Video footage of Harry Connick Jr where he is mistakenly believed to be impersonating a black preacher in a comedy sketch has some Australians accusing him of hypocrisy.
The singer appeared on Hey Hey It's Saturday last night and forced an apology from host Daryl Somers over a "blackfaces" sketch on Red Faces.
Footage from the 1996 season of US comedy show MADtv shows Connick Jr starring as Doctor Michael Cassidy alongside African-American comedian Orlando Jones, who plays Reverend LaMont Nixon Fatback.
(Watch video: The sketch that started it all)
(Read more: Hey Hey in 'blackfaces' hot water)
"Reverend my head hangs shamefully low and I'd love it if you could tell my friends out there why it's hanging so shamefully low," Connick Junior says.
Jones replies: "I'll tell them why ... it's because of the commercialisation of the birth of baby Jesus".
Connick Junior's management confirmed this afternoon that the character he was playing in the sketch was an impersonation of a white preacher.
In a statement released this evening Connick Junior said he never called anybody on Hey Hey It's Saturday a racist, and was "simply shocked to see (blackface) on TV".
"Where I come from, blackface is a very specific and very derogatory thing," he said.
"Perhaps this is different in other parts of the world, but in the American culture, the blackface image is steeped in a negative history and considered offensive."
Some Australians have taken to YouTube to accuse the singer of being a hypocrite following the fall-out from last night's Hey Hey It's Saturday show.
"I used to be a fan, Harry, but you are nothing but a hypocrite who thinks you have the right to impose your own hang ups on a nation not your own," one user wrote.
"It took you 20 years to get the media attention you wanted ... congratulation [sic] you hypocrite," another said.
But other YouTube users have defended Connick Jr, saying the skit is clearly different to the one shown on Hey Hey It's Saturday and does not feature any element of blackface.
"Are you all stupid? First of all, he is not even wearing blackface in the sketch," wrote one.
"Secondly, it has no racist implications at all — the only send-up is of soulful reverends and he appears alongside a black man."
Last night's skit involved five men with their faces painted black and wearing black wigs dancing alongside a white-faced Michael Jackson impersonator.
Connick Junior gave the act a zero and said if he knew that was going to be on the show then he would not have agreed to guest star.
Daryl Somers defended the skit earlier today, saying it was "just a bit of fun".
"It was a tribute to Michael Jackson and from an Australian audience point of view they'd see the lightness of it," Somers told reporters.
"The Jackson Jive were not meaning to offend anybody — it's just a touch of retro because they were on the show 20 years ago."
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