FINALLY: It’s official: even Mary Poppins is ‘racist’ now.

The language in question is the rather archaic racial slur ‘hottentot’. This was once used by Europeans to describe indigenous South Africans as primitive barbarians. In the film, it is uttered by a senile man.

The [British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)] is convinced that children could find this term ‘distressing’, although it seems unlikely they will even know what it means. Indeed, this is probably why it has hidden in plain sight for so many decades – and why most modern parents are still comfortable showing the film to children.

The BBFC’s calling out of Mary Poppins is clearly not about protecting children from dated language. It simply reflects the woke drive to find racism everywhere. To trawl through classic culture searching for things to be offended by.

Laverne and Shirley’s weekly opening shout, “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!“ sounds pretty racist-adjacent as well; better start cutting that dialogue out of the reruns’ opening credits as well. (Plus it’s Yiddish and could be seen as too pro-Zionist to “modern audiences.”)