Musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. appeared as a guest on the Australian variety show, Hey Hey It's Saturday, on Wednesday night. During the talent segment, referred to as "Red Faces," Connick served as a guest judge. During "Red Faces" six men appeared on stage as the "Jackson Jive," a distasteful satirical parody of Michael Jackson and his brothers. The men donned large afro wigs and blackface with the exception of the lead singer who, imitating the late King of Pop, wore white makeup. When it was time for scoring Connick gave the group a big fat donut. Way to go Connick. Shortly after the show he made the following statement:

“Man, if they turned up looking like that in the United States… it would be ‘hey, hey, there’s no more show.’ ”

“I just want to say on behalf of my country, I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that we take it really to heart.

And I know it was in good fun and the last thing I want to do is take this show to kind of a down level. Because you know how much I love this show and this country. But I feel like I’m at home here and if I knew that was going to be part of the show I probably, I definitely wouldn’t have done it.

Thank you for the opportunity, I’ve got to give it up because I told him at the break and he said ‘Man, you need to speak as an American, not as a white American or a black American but as an American I need to say that.”