Race to the finish
I vowed not to mention the dreaded Celebrity Big Brother in this blog, but if you must read one online article about Celebrity Big Brother, racism and media manipulation then make it this one.
However, although the comment "we're only a generation from when It Ain't Half Hot Mum was family entertainment" was addressed specifically at accent-mimicking and its acceptability as part of general entertainment, that particular comedy series was usually only reflecting some of the attitiudes expressed thirty years earlier during World War 2.
Given It Ain't Half Hot Mum's social and historical context it would perhaps be more palatable to watch today compared with contemporaneous entertainment such as Love Thy Neighbour or (ignoring the purely musical aspect) The Black And White Minstrel Show, which perhaps serve as better examples of the public face of racial attitudes during the 1960s/70s.
Love Thy Neighbour is perhaps a classic example of a comedy which arguably couldn't have been produced at any other time in broadcasting history, since it embraced commonly portrayed racial stereotypes but attempted to ridicule them at the same time. This has resulted in a series which can nowadays only be watched in a strong historical context.
And in a similar sense Celebrity Big Brother is also very much a product of its time, exploiting not only the stupidity of some of its audience but the power of social networking in all of its modern forms in order to stir up publicity along with using contemporary race-related issues to drive mass market entertainment like Love Thy Neighbour did thirty years earlier.
There is a fine line between entertainment and social manipulation, and broadcasters are these days frequently resorting to the latter to obtain good ratings. Big Brother's excuse is that the series is not only entertainment but is also essentially a "social experiment" hence somehow finds an excuse to exploit both participants and viewers.
