Tuesday, June 19, 2007

All Good Things Come to He Who Waits

Farewell, you fucking arsehole.

7 comments:

J.J said...

At one point today I nearly smashed my radio when yet another crap 'comedian' came on to pontificate about 'what a great guy' the bastard was. Don't they recognise racist scum when they see/hear it?

Will said...

According to the denizens of HP Sauce fuckwittery - he merely practiced a form of sophisticated irony -- a racist in quotation marks if you like.

How clever of them and him.

Carlton B Morgan said...

Of course, if he had been to University (like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with their "Derek And Clive Get the Horn") it would be widely acknowledged as a form of sophisticated irony....

"Manning" by Jonathan Margolis. Snowdonia Green Thunder says check it out.

John said...

Hi J.J.--

Heh heh. And . . . erm . . . no they don't.

Will and SGT--

Never had any time for Derek and Clive, nor indeed for much "university" humour. In fact, the more I reflect, the fewer genuinely brilliant comics there seem to be out there.

I've never bought the argument that it's okay for a comic to tell racist, sexist or homophobic jokes "because he has a go at everybody." I do accept, though, that jokes can be told with irony in such a way as to undermine the teller of the joke and to subvert the apparent message, so it's legitimate to argue that the difference between one comedian and another is the level of irony in their presentation. I'm also sure it's true that plenty of racist, sexist homophobes are "lovely blokes" and adore their kids. Otherwise we'd be trying to explain the correlation between racism and hating kids.

But, at the risk of sounding like a pretentious tosser, I subscribe to the Bakhtinian view that whether or not a joke, or indeed any statement, is acceptable depends very much on who is saying it and the circumstances in which the statement is made. I don't hold with the (supposedly) anarchist view that anything goes, or that the word "nigger" used by Bernard Manning in a night club of predominantly white working-class men is as acceptable as two black blokes calling one another "nigger." One is racist in its intent, the other one isn't. Of course, where one draws the line on acceptability is something I'm always willing to argue. Taboos should never just be accepted without examination; they always require justification before being accepted, and I think anyone who's spent any time on this blog or Manuel or McManus will know we're not of any staunch PC persuasion here. But I still think there's a case for saying Bernard Manning was a fuckwit and I'm rather glad he's dead, if only because my dad went on a works outing to the Embassy Club and Manning had a go at his big nose.

The fat shithead.

Will said...

Totally agree.

You've said it all right there.

Carlton B Morgan said...

OK, but I want Ricky Gervais banned because he has a go at disabled people. And is unfunny shite. And if the BBC give all the money he would get to making more Dr Who.

John said...

ha ha ha. Done!