Little Britain is a comedy series that tries to take a provocative and satirical look at characters that inhabit Great Britain. It is produced by the BBC and stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
In the third series of Little Britain two new characters appeared on the show: Dorky Dudley and his Thai mail-order bride, Ting Tong Macadangdang (pictured). These new characters also appeared in the last instalment of the Little Britain series, Little Britain Abroad, aired on the BBC during the Christmas holidays of 2006.
A lot of people in Thai-Farang relationships have expressed resentment and anger at the hypocritical attitudes to racism shown by the producers of the show. I have heard this opinion expressed by Thai couples I have met as well as on various internet forums.
The portrayal of Ting Tong Macadangdang and Dorky Dudley abound in prejudices and stereotypes about Thai people as well as the sort of Farang who tends to marry them.
Firstly, the actual costume and gimmicks Matt Lucas uses to portray Ting Tong are quite crude and could be interpreted as racist. The yellow makeup, dodgy buck teeth and the comedy value of hearing Ting Tong being unable to pronounce her “r”s are all something akin to racist stereotyping.
Secondly, Dorky Dudley also expresses everything disdainful about the sort of man who is supposedly most likely to marry a Thai woman: He is overweight, has a comb over, a terrible taste in clothes and totally inept social skills. Dudley lives on an estate and orders Ting Tong from a catalogue. He, of course, orders the prettiest one, and is thus disappointed when he sees Ting Tong arrive. David Walliams portrays Dudley as a victim after having met Ting Tong. He is spun along in various schemes of hers never quite realising what he has got himself into.
In the Little Britain Abroad show Dudley’s brother appears. He also has a taste in foreign brides, but has recently replaced his Thai wife with a younger Russian model because she was “cheaper”. The Peter Kay character represented the more obnoxious side of the sort of stereotypical Farang: Rude, male chauvinist and totally insensitive to the fact that he has married a women of a different culture. I actually found Peter Kay’s portrayal funnier than David Walliams’s just because it was so over the top and grotesque.
Lucas and Walliams seem to depict all the Little Britain characters as inept and, although the characters show the worst attributes of various stereotypes, audiences are always supposed to feel sorry for them and thus sympathise with them. The ASBO teenager, the homophobic gay, the racist neighbourhood watch lieutenant are never made to look totally repulsive. The Peter Kay version of Dudley is a different sort of comedy, which explains why he could probably never have got away with making a series like Little Britain like Walliams and Lucas have.
Thirdly, as the series progress we see how Dudley is gradually exploited by his Thai wife. The predominant concern Thais have for their family is shown by how Ting Tong manages to get her Thai family to move in with them – shown in one episode when Dudley accidentally discovers Ting Tong’s mother hiding in a broom cupboard. In a later episode Ting Tong transforms Dudley’s home into a Thai restaurant, and elsewhere it is also suggested that Ting Tong has several “husbands” that she strings along. Momentary suspicions on the part of the Farang as to his Thai wife’s intentions are always brushed aside by a quick suggestion of oral sex . . .
Lucas and Walliams definitely seem to have been treading a thin line between overt racist stereotyping and poking a jovial sort of fun at a modern phenomenon of UK and Western life – the Thai-Farang relationship. They pull it off by their mild-mannered style and showing empathy with the characters they portray. Seeing the Peter Kay character poke fun at Thais over 6 episodes would have been provocative and too harshly critical.
The Little Britain sketches are simple and predictable – they are always different versions of the same joke, such as hapless Dudley being exploited by his Thai wife in return for sexual “favours”. The childish humour practised by the Walliams/Lucas team make them light entertainment for the majority, and their sketches always seem strangely inoffensive when seen on TV rather than spoken about in other contexts.
Judge for yourself - here is a clip of a Ting Tong/Dudley sketch:
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