I don't watch Hey, Hey its Saturday because it is not the type of humour that I enjoy. Nonetheless I think this issue only became a story because of a fellow called Harry Connick, whose name I had never previously heard.
If Australians don't like a particular form of humour they can turn off their TV.
The Americans would not have picked up on the issue except that one of their own, Harry Connick, took umbrage at what he thought was a racist joke.
Okay, Harry Connick then got HIS name splashed all over the US media and gained overnight fame. And, all that BAD publicity about racist Australia was then repeated here.

What has to be understood is that because of the huge number of black people of African descent, who were brought to the USA as slaves, is that the USA is a racist country and all the white people walk on egg shells not to give offense. Every year in the USA people get killed because of race. That doesn’t happen in Australia. Statistically only 6 percent of American blacks marry a white person. In Australia a great number of the population marry outside their race. I have a Chinese daughter-in-law.
My attitude to the fuss in the USA over a joke in Australia, is that the people taking umbrage are being, “A bit precious!”
Australian humour, in good or bad taste, should not be censored by USA history.

I personally saw the 'Hey Hey' sketch as being a send-up of racial prejudice, and black-face entertainment in particular, rather than an insult.
True to form, irony and satire is almost totally lost on Australian audiences, and indeed it seems elsewhere as well. For an American entertainer to criticize us is itself the very height of irony - the apology from Mr Summers was demeaning to him and an embarrassment to all of us. The very essence of 'Hey Hey', and Mr Summer's comparing, is that it/he never deliberately makes a fool of anyone.
I had a relative who used to take Norman Gunston seriously.

I second GYM-FISH's comments. I saw the Hey, Hey skit as a parody of the minstrels (the white entertainers in the US in the past who portrayed blacks as lazy and worthless). It can only have the effect of diluting racism as it's effectively poking fun at itself - ie black-faced comedy.

Try reading some international news: are you really proud that pretty much the rest of the world sees us as a bunch of racist dimwits, on account of a should-have-been-forgotten bogan variety show?

You know you've screwed up badly when Bill O'Reilly is about the only person willing to put in a good word for you.

Australians defending this indefensible embarrassment are like South Africans of the 70s and 80s, circling the wagons and loudly and blindly insisting that apartheid was a unique cultural feature of their country, and the rest of the world just didn't understand.

The majority of comments in these posts confirm that many Australians are either ignorant or racist.

They are ignorant in that they don't know how racism works: 'I have a Chinese relative so I can't be racist' or 'This was only a joke so it can't be racist'. This is simply ignorant.

The other alternative is that the post authors don't care that they are participating in and therefore endorsing a practice that has demeaned and hurt minorities for decades. In this case, they are as racist as the original perpetrators.

Heaven help us.

Whilst we ignore the hypocrisy and corruption of politicians and allow churches to run paedophile rings...while getting angry about a silly skit...how messed up are our priorities.
The poor guys who did it in a bit of fun now being accused of racism. How ironic! Taking the P*ss is an authentic part of Australian culture and it is rather important that we continue to do it. The fact that washed up US "entertainers" such as Harry Jnr don't understand or respect our culture is bad enough...the fact that some Australians don't get it is tragic.
All part of the "multi-culture" conundrum (conflicting values) I guess.