A case of delayed reaction?
A joke by Sonia Kruger made during last Sunday’s live to air edition of Dancing with the Stars has made it into the press -six days after it happened.
In comments referring to her Melbourne Cup dress, Kruger said a “sweat shop of illegal immigrants” was slaving away on her wardrobe, before turning to musical director Chong Lim asking “How is the family Chong? Alright?”
Admittedly it might not have been the smartest thing to say. While Kruger and Lim may have a boisterous friendship after eight seasons on the Seven show, it did ignite complaints on Seven’s own messageboard.
But why has it taken a newspaper six days to decide its newsworthy? After all, The Daily Telegraph notes, ‘more than 15 viewers called Seven’s switchboard after the remarks went to air.’
TV Tonight noted the comments by Kruger in story on messageboards and forums on Wednesday, as indicative of what the hot talking points were.
“I certainly didn’t say anything with any intention for it to be racist,” Kruger tells the newspaper.
“Chong and I are in a friendship that we poke fun at each other all the time. In all honesty political correctness does get up my nose … I poke just as much fun at myself. I would never ever, ever want to seriously offend anyone.”
It’s a shame there wasn’t a story on the amount of feedback and calls Seven has taken over dropping Prison Break for three weeks.
Still, controversy or not, the show just got a nice little headline the day before it’s big finale.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
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:O she can’t say that..
Classic piece of PR. “I wonder what outrageous Sonia will say this week.”
Any publicity is good publicity.
she’s in a position where she should not say a thing like that especially in todays climate. Her in-joke was in poor taste.
That is very funny! I wish I saw it. The politically correct wowsers will complain but we need to lighten up, folks.
First the Olympics now this…
I used to like her comments but now she tries way too hard to get a laugh. I still think she should have got the hosting job though.
Didn’t Grant Denyer also say something similarly tasteless whilst he was hosting on of these craptacular celebrity contests on Seven a year or so back?
On a Dancning with the stars subject, do we ever get told how much money gets rasied for the charities, from the phone votes.
Or should I say how much money actually goes to the charities?
o c’mon, i agree with chris, people need to lighten up.
anyone that watches the show regularly (and i’m assuming those 15 callers arent) would know that chongy and son tease each other all the time, thats just the relationship they have. Its part of the reason that the show has been sucessful because its just fun to watch. and chong knows that
at the end of the episode they always make a huge deal of thanking him for his efforts, its not like he goes unappreciated.
i probably wouldn’t watch the show if it weren’t for sonias priceless one liners
Let’s get Chong Lim to ask how Herr & Mrs Kruger are doing. That would be sooooo hilarious!
It wasn’t funny. Sonia Kruger has an IQ that’s lower than her shoe size. Every time she opens her mouth she says something dumb and/or embarrassing.
Let’s get real…
Sonia has no talent.
She is obnoxious which isn’t interchangeable with charismatic.
Now she has her new show in the pipeline so when that tanks and it’s seen she can’t carry a show herself perhaps Seven will give her less screen time because she’s about as disingenous as people come.
Probably a case of ‘you scratch my back, i’ll scratch yours’. Although, a few weeks ago, there was an article about sonia’s new shoes, and its somewhat link to dancing with the stars….
i like sonia, she makes the show what it is. especially with daryl gone.
and its not like she doesn’t get attacked herself, the week before this Dan called her fat and they had a 20 second discussion about her weight.
if someone said that in a day to day conversation people would laugh. why is this any different. she obviously didn’t mean any racism.
ok maybe it wasnt the brightest thing to say on national telly but cmon, it was clearly a joke!
Sonia Kruger is becoming Seven’s Sam Newman
I’ll be real brief…..she’s talented and great for live tv.
Same thing happened last weekend when suddenly in the Sunday papers it was controversial that nobody was eliminated from DWTS the previous Sunday. It took a week for viewers to be outraged that they had paid to vote for a non-elimination round and that the betting agencies had to refund bets?
Correct. Which is why I held off republishing it.
Idol has been doing this for years, now DWTS is on Sunday it’s moved down the same path. Is it the show or is it the papers or both? You decide…
Don’t kid yourselves we all say distasteful jokes but because she said it on TV she had more of a chance of the people who the joke was targeted at watching.
That being said I thought it was pretty funny and people need to lighten up.
I am an asian an found the joke not at all offensive, why do people take everything so seriously these days?
I’m of Asian origin too, I don’t find her comments offensive in this particular context. Since the comments were referred to Chong Lim, she was probably trying to be jocular and never intended to be offensive. If anything it shows social ineptitude on the part of Sonia Kruger. But then you learn from your mistakes, we’ve all made them, that’s life.
I wish people wouldn’t get so offended by everything these days.
I saw her say it on air and I thought it was quite funny. I then said to the others in the lounge with me at the time, I wonder how long it will take for her to get criticized for that, they will rip her to shreds about it.
We all know for fact that there are Asian sweatshops going on, and it’s not as though she got it from them. So people should get a life and stop finding something to nit pick about to ring up and complain to channel seven when those calls could be used about the axing of shows.
Sonia Kruger is clearly an Aussie version of Jessica Simpson.
Sonya always makes little jokes about people, I think in this case it’s less offensive because she actually knows Chong and that he’d be able to laugh at it. She’s made jokes about herself most of all though, and it shows what a good sport she is. People get so caught up in political correctness they lose their sense of humour.
Racist is the most over-used words of this generation. Everyone gets offended by everything. If you call someone “white”, no one gets offended but make even the slightest comment about someone who’s not white and all hell breaks loose.
I don’t exactly like Sonia Kruger but it is not fair to be scrutinized over every little thing. Especially something as stupid and petty as this.
“I am an asian an found the joke not at all offensive” errr….congratulations? your own background isn’t relevant. Her words were inappropriate and while the jest was aimed and Chong (who, yes, is Asian), the offensive part of her comments were not about Chong, nor about Asians, but about “illegal immigrants” slaving away at making her dresses.
So the fact that Chong didn’t care and you as an Asian don’t care is entirely irrelevant!
Meanwhile, the fact that a popular person on a live TV show would make light of the fact that there are people working in horrendous conditions to make clothes like hers, is disgraceful, and she should know better.
Let me get this straight? It takes the newspapers almost a week to pick up on something Sonia Kruger said, but it only takes a few hours for something Sam Newman says to grab the headlines. Why is that? I’m not defending what he says, but Sonia saying something like that, then asking Chong Lim a question like that, is pretty bad to say, on live television, even if it’s intended to be a joke. Maybe she should be named Sam Newman’s apprentice.
I love Sonia … she is brilliant!
Last night’s joke about Mark’s hairpiece was priceless!
Jack!
I think Chong Lim made the joke before the show with her and probably said jokingly (in a self-deprecating way) she is keeping his relatives busy in Malaysia.
It slipped out, she thought it was be better to refer back to Chong for support after letting it slip out… no big deal.
But she doesn’t seem to have the “I’m on TV” filter, where if everyone on TV was making jokes about sweatshops and asians, then we’d be fast back-tracked to a 1980’s or 1970’s mentality.
I think the joke was harmless and cheeky in a non-PC kind of way, but she should be careful to keep aware on her impact on hundreds of thousands of people and continued progressiveness in Australia.
As someone of Asian descent I found it very offensive. It’s very comparable to the denials that the ICB and Harbhajan Singh made about his racist comments and denying that they were racist. I am sure that many people who do believe it was just a joke have no idea what sweatshops are like and what people have to go through in there. More importantly, there is no idea of why they have no choice but just to do so.
Wow - Chong said he didn’t care? do you honestly think he would say something about one of his stars to his shows and against his employer. It’s the reason why many females and people from ethnic backgrounds don’t speak up against sexual and racist discrimination - because they realise it’s going to be an uphill battle.
Remember, it’s not whether it’s intended to be discriminatory but how the recipient feels - and although it was directed at Chong it offended a great number of people… but hey… why should I care really - if Harbhajan Singh said it wasn’t supposed to be racist then it wasn’t and it shouldn’t be a big deal hey….