3/23/2004 » Rants

The producer behind 'Sex and the City' will remake a Peter Sellers comedy from 1967, 'The Party.' The original film was a more-than-a-little-racist comedy with a white comedian playing 'Hrundi V. Bakshi' in brownface, sporting a degenerate imitation of an Indian accent. Sellers wandered around a film set for a sequel to 'Gunga Din,' itself a landmark of racism featuring civilized British soldiers vs. naked Indian savages. He destroyed the film set through sheer klutziness and then thoroughly mucked up a swank Hollywood film party.

Like a horrific-but-compelling auto wreck, the original film was actually pretty damn funny. It even created its own catchphrase, 'Birdie num-num!' The new comedy, reportedly to feature Mike Myers, will be more politically correct than the original and may not focus on an Indian character at all. It's as if 'Gone With the Wind' were remade without plantations and slaves. Sweet home Alabama!

Speaking of remakes, 'The Story of Little Black Sambo' has been updated, shifting its racist caricature of blacks onto the backs of, guess who, Indians. Sambo is bug-eyed, dark-skinned and fish-lipped; in the new version, Sambo's mom Black Mumbo wears a sari, Black Jumbo wears a turban. Helen Bannerman, the author of the centuries-old tale about blacks, may have been inspired by her upbringing in British India.

Update: Goodmash notes that the original tale did in fact feature an Indian Sambo; the character was changed into a black child when imported into the U.S.