I'll be honest, this saddens me. I'm so disapointed in Lineham.

Father Ted is one of my favourite comedies, and one of the things that stands out is how well it's aged. Father Ted occasionally does joke about prejudice, but every time the joke isn't punching down at the victims of prejudice. It's always a situation where a persons prejudice is making them feel uncomfortable, and so the butt of the joke is the prejudiced.

Father Ted doesn't laugh at black people, it laughs at racists (the last episode of season 1 has a nun talking to a black priest about her admiration for "the African church"- his response "Sure I wouldn't know I'm from Donnegal").

Father Ted doesn't laugh at homosexuals, it laughs at homophobics (a good example of this is the My Lovely Horse episode where the guy directing the talent show casually mentions to Ted that he and the presenter are lovers, and then uses the fact that Ted doesn't want to piss him off before the competition to make Ted squirm)

So, yeah, having made three seasons of classic comedy that laughs at bigots it's depressing to me that he's a bigot.