Want to get something special for your partner this Christmas? How about a nice peice of hand-made Ginger Meggs jewellery?

Click here to order yours!

An advertisement for a TV dating show has been banned for suggesting that people with ginger hair were unattractive, Britain’s advertising watchdog said.

At the same time, A leading UK supermarket chain, Tesco, has withdrawn a Christmas card that poked fun at “gingers” after claims of discrimination.

Davinia Phillips, a mum of three flame-haired children, saw red when she came across a card which stated: “Santa loves all kids. Even ginger ones.”

She lodged a complaint with the store and went public to defend redheads everywhere against “gingerism”.

Ms Phillips, 30, from York, added that a few weeks ago her children returned from school upset because they had been called “ginger ninjas”.

“I just said there was nothing wrong with being a ginger, or a ninja for that matter,” she said.

“I have never seen anything in my life prompting making fun out of people with ginger hair. Maybe I’m just being naive but they shouldn’t be able to make fun of ginger children like that.”

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And too right!! There’s nothing wrong with being a Ginger – in fact you should be proud of it! You’re one of a rare number of people on this planet who managed to sustain one of the most endangered recessive genes in human history!

Celebrate your Ginger hair, and stick it up the Gingerists with a ” Proud” t-shirt from the Official Ginger Meggs store.

Click here to buy a “Ginger and Proud” T-Shirt for yourself, or your Ginger friends this Christmas!

- or why not the all new “Ginger Ninja” t-shirts! Click here to order.

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Chuck one of these in yer trolley!

Click the image to visit the site paying tribute to the legendary comic by tracking down Asterix, along with some of his fellow comic superstars, on their home turf and in the places where they shine most.

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A Ginger Meggs exhibition will be appearing at the Worlds Funniest Island comedy festival on Cockatoo Island in Sydney this weekend.

Visit www.worldsfunniestisland.com.au for details.

It would appear Ginger Meggs (ie. Jimmy Bancks) coined the term Ocker!

From Meggsie’s biggest collector, Barry Gomm:

Today’s discovery makes me a firm believer in Kismet, or is it the fickle finger of fate. I was at the Public Library in Melbourne today, confirming a couple of dates that are in my book. By mistake, I selected a reel of microfilm dated Jan, 1954 instead of Jan.1957 out of the Herald drawer – I was doing research on car related material for late 1954 and early 1957.

After I loaded it and revolved the spool to get an image, up popped an entertainment page for January 6, 1954 and there in front of me was this (attached) entry in the entertainment section.

After more research, I found that the pantomime ran from the last week of December 1953 to the third week of January 1954. There MUST be some memorabilia still around, the search begins. I have two flyers about Ginger Meggs pantomimes but they are not for this one; they were suburban productions.

If we’ve learnt anything from all this hoopla about people painting their faces black and performing on stage, it’s that yes, we’ve changed.

An obvious statement, of course – but one that probably should have been considered before airing a skit featuring 6 people painting their faces with boot polish.

To be fair, 5 of the 6 performers were ethnic Australians – so it wasn’t some kind of ‘white vs black’ statement, nor was it as much a consideration for them if a group of Anglo-Australian performers did it, but the point remains that whilst that may have been acceptable even 20 years ago (as was their explanation for doing the skit) it isn’t necessarily acceptable now.

Ginger Meggs reminds me of this all the time – if you look through the back catalogues of Ginger Meggs circa 1924-1993, you’ll find almost weekly mentions of Mr. Meggs giving Ginger ‘a flogging’ or ‘a strapping’. (Similarly, the musical written some 20 years ago was performed in Canberra this week – and runs the line “After work, Dad hits the pub, then he hits the road, then he hits me!”)

If I were to write John Meggs beating Ginger in a strip today, I’d be drawn and quartered, and pilloried for promoting domestic violence. -I even get emails from readers now, giving me grief about how Tiger Kelly and Jugears Johnson still bully Ginger, even though (apparently) “bullying has been abolished in the school yard.”

The image above is from a famous Martin Sharp painting of Ginger Meggs from the 40’s. (titled: “Ginger Meggs sings Mammy at School Concert”). The original image (top) was re-drawn (bottom) as the logo for a contemporary Australian Actors Guild.

The image is clearly of a white, Anglo-Australian boy painting his face black to perform as a minstrel. Perfectly fine for the time, the social context, and the culture. Were it published now, many people would be shaking their fingers in disgust.

There are strips right up to the 80’s where Ginger Meggs pokes fun at Asian tourists. Again, completely unacceptable in 21st century Australia.

Needless to say, I think it’s obvious for any kind of humour – written or performed – to consider the contemporary social context in which it’s being published/performed/broadcast.
It’s not rocket science – I wouldn’t get on stage now and do a bit about ‘niggers’, much less use the word, but there was a time when that was perfectly fine for a white man to do so. (Michael Richards found that out the hard way.)

All of the above said, all I’ve read, heard and seen in the last 24 hours has been from incensed Americans saying “That would never have gone to air in America”.
But let’s not overlook the blatantly obvious fact: it didn’t. It aired in Australia. And wasn’t intended for the US audience. That doesn’t mean it won’t offend Americans, nor does it mean it won’t be deemed ‘racist’, but we don’t take ourselves as seriously as Americans, nor do we adhere to the same degree of political correctness.

With the greatest of respect for our allies across the pond, we have a different culture, so that’s why the audience were laughing. That’s always a pretty good gauge.

If they were booing, or worse, silent; different story.