Four Chris Lilley series have been pulled from Netflix in New Zealand and Australia due to criticisms of the shows’ depictions of people of color and the use of blackface and brownface makeup, TheWrap has learned.
The white Australian comedian’s “Summer Heights High,” “Angry Boys,” “We Can Be Heroes” and “Jonah From Tonga” — which were produced by Princess Pictures and first aired on Australian Broadcasting Corporation — have all been removed from the streaming service in New Zealand and Australia.
Lilley uses blackface to play black rapper S.mouse in “Angry Boys” (pictured above) and brownface to play Jonah, a teenage Tonga native, in “Summer Heights High” and its spinoff series “Jonah From Tonga.” In “We Can Be Heroes,” he plays Ricky Wong, a Chinese physics student.
Lilley’s shows “Lunatics,” which features Lilley playing a South African woman, and “Ja’mie Private School Girl” are still available for streaming on Netflix in both countries.
“Lunatics,” a Netflix original, is the only Lilley series that streams on the platform in the United States.
Netflix declined to comment on the decision to remove four of Lilley’s shows and representatives for Lilley did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request.
The removal of those Lilley shows comes one day after Netflix yanked British comedies “Little Britain” and “Come Fly With Me” from its U.K. platform over their use of blackface.
Deadline first reported the news that “Summer Heights High,” “Angry Boys,” “We Can Be Heroes” and “Jonah From Tonga” had been pulled from Netflix.