The Australian Naughtiest Home Videos thing did eventually air in Australia, just not in its original form. They even (apparently) mocked up its being yanked off air at the same point it was pulled in 1992. Apparently its difficult to keep a programme on the air when Kerry Packer (who at the time owned the network, Nine in this particular case) is shouting down the phone at you to get it off. The story goes Packer went off on one the next day and fired everybody who had anything to do with the show. Packer died in 2005 and the show aired in 2008.
Note the really careful wording to say this show won't be shown on
Sky History
. Sounds to me like they're going to re-cut and re-air this show elsewhere.
All they need to do is edit out the bits with Lee Mack in them, and bring in Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell to pivot this to 'Bake Off' meets 'Repair Shop' meets 'Long Lost Family' as the guy is reunited with his presumed-dead father.
Last edited by Castries on 30 October 2020 3:06pm - 4 times in total
Such an expensive mistake, and a pretty embarrassing one. I can totally understand not understanding what some of the symbols/numbers mean (or might mean), but I also think it's something I would look into some more if my job involved background checks on people. I certainly don't want to be critical when I have the benefit of hindsight, but it doesn't seem as if it takes too much research to discover the meaning of '88 tattoo' on Google, for instance (even ignoring the results about the Chop).
As an aside, it's frustrating when statements are posted without an accessible alternative.
Big Wheel Productions are claiming on Broadcast that they flagged concerns about the tattoos to Sky History during production. They've also removed all references to the show on their own website, they're quite a new indie with only a handful of commissions so this could potentially be quite damaging for them.
How many people outside of his fellow white supremacist types knew that certain numbers could have such connotations, prior to this scandal? I certainly didn't. If I'd have seen someone with an "88" tattoo, for example, I'd have assumed that it was e.g. their child's year of birth (or something). Or that they were a fan of the "two fat ladies" bingo call.
Hopefully, the entire production staff of this programme doesn't include any white supremacists. Hence nobody picking up on any possible connotations of his tattoos.
To be honest I only became of it recently, when a number of friends were telling me how difficult it had been to register usernames, email addresses, etc. with their birth year in them. I understand a lot of websites now just have a blanket ban on using the number "88", for example.
It's entirely possible that both the contestant and his tattoo artist were similarly unaware (although the emergence of that paper-thin cover story hasn't helped any such argument). Ironically, these symbols have become so well 'hidden' that significant numbers of people aren't aware of their significance until it's too late.
How many people outside of his fellow white supremacist types knew that certain numbers could have such connotations, prior to this scandal? I certainly didn't. If I'd have seen someone with an "88" tattoo, for example, I'd have assumed that it was e.g. their child's year of birth (or something). Or that they were a fan of the "two fat ladies" bingo call.
Hopefully, the entire production staff of this programme doesn't include any white supremacists. Hence nobody picking up on any possible connotations of his tattoos.
Do people have their favourite bingo numbers tattooed on their faces these days?
I really am out of touch with da yoof.
Big Wheel Productions are claiming on Broadcast that they flagged concerns about the tattoos to Sky History during production.
I struggle to understand why, if the production company had these concerns, they wouldn’t halt production to investigate. Just flagging an issue to the commissioner doesn’t give you an automatic get-out clause.
