ABC bans ‘offensive’ Charlie Drake comedy song

The ABC has banned an ‘offensive’ comedy song about an Aboriginal boy disowned by his family because he can’t throw a boomerang properly.

British comedian Charlie Drake released ‘My Boomerang Won’t Come Back’ in the 1960s, and it soared to number one on Australian charts in 1962.

But ABC Radio has announced the song has been permanently removed from its playlist after a listener complained. 

Neil Mitchell has questioned whether banning the song was necessary, however former ABC Media Watch host Jonathon Holmes said times have changed and the song is insulting.

Neil: We could spend our life banning all sorts of things that are offensive in retrospect….I would have thought you could look at that and say ‘by gee, we’ve come along way’. Is it really offensive?

Jonathon: The thing is Neil, it’s not a question of what you think or what I think. It’s what Aboriginal people would feel about that song that is the issue here.’

Click play to listen to the song

 

Some of the song’s lyrics that have been deemed ‘offensive’ are below:

‘For three long months he sat there

Or maybe it was four,

Then an old old man in a kangaroo skin

Came a-knocking at his door.

‘Well, I’m the local witch doctor, son,

They call me George Alfred Black.

Now tell me, what’s your trouble, boy?’

DRAKE: My boomerang won’t come back.

‘Your boomerang won’t come back?’

DRAKE: My boomerang won’t come back,

My boomerang won’t come back,

I’ve waved the thing all over the place,

Practised till I was black in the face,

I’m a big disgrace to the Aborigine race,

My boomerang won’t come back.’