ou don’t seem to have faced the outcry a lot of other comedy writers have despite creating controversial characters. In regards to Papa Lazarou, you’ve always said he was never intended to be blackface, but do you understand why people view it as such?
RS: I guess so. But it was never an existing character. It was not me doing a black man. It was always this clown-like make-up and we just came up with what we thought was the scariest idea to have in a sort of Child Catcher-like way. And I don’t think we ever had any complaintsthen.
SP: Even when we did the specials a couple of years ago and that character reappeared – I may be wrong, but I don’t think we had any complaints. People know that it was a character and the oddness and weird nature of that character doesn’t make you sit there and think, “What point are they trying to make?” It’s not a political thing at all.
RS: I think that’s evident. I hope it is. He is just an otherworldly human.