Or an episode featuring the potential stereotyping of an Asian caretaker being called "Konani" in reference to Conan O'Brien's involvement in the Tonight Show debacle.

I hope this isn't coming across as a "PC gone mad" post as I try to be as constructive as I can when discussing this kind of thing. But it harks back to the debate over Bo Selecta. If one apparent "target" is wrong, then surely they're all wrong. We can't say it's wrong to make a joke at the expense of a black person, then not bat an eyelid about jokes targeting Jews, Asians, fat people, disabled people, trans people etc. And that's assuming all context is removed from the content in the first place.

I seem to recall a programme where a black gentleman was made up to be white to the point of attending/observing a National Front march.

A slight but interesting deviation. Several episodes of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" that had already been made have been trashed:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53162280

Makes me wonder what they were going to be about?

They may not have been about something problematic, perhaps they are just using the episodes to do something a bit more relevant to current events.

A comedy police show going on as normal would be missing the mood, you can see why they've decided to make alterations.

iPlayer have started adding disclaimers. "The League of Gentlemen is a classic comedy which reflects the broadcast standards, language and attitudes of its time. Some viewers may find this content offensive." I appreciate it's a blanket message across the whole series but there's something a little odd at seeing it before episodes recorded in 2017.

I saw it a few days ago and have just been reminded on my Twitter timeline. Sensibly placed on the website, under the guidance section but on the iPad it feels very much a last-minute quick fix as it just uses the standard iOS alert prompt when you click to watch (with no exit button in case you strangely have a sudden change of heart!). I imagine a future update will match the website.