Hello all!
Point of order from yesterday: I honestly, honestly, honestly don't have anything against I Live For Glitter, and it is obviously unpleasant that she had a bad time of it. Out of the many bajillions of comments her blog has now got (mmm! New! Delicious! Transparent bitter!) , some of them made a similar point to mine yesterday, but really quite horribly. More along the "you deserve everything you get, you hypersensitive cow" lines. Well, goodness me! This is the internet, isn't it? Aren't we all supposed to get along?
Trolls aside, what really got my goat, then imprisoned my goat in a passive-aggressive, loveless marriage for many years, until my goat reluctantly joined a goat book group, slowly built up its confidence and found the answer to overcoming its goaty inadequacies lay in within the pages of Chocolat and the hooves of a handsome young billy, was this whole offensive comedy issue. A shower of barking nobodies quick to instantly snap to a state of jowl-shuddering offence without knowing any details of the situation whatsoever. And then assuming that being offended somehow top trumps any other emotion anyone cares to feel. I am offended! they bellow. That's 99 points! What have you got? Reasoned logic? What is that, 42 points at best? Give me all your cards. I have won them all. And I wish to be offended by them.
I find some comedy offensive. I then avoid it. I accept that some other people might find it funny, but that if they do, they're not the type of person I'd like to associate with. And also they find it funny because of internal personality repugnance; the repugnance isn't put there because of the comedy. A "joke" about, for example, a dirty p*ki (racist Googlers thwarted there, I hope) is only funny if you agree with it.
Is that true? I don't know.
I never get offended by stuff I haven't actually heard. That's quite a simple rule. And bloody easy to live by. Saves a lot of mental energy. More people should probably try that.
Ah, yes. Now. Dave's just come in, and wishes to have the final word:
m nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnúj
Well said, that cat. Showing your Polish roots there.
1 comment:
Hello!
Nice peice. I had a kneejerk reaction to this story too. I'm slightly ashamed of that, but my emotions run quite high when it comes to people with disabilities. I guess the crux is that there should be no limits to comedy, but care should be taken that the people that you are lampooning should both have the insight to be able to laugh at themselves, and have the voice to fight back. People with learning disabilities generally have neither. That's not as much to do with them as it is to do with the way that they are treated.
I think that you should have the right head on when you go to see Frankie Boyle, but I don't think his routine was very well thought out.
But the trolls are out and the Guardian have creamed themselves and this thing has taken on a life of it's own. Shame, as it seems like a case of wrong place, wrong time for the woman in the front row.
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