Former Hey Hey It's Saturday host Daryl Somers has spoken out against cancel culture and reckons his hit variety show wouldn't survive on commercial television today.
"You probably could not get away with half the stuff you could on Hey Hey now because of the political correctness and the cancel culture," Somers told the Herald Sun.
"A lot of comics can't work much because what would have been just tongue-in-cheek previously now can easily get them into trouble.
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Fifty years on since Hey Hey It's Saturday kicked off, Somers is again making a return to the small screen to host Dancing With The Stars All-Stars.
While he's excited for the return to TV, he feels political correctness in today's world is causing 'a lack of fun' in the industry.
"Our humour was never meant to offend anybody," he said. "I hear people who say, 'What a shame we don't have a show like Hey Hey anymore that can showcase our artists and international artists when they come out here'.
"There is nothing really for them to go on and have fun. And that is the sad thing. There has got to be television where you can have fun, especially in Australia which has got a unique humour.
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"Everything is being somewhat dulled down, but that is just the way it is and seemingly you have to roll with it."
But even during its time on air, Hey Hey had it's fair share of controversies, including Somers receiving backlash for performing Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World' in blackface in the 1980s.
Then in 2009, a comedy troupe dressed up as the Jackson Five in blackface for the Red Faces segment, shocking guest host Harry Connick Jr, who gave the performance a zero.
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Daryl apologised to the star following the segment, saying: "I think we may have offended you with that act and I deeply apologise on behalf of all of us.
"Because I know that to your countrymen, that's an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologise to you."
Harry replied: "I know it was done humorously, but we've spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons that when we see something like that we take it really to heart.
"I feel like I am at home here and if I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably, I definitely, wouldn't have done it."
Featured Image Credit: NineTopics: TV and Film, Australia