The ABC pulled Bluey episodes Teasing and Flat Pack over 'racial connotations'. Here's why

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Two episodes of the Emmy-award-winning children's show Bluey have been pulled from ABC streaming platform iview after a viewer complained an episode contained a term with "racial connotations".

Two episodes — Teasing and Flat Pack — were temporarily pulled from the platform while the term was edited out.

The ABC received a complaint from a viewer on June 28 about a term used in the episode titled Teasing.

The viewer complained the episode included "a term with racial connotations and a problematic history for Indigenous Australians".

That term was "ooga booga".

The Macquarie Dictionary defines "ooga booga" as a derogatory noun, meaning:

"A stereotypical rendering of what the speaker regards to be the language of those deemed by them to be African savages."

Speaking on the behalf of both the ABC and Ludo Studios, the Brisbane-based production company behind Bluey, an ABC spokesperson said neither the public broadcaster nor external producers were aware of the term's potentially derogatory meaning.

While the initial complaint centred on the use of the term in the season one episode of Teasing, it also appeared in a season two episode titled Flat Pack.

The spokesperson said the term was only intended as "irreverent rhyming slang often made up by children".

An ABC spokesperson said both episodes were temporarily removed from iview "as soon as the ABC and external producers became aware of the potentially offensive meaning of the term".

The ABC also said it "sincerely apologised to the complainant for any distress caused".

 "The ABC has a strong record for giving voice to Indigenous Australians and an ongoing commitment to helping reduce discrimination and prejudice and in this case, the language used was inadvertent," a statement read.

Read the ABC's statement on its response to the complaint here.

The two removed episodes were edited to change the dialogue.

An edited version of Flat Pack is now available on iview, and Teasing is set to be replaced on September 8.

You can catch up on all Bluey episodes on ABC iview.

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