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Ken Honeywell

Location: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Birthday: March 20

Title: Partner
Company: Well Done Marketing

Bio: I'm in love with my wife; a writer and producer living in Indianapolis; partner at Well Done Marketing; founder of Tonic Ball, a benefit concert that's become one of the city's favorite annual events; co-founder of Second Story, a creative writing program for kids; a vegetarian; lead singer of Yoko Moment; a life-long New York Mets fan; a sucker for waltz time; crazy about Pernice Brothers; etc.

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Editor’s Pick

OCTOBER 8, 2009 6:01AM

Rate: 4 Flag

Once when I was 12 and my brother Tom was seven, we were spinning a globe and deciding where we were going to live when we grew up. We both gravitated to Australia. All we knew was that it was far away from New Jersey and they spoke English there and the guys in their army wore hats with one side of the brim pinned up. That was how G.I. Joe Australian rocked it, anyway.

GI Joe Australian, in all his jungle-fighting glory. (The Beachhead)

The shorts were cool, too. The combination of the shorts and the hat were kind of irresistible.

Well. What we had no idea about was the Australians' love of blackface! Ol' Roger Sterling has nothing on these guys who are--wait for it--doctors.

Check out the video below, from an Australian TV show called Hey Hey It's Saturday Night. This just aired Down Under. A couple of comments:

1. Roger Sterling's excuse was that he lived in 1963. Plus, he was a fictional character.

2. Thank you, Harry Connick Jr., for at least being outspokenly uncomfortable with this.

Dang. Isn't racism funny?

Author tags:

my brother tom, down under, mad men, hey hey it's saturday night, australia, gi joe, racism, blackface

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PS: My brother Tom also had a doll called G.I. Joe Negro, which was the one he named "Tom." Somehow, I don't think this is what he was thinking.

Ken Honeywell

October 08, 2009 06:01 AM

Wow. I don't even know what to say. Just wow.

cartouche

October 08, 2009 06:07 AM

No, there's not really anything to say. It's not the least little bit funny. Oddly enough, I watched the old M*A*S*H episode last night where Hawkeye and Trapper painted a soldier's face brown to teach him a lesson for asking them to "make the blood (they gave him) was the right color." Did it work? Let's just say it was a Very Special Episode of M*A*S*H.

Frank Indiana

October 08, 2009 10:24 AM

Did I hear that right? They did this 20 years ago on the same show and won. This was all so wrong but Harry Connick Jr. did a good job, I thought. How backwards and racist is Australia? I had no idea.

Stephanie Kuohujoki

October 08, 2009 05:06 PM

I thought Harry Connick Jr. maintained his composure very well. There is a slight irony to the story however. A few years back, he performed ( I think it was SNL) a skit where he was a black evangelical preacher. The context was very different, but it definitely makes this story a little more interesting.