Poll: Frankie Boyle challenged over Down's Syndrome joke

[LightspeedJack]

I'm all for not politically correct jokes but if it really hurts someone's feelings for a very serious reason. You can use disablility in a joke so long as it's not hurtful (for example listen to some of Ricky Gervais' disability humour). I think Boyle should be allowed to say it, but that doesn't stop it being a dick move.

Granted, I haven't heard the joke he made so it might have not been that bad.

 

[EeveeElectro]

In other news: Pigs can't fly.

He's a comedian who is know for black comedy.
He's said much worse before. If you're easily offended, you shouldn't be watching him. She went to go see him, knowing full well he offends anything and everything but was shocked when he made a joke about something to do with her life. He probably offended thousands of others that night too, but they laugh it off because it's a joke.
It's like the mum who complained about Lady Gaga being too raunchy for her 14 year old daughter, despite knowing that's what Gaga does.
People in general are so thick sometimes.

EDIT: After another read through, I'd understand how she felt, as the joke was apparently long and drawn out. I hate when people do that, short and snappy jokes are much better.

 

[little.09]

if your gonna get offended then dont watch him

 

[Fraught]

Comedians need freedom of speech,
and disabled people need the ability to not give a shit.

 

[Battenbergcake]

Comedians today have to push the boundary more often than not because the taboos of yesterday are the norms of now, Franky Byle is in the similar catagorey i'd put other comedians like Jimmy Carr, their gimmick if you will is being outrageous in one sense or another.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

He's obviously joking... that's kind of his job.

I don't see the issue.

See, as much as it's his trade mark to make off colour jokes, I think it was misjudged, because very few people would and have found it funny.

Seeing as he's a comedian, he's going to start having problems if he can't make people laugh.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Looking at these posts I have to question how many actually read the article before going into a fanboy rant for Boyle.

Personally, I don't think he's that funny. Has his moments, sure, but often he just crosses the line in my book.

The lady was a fan of Frankie's comedy, said so in the article. She did know what she was in for, but it's still completely reasonable to feel uncomfortable when he's mocking DS children. He noticed this and targeted her with them until she explained that her own daughter had the condition. Cue awkward moment.

So yeah, these posters calling Smith a 'stupid *****' obviously didn't bother reading the source.

On a final point, I think unrestricted free speech is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard.

 

[Something Amyss]

Freedom of speech For The Win here, for both of them.

He's allowed to say whatever the hell he wants, he makes his living out of telling nasty, spitefull (and occasionally very funny) jokes.
She doesn't like that particular strand of it, with good reason.

They can both voice their opinions about it.

yeah, one of the irritating things about free speech arguments to me is that they often disregard the other side. It's like, "I have free speech so how dare you criticise me?"

Well, because it works both ways. When the woman speaks up, she is also exercising free speech.

I don't know who Frankie Boyle is, and I don't know the joke. It might have been funny. It might have been tasteless. Maybe the woman is being oversensitive. I don't know, and frankly I don't care for the purposes of this post. He has the right to say what he said and she has the right to say what she said.

Or should, I'm not sure how UK speech laws work.

"Taste" really shouldn't be governed. On the other hand, the mom shouldn't be restricted from saying it's stupid, wrong, or offensive.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

He's a comedian. Jokes are his thing. He's not serious about this shit, so there really is no protest to be had about it. If he was deliberately being insulting with his jokes, then there might be cause for complaint.

But just making a light-hearted joke about something isn't a big deal. Like South Park said: "either everything's okay to make jokes about, or nothing is."

 

[Something Amyss]

So yeah, these posters calling Smith a 'stupid *****' obviously didn't bother reading the source.

Or they don't care.

The Escapist forums are rather cold and myopic on topics like this. The second you mention diversity, the boards will take a stand against it. Decency? The same. You'll pick up on the pattern eventually. I think a good chunk of the people who called her a 'stupid *****' would do the same, regardless of whether they'd read the article.

 

[SextusMaximus]

He's obviously joking... that's kind of his job.

I don't see the issue.

See, as much as it's his trade mark to make off colour jokes, I think it was misjudged, because very few people would and have found it funny.

Seeing as he's a comedian, he's going to start having problems if he can't make people laugh.

Yeah... but he can. Read the source, everybody in the audience was laughing when Smith was making the claims.

 

[cabalistics]

Yes he should be free to say whatever he wants however lately his delivery seems very blunt. I think the whole bbc thing burned him and now he thinks fuck it and do the line as harshly as possible since it's channel 4 but I think he's lost some of his wit on the way and really it is in the way you tell them for instance if you're doing a joke that could be seen as rascist you have to deliver it in a way that makes it seem that it's absurd that anyone would think that way or a real observance of something that should'nt be funny but is.

I've done stand up myself and even in my very first gig I was making jokes about a celebrity who had died that week who had two kids and died on mothers day and I quipped that at least her kids had saved money on a card and few others that were in bad taste but got good laughs and a friend of mine during the U.S. election said Barack Obama asking for change sounded like every black person he'd ever met which looks rascist written down but you could tell from his delivery that he was'nt serious and you were more laughing at how wrong what he said was.

 

[DaJoW]

His style is to be offensive, angry and condescending. It's not like it's unusual for him, you have to expect stuff like this is going to happen when you're dealing with him.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

He's obviously joking... that's kind of his job.

I don't see the issue.

See, as much as it's his trade mark to make off colour jokes, I think it was misjudged, because very few people would and have found it funny.

Seeing as he's a comedian, he's going to start having problems if he can't make people laugh.

Yeah... but he can. Read the source, everybody in the audience was laughing when Smith was making the claims.

I'm not saying he can't be funny, I just saying as a comedian in general he isn't. I love him on panel shows where he can bounce off of other people, that's fantastic. Thing is, as a stand up, he doesn't... well, stand up.

I did go and see him live once, and really didn't think much of him. I'd heard all his jokes before on things like Mock the Week (my sister saw Dara O'brien the same year and he had a completely original act) and it just wasn't very funny. It ended up with him just randomly insulting the audience, and it was a bit sad. It was a shame, because I'd been looking forward to it.

Having had a look at the source, I didn't see anything that said the rest of the audience was laughing. It said they were laughing until the confrontation and then it was awkward.