“Absolutely damn ridiculous. I could not believe [it] … Shame on the host and the other judges for trying to act like this performance was acceptable in any part of the world … I'm too disgusted to write any more,” she wrote. The Guardian newspaper called the skit “mind-boggling” and host Daryl Somers's apology at the end of the show “a somewhat unconvincing epiphany.”

Guardian readers were similarly unimpressed. “Oz really is the Land that Time Forgot ... no wonder so many white racists seem to choose to move to Oz, they probably feel at home there,” wrote one reader. New York-based gossip website Gawker.com lashed out at the Hey Hey audience for cheering the performance and booing when US singer Harry Connick jnr gave the team a zero score.

“So, in 20 years, we've gone from this offensive form of comedy being wildly popular to being still popular … Australia must be really messed up.” David Schmader from Seattle-based site The Stranger posted a video of Connick jnr's reaction to the sketch on the blog, adding: “Good for him. If I were a voter heading into the ballot booth … I would pull the lever for him.”

Most of the replies to Schmader's post have criticised Australia as being racist. “It's true that racism exists in all countries (the usual Australian apologists' excuse), but Australia are the world champions,” wrote one reader. “The casual racism of a lot of Australians beggars belief. They're thirty years behind us in some ways,” wrote a reader on The Stranger. “And you still hear, here: 'oh, we're just taking the piss, mate, we do it to everyone.' It's absolutely grotesque.”

Discussion on many sites turned to Australia's treatment of its own black population. “The majority of Australians turn a blind eye to the horrendous living conditions of Aboriginal people in the outback, never even consider Aboriginal deaths in custody, and when things like the Stolen Generation are mentioned, think. 'Get over it, that was forty years ago',” wrote Christo on Chicago Now.

The Nine Network said in a statement today: "It was never intended to offend and we regret any offence the Red Faces act caused." Hey Hey It's Saturday publicist Terry Stuart said: “At the time of the actual event no one really thought much of it. It was only after Harry's comments that the whole thing really snowballed." He later added: "There's an audition process and if any group is getting vilified or denigrated then that would be something but that wasn't the case in this example."

The Nine Network said that last night's show was a ratings triumph, snagging 2.73 million people at its peak.