Red Symons says the boundaries of political correctness are shifting

Former broadcaster and ABC radio presenter Red Symons says many comedians have to think more carefully now to ensure they don’t offend.

Television personality Red Symons: ‘It’s in the nature of comedy that it skirts the very edge of where the line is. It goes almost to the line and on a good day, it doesn’t go over it.’ Picture: Aaron Francis

Former broadcaster and television personality Red Symons says there’s a “line in the sand” when dealing with political correctness — and it keeps shifting.

The 71-year-old ex-ABC radio host said there’s long been “all sort of competing interests in the world ready to complain about how they are stereotyped or perceived”.

“To say that (situation) didn’t exist when we were doing the show, that’s simply not true,” Symons said, when explaining the sensitivity of content included in the long-running hit show Hey Hey It’s Saturday.

“The line in the sand moves.”

But he said the Hey Hey crew was “always conscious” of whether the line was being crossed, and whether viewers could be offended.

The popular program ran for nearly three decades from 1971 through to 1999 and has recently come under heavy criticism for broadcasting racist and sexist material.

Former Hey Heyhost Daryl Somers last week apologised to entertainer Kamahl for his “plainly inappropriate” treatment on the show which made jokes about the entertainer’s skin colour.

“I want to make it very clear that I and all members of the Hey Hey team do not condone racism in any form,” Somers said in a statement.

Last week, Kamahl told the ABC’s 7.30 that he knew he would encounter some racist jokes on the show but “there were some instances that were harder to stomach than others”.

Symons said when doing comedy, those seeking a laugh from the audience often need to think twice before proceeding with content that could offend.

“It’s in the nature of comedy that it skirts the very edge of where the line is,” he said.

“It goes almost to the line and on a good day, it doesn’t go over it.”

The former “villain” of Hey Hey said comedy was “always changing because values change”.

“There were things you could do back then that you would advise yourself not to do it now,” Symons said.

Symons was presenter of ABC Radio Melbourne’s breakfast program for 15 years before finishing with the station in 2017 and he’s remained out of the limelight since then.

He said he had undergone plenty of career changes throughout his life and was now enjoying “pottering around”.

“It’s something you become used to in the entertainment business. I was in a band and I was somebody, and then I wasn’t in the band and I wasn’t anybody,” he said. “You lose your sense of identity, similarly with a television or radio show when it finishes — ‘who am I?’ But the more times you do it, the easier it is to make these transitions.”