Today reporter Brooke Boney weighs in on Chris Lilley ‘blackface’ controversy

Comedian Chris Lilley’s new Netflix show is causing controversy — and Today reporter Brooke Boney says she knows why.

The Today Show’s entertainment reporter Brooke Boney has weighed in on the controversy surrounding comedian Chris Lilley’s latest offering, saying she can see why people are offended by his new show.

Lilley’s first TV series in five years, Lunatics, debuts on Netflix today. As with previous shows like Angry Boys and We Can Be Heroes, Lilley transform into a cast of unusual characters — among them this time, a lesbian pet psychic named Jana whose afro-like hair and tanned skin have raised questions about whether Lilley is once again using blackface in his comedy.

Lilley plays Jana, a pet psychologist to the stars, in Lunatics.

Lilley’s own producer Laura Waters has publicly stated that the comic is “not portraying a woman of colour. When the series is released you will see that Jana is a white woman with huge 70s style curly hair.”

Earlier Lilley characters to court controversy included Tongan schoolboy Jonah and African-American rapper S. Mouse, both of which saw the comedian ‘brown up’.

“When [he] first came out I did think it was hilarious — We Can Be Heroes …” Boney said on The Today Show this morning.

Lilley in blackface as rapper S. Mouse.

As Tongan schoolboy Jonah Takalua.

“But this latest incarnation …?” asked Today host Georgie Gardner.

“Well no, not even this latest incarnation. As my views of the world changed and you sort of think about it a bit more critically, and I thought ‘Oh maybe there would be people who are offended by this’,” said Boney.

“If someone was making fun of how my nan and pop speak or my cousins speak, then I probably would be offended. It would hurt my feelings,” she said.

Brooke Boney on The Today Show this morning.

The journalist and proud Gamilaroi Gomeroi woman joined The Today Show in January following the show’s highly-publicised shake-up, and made an immediate impact: In her first week on air, Boney delivered an impassioned argument for changing the date of Australia Day.

“I’m part of that community. I’m a Gamilaroi woman, my family’s from northern NSW, been there for about 60,000 years or so,” said Boney, who has often used the Gamilaroi greeting “Yaama” when introducing herself on air.

“I can’t separate 26 January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than school, or that my little sisters and my mum are more likely to be beaten or raped than anyone else’s sisters or mum. And that started from that day.

“For me it is a difficult day and I don’t want to celebrate it. Any other day of the year I will tie an Australian flag around my neck and run through the streets.”

Boney’s comments ignited fierce debate among Today viewers — three months on, she explained why she felt compelled to deliver such a powerful message just days into her new job.

“If I can contribute to that conversation in any way, that’s my goal,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald this month. “That’s why I wanted to be a journalist, that’s why I’ve worked so hard to get to this position. To have that conversation happen in my first week on the show, I just felt like this is why I’m doing it.”