Kamahl offended by Aussie TV skit

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MELBOURNE: After enduring years of casual racism at the hands of popular TV programme Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Malaysian-born singer Kamahl has finally lashed out at the show over its controversial “blackfaces” skit.

Kamahl, whose real name is K. Kamalesvaran, a former Hey Hey regular, was drawn into the “Jackson Jive” sketch featuring performers with Afro wigs and blacked-up faces when resident artist Andrew Fyfe flashed a cartoon with the words “Where’s Kamahl”.

Sydney-based Kamahl, whose “why are people so unkind” comment featured often as a punchline on Hey Hey, told the Daily Telegraph in Sydney he did not watch the show out of disgust.

“It’s really just a desperate attempt at notoriety and publicity,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Controversy: Kamahl is seen in this file picture performing at a concert

“I used to laugh along when I was a guest but deep down I was thinking why are people so unkind. It’s just the same old rubbish.”

Kamahl, who grew up in Brick­fields, Kuala Lumpur, said Hey Hey was “devoid of wit” and “desperate”.

Lead performer in the Jackson Jive skit, Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Anand Deva, said he was genuinely horrified at the reaction the sketch received.

But he was quick to point out the multicultural nature of group.

“Out of the six of us, only one is Anglo-Celtic Australian. I’m Sri Lankan-Australian, there’s an Indian Australian, a Greek Aust­ralian, an Irish-Italian Australian and a Lebanese Australian.

“We’re all Aus­tralian,” he wrote on the Australian public debate website The Punch.

While Hey Hey host Daryl Somers apologised on air for the skit when American guest Harry Connick Jr took offence, Kamahl said he did not expect to receive a personal apology.