BBC accidentally features Twitter hoaxer who calls Star Wars ‘racist and homophobic’
The BBC has admitted making a blunder after inviting a Twitter hoaxer onto a World Service programme to discuss Star Wars, which he described as “racist and homophobic”.
In a segment on its Word Have Your Say programme (WHYS), listeners were invited on who had never seen any of the Star Wars films.
It was intended to feature those who genuinely had not seen the films, and was based on the new trailer which was released for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
The man who claimed to be “student Godfrey Elwick”, was invited onto the programme by producer Angela Sheeran, after he tweeted: “I’ve never actually seen #StarWars but the fact that the bad guy was all black and ate watermelons was unbelievably racist even for the 70’s.”
I’ve never actually seen #StarWars but the fact that the bad guy was all black and ate watermelons was unbelievably racist even for the 70’s
— Godfrey Elfwick (@GodfreyElfwick) April 17, 2015
It was noted after he appeared on air that his Twitter bio reads that he is a “demisexual genderqueer Muslim atheist. Literal good guy.”
Whilst on the show with host Chloe Tilley, Elfwick said: “From what I’ve seen of the old Star Wars films, there’s a lot of social problems with them rooted in homophobia, casual racial stereotypes.”
He went on to say: “The gold robot – C-25 or whatever he’s called – is a camp, neurotic coward,” referring to C-3P0.
“The only main female ends up in a space bikini chained to a horny space slug.
“The main bad guy – what’s he called, Dark Raider? – is black, he has a deep voice, he listens to rap music – it’s just a really bad racial stereotype.”
“From what I’ve seen of the old Star Wars films, there’s a lot of social problems with them rooted in homophobia, casual racial stereotypes.”
Going on, he said the Star Wars franchise “reeker of misogyny”, and that Disney, which now owns the series should instead have stuck to “strong feminist” films like The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.
Concluding, talking about the new trailer, he said: “It’s just going to be more of the same and I don’t think the world needs more of it at this time.”
Later in the show was featured a London taxi driver, who gave fairly normal responses.
A BBC spokesman said: “On this occasion, the Force was not with us.
“The guest presented himself as a 20-year-old who’s never seen Star Wars, and we put him on air under that pretence.
“WHYS producers always do their best to check guests in a live programme that invites global discussion from listeners.”
