# Fiennes as Michael Jackson **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917 "2017-01-12T00:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/1 "2017-01-12T00:15:25Z")
_is_ it blackface when you have to lighten your skin? ---
**Author:** ![ultimate11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/49beb7/32.png) [@ultimate11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultimate11)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/2 "2017-01-12T00:53:43Z")
According to the British programme, the time and date is after 9/11/2001. [You Rock My World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4tpuu-Up90) was released somewhere in 2001 (probably before 9/11), so looking at the screenshots, this appears accurate. Hell, they could have done the WTC bombings of 1993 and it’d still be accurate to a degree (although I’m sure people would have picked “Heal The World” instead of “Give In to Me”, regarding recent videos before incidents.) The family might need to look at the synopsis of the show before they make any judgments. Don’t judge a book by its cover- or a show by it’s screenshot. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/3 "2017-01-12T01:03:08Z")
You didn’t answer the OP’s question. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ultimate11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/49beb7/32.png) [@ultimate11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultimate11)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/4 "2017-01-12T01:14:40Z")
Fine, I’ll answer it, Regis. > [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > _is_ it blackface when you have to lighten your skin? No, the proper term is [Whiteface.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteface_(performance)) See also: [White Chicks.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Chicks) Final answer. I’ll just go ahead and take the $25,000 now, and if you tell me it’s wrong, I’ll bust open that glass suitcase below you and take that instead. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/5 "2017-01-12T11:28:02Z")
To broaden this, the family’s outrage is ludicrous. The show involved is a satire and quite how you ‘disrespect’ someone like Jackson, with his known proclivities for children, is hard to imagine. They should lighten up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/6 "2017-01-12T13:47:18Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > They should lighten up. 🙂 Brav-O! ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/7 "2017-01-12T15:20:09Z")
Here’s the [trailer for the series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7214gXqB0), featuring Bob Dylan, Cary Grant, Timothy Leary, Samuel Beckett, Adolf Hitler, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Michael Jackson. Joseph Fiennes looks (and sounds) hilarious as Michael Jackson. It’s a comedy series, so the casting of the English Shakespearean actor Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (his real name) as the transmogrifying moonwalker feels simultaneously both preposterous and apt, and thus a fitting choice for a farce. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/8 "2017-01-13T14:17:10Z")
Sky arts caved and pulled the ep. Go to Hell Sky Arts. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Blacks in white face? Fine. Blacks playing whites (Hamilton) fine. Rightfully so. Women playing historical males (Drunk History) Fine…also, hilarious. A white playing a black? OH MA STARS AND GARTERS!!! I have the vapors!! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/9 "2017-01-13T16:53:11Z")
Of course it is fine, it’s a comedy. Blacking up is fine for comedy, taking the piss is fine for comedy, everything is fine for comedy ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/10 "2017-01-13T18:23:23Z")
He played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, so I can’t imagine better casting. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/11 "2017-01-13T18:50:24Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > He played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, so I can’t imagine better casting. That was Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes’s older brother, Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”) Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (also known as Ralph Fiennes). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/12 "2017-01-13T18:57:17Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > That was Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes’s older brother, Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”) Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (also known as Ralph Fiennes). … of Ulm. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/13 "2017-01-13T21:01:17Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > He played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, so I can’t imagine better casting. Close enough, but that would’ve been interesting. “[Got](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx8dQ06z7BY) your [nose](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Lordvoldemort.jpg)!” > [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Sky arts caved and pulled the ep. Go to Hell Sky Arts. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. > > Blacks in white face? Fine. Blacks playing whites (Hamilton) fine. Rightfully so. Women playing historical males (Drunk History) Fine…also, hilarious. > > A white playing a black? OH MA STARS AND GARTERS!!! I have the vapors!! White people darkening their skin does not _have_ to be offensive, see: Tropic Thunder. But often it is used offensively, by frats et al. every now and then, particularly in conjunction with ridiculous clown lipstick. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiennes-as-michael-jackson/776917/14 "2017-01-16T15:46:01Z")
I can’t see anything wrong with this, even if there was something wrong with “whiteface.” In this context, it is a black man who intentionally lightened his skin to hide his vitiligo. That said, the real problem with “darkened skin” isn’t so much the blackface stereotype, but the relative lack of darker skinned actors, and the standards of beauty that say that lighter skin is better. That’s the only time I’ve seen lighter skin be offensive–when it’s done to make the person “prettier.” Like those photos where Beyonce looked white.