Sydney: The creators of an Australian comedy video showing a black sportsman as a spear-holding tribesman who talks in clicks have apologised and pulled it from YouTube.
DreamTeam Talk, a website for Australian Rules football fans, posted a statement saying it had not meant to show disrespect to dreadlocked West Coast Eagles rookie Nic Naitanui, 19.
"DT TALK would like to publicly apologise for any inadvertent disrespect shown towards Nic Naitanui and the West Coast Eagles," the statement said.
"We are huge fans of Naitanui (we all have him in our dream teams) and it was never our intention for Naitanui to be seen in a negative light."
Media reports said the video, part of DreamTeam Talk`s "Underbenny" series, showed pictures of a shirtless Naitanui representing the "Nic-Nat-Paddy-Whacked tribe" and carrying a spear.
"Naitanui is a tremendous athlete, who has always had our admiration for the way in which he handles himself on and off the field," DreamTeam Talk said.
"Out of respect for Nic, our `Underbenny` series has been removed from YouTube and we`d like to once again say sorry for any misunderstanding."
The video comes after an Australian TV station was forced to apologise in October for a segment in which dancers in black face-paint parodied the Jackson Five, enraging celebrity guest Harry Connick Jr.
It was removed after a complaint to the Australian Football League (AFL) by Suresh Rajan, executive officer of the Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia.
"There is no room in our diverse, multicultural society for the kind of stereotyping that this sort of video can create," Rajan told Fairfax newspaper group.
"As a society we have moved on from the days when this type of humour was considered acceptable. There are laws in place that allow police to achieve the removal of these sites."
PTI
