In a universe where the Terminator is running California and a stoner who goes on a 24-hour adventure to White Castle is working for President Obama, it should surprise no one that the voice of moral standards and cultural sensitivity has become none other than Louisiana native singer Harry Connick Jr.

What started as an ostensibly humorous skit on Australian variety show “Hey Hey Its Saturday,” turned into an international controversy on whether it was racist for five white men to paint their faces black and perform as a group called the “Jackson Jive.”

The variety show, which began in 1971, featured the same performance 20 years earlier and was brought back for the reunion show to reprise the group’s winning performance.

Connick Jr., who was a guest judge on the show, said that if this were to happen in the United States the show would have immediately been pulled off the air. In the video of the show that went viral, he knows that the skit was meant to be entertaining, but makes the point that Americans have “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.”

Performances put on by a blackface--typically, a white man who paints his face black using shoe polish to exaggerate stereotypical behaviors of African-Americans--are considered extremely racist by many societies. So it is no wonder why Connick Jr.was in shock that this was taking place today.

However, to some Connick Jr. is considered a hypocrite, making reference to his portrayal of a Southern minister on a 1996 episode of “Mad TV” as equally distasteful and insulating as the performance on the show.

Despite those accusing Connick Jr. of being a hypocrite, he still believes that the performance shouldn’t have been broadcast. Host Daryl Sommers apologized to Connick Jr. and agreed that it was insulting to Americans.

Connick Jr. clarified his position on his Web site, according to Salon, by saying that “Where I come from, blackface is a very specific and very derogatory thing” while also adding that he did “not believe that the performers intended any harm.”

Indeed, the frontman of the “Jackson Jive,” Anand Deva, stated that they were not trying to offend anyone instead pay a tribute to the late Michael Jackson.  His fellow band mates stand by him, claiming that they are mortified people would think Australians are racist. Connick Jr. claims that he never called anyone a racist he was just extremely taken aback by the skit.

The future of any additional revivals of “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” is still unknown.  Either way, if you are ever in a moral dilemma, just think: What would Harry do?