I first heard of this from Nick's blog (cheers Nick) and it has made the national press in the UK with the Guardian and the Daily Mail taking it by the horns. I commented on the Daily Mail website with the following:
"General theme for the Frankie supporters seems to be "you know what he's like so don't complain". I disagree completely. In my opinion the biggest gripe here and where it all stemmed from is not that he made jokes about people who have Down Syndrome, but rather he just rehashed tired old and outdated stereotypes in which to do so.
My baby son has Down Syndrome and I would have no issue if I saw a comedian making new original jokes about it as frankly would give me something to laugh about, I know others in my boat who would feel the same. What I would and do find offensive is, as the original blog states, lame jokes about people with DS having bad hair and talking funny, bad fashion etc. Frankly it's unoriginal and shows a lack of talent on behalf of the 'comic'. As some have stated here, it's just the playground bully mentality which has no place in the public adult arena. For such a 'risqué', 'intelligent' and 'edgy' comedian, you would think he could do better than this. no?"
At last look, I had an 'up' rating of 135, not too shabby I suppose but am frankly appalled by some of the attitudes of people. Whilst fully realising that the Daily Mail online message board is hardly a true reflection of our society as a whole, some people just really grind my gears with their blasé-ness. Incidentally, the above comment was my second attempt to get on the board, my first unpublished comment made criticism of the Daily Mail and its use of the terms "Vitcims" and "Sufferers" of Down Syndrome, I wonder why I wasn't published? Thankfully I have seen some people manage to force this issue through the moderators, they obviously know a way in that I don't.
I'd be interested to hear your take on the subject so let me know your thoughts...
End of an Era (in more ways than one)
3 years ago
I already left a comment on Nick's blog about this, and called the whole thing "bullying". But the more I think about it, the more I feel it's worse than this: it's actually an incitation to bullying - the people who are under attack are not only able to defend themselves, but they are probably not in the audience in the first place. So it's simply telling the audience: "here are a few things you can use to make fun of people who can't defend themselves. By the way the sterotypes I am giving you are about 40 or 50 years out of date, but who cares! If you can dessiminate these, and have fun in the process, go ahead".
ReplyDeleteBullying by proxy - this is what all extremists with an audience use: racists, white supremacists, facists... Frightening!
Quite so Nan P.
ReplyDeleteHave just seen the latest comments and same old theme again "so it's ok to laugh at everyone else but not when it affects you eh?". This is palpable nonsense as there is a high chance there is someone representing nearly every 'minority' in the audience (gay, fat, old etc etc) but if push came to shove these folks can use their own voice to stand up for themselves and answer back, but can our guys? I would like to hope so for the future but certainly it is not an equal playing field at the moment hence the outrage at this comedian. It's the human squashing the insect becasue he's bigger, well done you...