A new Australian television comedy about a rebellious Tongan teenager has been condemned as “self indulgent” and “deeply offensive” to Pacific islanders.

Well-known Australian comedian and television producer Chris Lilley’s six-part ABC TV comedy series ‘Jonah From Tonga’ follows the life of a 14-year-old schoolboy and his run-ins with family, friends and teachers.

Lilley is known for his creation and portrayal of several characters in what is called ‘mockumentary’ television.

However, there has been a strong backlash to his latest creative endeavour.

Professor Helen Lee, head of La Trobe University’s department of sociology and anthropology, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat she was horrified by the show’s portrayal of Pacific youth.

“I just think it’s dreadful. It’s just awful. It’s creating a terrible stereotype that’s just deeply offensive to Tongans,” she said.

“The comments to his supposed sister, calling her ‘Fatty’, talking about sexual matters, swearing in front of her, is absolutely taboo in Tongan culture.

“It’s just horrible to see that being acted out on the screen there and for people to think that’s what Tongan kids do.”

Professor Lee has spent more than 20 years researching Tongan society, with a particular focus on young people in the diaspora and their relationship with the homeland.

“It’s just a stereotype of this kind of thuggish, stupid youth which does not in any way represent what Tongan youth are like,” he said.

Lilley is no stranger to controversy, having previously donned ‘black-face’ when playing the character ‘S.mouse’, an American rapper, in the 2011 series ‘Angry Boys’.

Professor Lee says it is no longer acceptable for white actors to use dark make-up to play people of another race.

“It’s not permissible. I think it’s appalling and I don’t think he should be allowed to do it,” she said.

“A 40-year-old white man dressing up as a 14-year-old Tongan boy in brown face is just inherently creepy.”

Alan Latu, a Tongan community worker in Australia, who was approached to be involved in ‘Jonah from Tonga’, says he thinks the series does not accurately depict Tongan communities.

“There are parts that I find hilarious, but they are outweighed by the parts that I find absolutely cringe-worthy,” he said.

“One of the parts of the show where they are having family prayers and all the rest of it, and the kids are mucking around –it’s a good laugh and it brings back memories from when I was growing up.

“But then the father of the family turns around and swears at everybody. That’s not something that would happen at all and it’s a completely opposite depiction of what truly happens.”

Latu says he is worried about effects the show will have on Tongan children at school.

“My concerns for the show would be how do you take these kids, put them back into their own communities, and back into their schools particularly, and make people believe that this is not the true depiction of what they’re really about,” he said.

“It seems to normalise something that’s a really minute percentage of the community. Once you start to normalise that, people then pick up on that.

“Tongan children will then start mimicking all these roles at school and think it’s okay to do what ‘Jonah from Tonga’ has done on TV.”

He says the series may be more appropriate if it were made by members of the Tongan community.

“If it was a Tongan actor playing the role, in the Tongan community, then they would get the laughs and they would understand what crosses the border and what doesn’t cross the border,” Latu said.

“Being a non-Tongan playing the role, it’s a depiction of what Lilley’s beliefs are but there may be a percentage of people out there watching this show that think it is a true depiction of what Tongan youth are like.”

On the Facebook page, ‘I’m Proud to be Tongan’, which has almost 45,000 members, most were concerned about the accuracy of Lilley’s portrayal of Tongan culture.

“A lot of the swearing doesn’t really happen within the culture because there is a certain level of respect that comes with growing up being Tongan,” said Will Niupalau, one of the administrators of the page.

Discussion about the show attracted more than 100 comments, with many labelling the show “racist” and “degrading”.

“A lot of the readers feel like it plays into a lot of the negative stereotypes of growing up and being Tongan abroad,” Niupalau said.

Fairfax television columnist Debi Enker says she does not agree with those who say the ‘mockumentary’ is racist.

“People miss the context. It’s not about whether people are putting on coloured make-up. It’s what he, Chris Lilley, then uses the character for,” she said.

Enker says the show is successful as satire on many levels and raises questions about racism and class.

“I think it’s basically trying to show us a loving, caring family struggling with out an out-of-control teenage boy and that kind of thing is universal,” she said.

Rick Kalowski, ABC TV’s head of comedy, says Lilley’s characters “display human foibles in a humorous and sometimes confronting way”.

“The series does not encourage or condone prejudice,” he said.

“Instead Chris Lilley’s portrayals mock and satirise the narrow-minded attitudes expressed by some of its characters, including his own.

“It is also important to note that no other Tongan characters in the show are presented in a buffoonish light, other than Jonah himself.”

Jonah From Tonga is a spin-off from Lilley’s 2007 ‘mockumentary’ series, ‘Summer Heights High’, in which ‘Jonah Takalua’ made his debute.