I can't actually tell now who's being sarcastic and who's being straightforward.
Argh!
Frankie Boyle - Glad To See The Back Of Him? Page 10
I don't get the 'you shouldn't be there if you get offended' argument.
I'm not easily offended. My own material has been described as a bit sick, etc yet there have been times when at comedy gigs when I've just thought that wasn't funny, that was just being nasty - usually at some Madeline McCann jokes. (In fact IIRC arguing with the rest of the members of this message forum about the appropriateness of Baby P jokes).
It's a 'lads' thing, isn't it, latching onto the latest untouchable subject just to show you're not going to be told what you can't joke about. It's a macho, laddish, comedy clique kind of thing to do, a bit like playing chicken run in the public eye. Frankie Boyle seems determined to win the stupid game all the time. A psychiatrist may tell you it's because he wasn't loved enough a kid, and this is his way of being loved by hoardes of loyal fans now. He does seem to be stuck in that crude playground mentality, even on the Ross radio show the other week he came across as a very one dimensional, unapologetic, uber laddish type of bloke. To think the man's got kids as well! I dunno, maybe it's all just an act.
I don't think it's a 'lad's thing' - but I do think if Boyle made the sort of jokes I presume he did then it says more about him and his fear/embarrassment of Down's Syndrome than people with Down's.
But he hasn't really confronted this fear or embarrassment with his humour, instead he's just tried to transfer it to the vicitms of the jokes. I would have preferred him to have made jokes about his (and other people's) embarrassment around people with disabilities or something.
She can get stuffed her and her daughter. She went to see the show and would have laughed at all his other mean spirited stuff as long as it didn't affect her.
And half her complaint is she isn't a frumpy mum and how dare he imply it. It sounds like he made some comedic overstatement.
She sounds like a Jew saying Hitler had the right about gypsies and queers, shame he was an antisemite.
Oh and jokes about BabyP may be sick, but jokes around the case aren't. And even then jokes exist to start discussing the unacceptable.
But if Boyle hadn't picked on her showing her emotions/talking to her husband, then this probably wouldn't have been heard about. It's more his unrepentant '***k you' response that's doing the real damage I feel. I read that Bernard Manning had a few foreign hecklers once at a gig and Manning didn't engage them but just carried on with his act in defiance, knowing that a personal attack would reach the papers. Boyle seems to be waiting for punters to challenge him so he can have a right barney there on stage. It's a totally different style, Boyle looks for trouble and it seems like he writes the most provocative material he can to achieve it.
Well the implication in her blog that he shouldn't have picked on her cos she's a yummy mummy with a daughter with Downes. When he should only pick on old parents of kids with Downes.
Thats f**ked up.
I didn't get that implication at all Sooty. She said he was traipsing out all the old stereotypes about children with Down's and their parents. But we weren't there and don't know what actually said and in what tone.
I read the blog she was banging on about how she was diferent because she read Grazia.
What I read of her blog, she seemed simply to be trying to express what she felt she couldn't express at the time. She hadn't expected there would be DS jokes, therefore it's natural to get upset. I don't know how anyone else can't appreciate that, I certainly don't know how some people are seeing fit to blame her for it! This is a result of an edgy comic taking big risks by sailing close to the wind - HE is the one who has to take responsibility for the odd incident like this that occurs.
It cannot be logical for him to defend his right to go unchallenged no matter what he says - why else would he use such provocative material if he wasn't prepared to cause offence and be challenged? He has to accept that there is an 'acceptable taste' line and if he crosses it he will get reactions! That has to be the purpose of his act or he wouldn't choose to go anywhere near that perceived line!
Quote: sootyj @ April 10 2010, 12:11 PM BSTShe sounds like a Jew saying Hitler had the right about gypsies and queers, shame he was an antisemite.
Godwin's law alert.
This discussion is officially over.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 10 2010, 1:13 PM BSTGodwin's law alert.
This discussion is officially over.
It's probably most active law in the land, Godwin's Law.
We live in a society that accepts that some people can have $65billion in their bank accounts while whole nations starve to death. Where bankers can put 100,000's of people out of a job and then pay themselves millions in bonuses for doing so.
So a comedian taking a shot at the genetically disfigured and emotionally backward shouldn't really surprise us? We live in a relatively free society so you have to accept it will happen. All you can do is not go to see him, not watch his programmes, etc. Compassion and cruelty are rarely comfortable bedfellows.
Quote: sootyj @ April 10 2010, 12:43 PM BSTThats f**ked up.
Not quite as f**ked up as trying to get laughs out of taking the piss out of people with downs syndrome though, surely . . ?
Obviously we don't know exactly what he said, or why.
There's a Michael McIntyre show on iPlayer at the moment. He does a "deaf voice" at around 36 minutes.