Netflix has removed a host of Chris Lilley’s programs from its overnight.
We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys and Jonah From Tonga have all been removed, while Lilley’s most recent venture Lunatics – which was distributed by Netflix – remains on the streaming platform.
Ja’mie Private School Girl also remains on Netflix.
Lilley’s portrayal of non-white characters has long been viewed as problematic.
In Angry Boys, Lilley wears blackface to play African-American rapper S.mouse [feature image], while Summer Heights High and Jonah From Tonga both include character Jonah Takalua, for which Lilley wore brown makeup.
In We Can Be Heroes, Lilley plays Chinese physics student Ricky Wong.
It is not the first time Lilley has drawn criticism for these characters.
In 2017, the comedian came under fire after he posted a music video to Instagram titled ‘Squashed N****’ featuring S.Mouse, just hours after the death of Indigenous boy Elijah Doughty.
Lilley claimed the sharing of the video was “not connected in any way to current news stories”.
The decision from Netflix to remove these shows follows BBC’s move to pull Little Britain from its library, owing to the use of blackface.
“Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer,” a BBC spokesperson said.
However, the BBC has opted to keep Lilley’s Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes on its streaming service iPlayer.
