Blackface and Fat-Shaming: Just Another Day at TV Nova?

In and of itself not a big deal, unless of course blackface portrayals of singers like Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder, M.C. Hammer, Toni Braxton, Aretha Franklin, and Louis Armstrong bother you.

The Czech Republic isn’t alone in its lenient attitude toward the practice of blacking up one’s face for cheap laughs.

Apologists for incidents of blackface in Europe say that this kind of behavior doesn’t carry the same historic weight as it does in the United States and Britain where it’s universally considered taboo.

“The history of blackface dates back hundreds of years to American minstrel shows, which popularized some of the most harmful stereotypes about black people: That they’re lazy, stupid, brutish and subhuman. These bogus ideas…soon became the images of blacks that spread across the Atlantic. (Sadly, some of them are still hanging around, both in the U.S. and abroad, albeit in different forms.)”

Not surprisingly, the show’s “colorful” posturings haven’t met with much criticism from viewers, advertisers, or the media. Until now.

The latest episode saw Czech actress Ivana Chýlková portraying Roma performer Vera Bila as a grotesquely obese Jabba-the-Hut-like figure in blackface.

Following the segment, judge Jakub Kohák joked that his hubcaps and mobile phone were stolen during the performance and the Internet went wild, calling the show out for racism while the real Ms. Bila slammed the program’s fat-shaming ways.

TV Nova apologized to the singer for the comedian’s schtick but Kohák himself refused to say he was sorry, telling the press, “It was fun, nothing racist,” and as for an apology “I don’t have time for it.”

Whether you find the show dehumanizing or think the PC police are on the defensive maybe we can all agree on two things? In terms of entertainment value the show truly caters to the lowest common denominator.

And the real Vera Bila is a goddess.