Trying to Give Chris the Benefit of the Doubt

Chris Lilley is a well known comedian in Australia and New Zealand hailed for his work, which is often seen as being edgy and hilarious. However, he is rarely criticised for being racist, despite employing crude racialisations of his characters including brownface. Not only is he free from major, career-damning criticism, but has been awarded a big ol’ stack of comedy awards over the years. Is Chris Lilley unpacking racism?

To give him the benefit of the doubt, some of Chris’s characters seem to probe into everyday racism experienced and pracised by different members of society. In his most popular show Angry Boys, The prison warden “Gran” splits up boys in her detention centre according to the colour of their skin (lightskins one side, darkskins on the other side!) and hurls slurs at the detainees (come on coco pops! – jesus, I thought abbos could run fast – kick it, negro! – I thought wogs were good at soccer! etc etc). As a character, Gran has the potential to open up the floor for discussions on sterotyping and deep set attitudes related to racial profiling held by some white Australians. By only using slurs towards people of colour in this scene, Lilley also emphasises how as the dominant group in Australia, privileged whites are able to go through life unmarked by ethnicity whereas ethnic minorities such as African-Australian, Aborigine and Middle Eastern people are subjected to stereotyping and profiling.

Other characters like the first generation Japanese immigrant Jen, and Jonah (featuring in other, similar, Lilley-produced TV shows) allude to a different societal experience on the basis of colour. However while these characters may highlight a different day to day experience, it can be hard to believe that Lilley isn’t just exploiting his particularly crude representations of archetypal racialised roles to generate cheap laughs. Lilley in brownface depicting the disruptive Tongan teenager Jonah, accompanied by the one-dimensionally physically abusive character of Jonah’s father doesn’t do wonders for the representation of Tongan people or do anything for the unpacking of stereotypes about Polynesian minorities. While some aspects of his characters can be seen as pushing the boundaries and making us think about race in modern Australia, overall his use of race in comedy is ham fisted and, if it is aiming to break down barriers, is doing so indirectly. Lilley’s awards are handed out in a white-dominant framework where racism doesn’t contradict a comedian’s hilarity.