The Titanic

@Whyarethetoyseverywhere have you been to Southampton's Sea City Museum? Their Titanic section really focuses on the working-class people of the city who crewed the ship, and on the massive impact of its loss on the city. There were primary schools where 50% of the children lost one or both parents. There's no mawkish fiction in a city where the forgotten victims left so many orphans and widows.

I agree. Having a pet disaster for which you have a ‘soft spot’ is quite strange.

Iirc the series was actually vety popular in France. And many other European (and beyond) countries. That would explain why

Eventually it will fall into "just one of the incidents". There will be something bigger, people who saw it broadcasted live will die off and so on.
I do think that there are 3 things which made it THAT significant event at the time. The fact ww never saw such thing life on TV all over the world, the second is the aftermath, third so far the highest number of deaths at one event. Oh and 4th, as Rammstein pointed out, we're all living in America. If same happened in lets say India or Brazil or Romania, it would be totally different interest....
All that will eventually mellow to "just one of the incidents". As all events do over time.

The references to Allo Allo - I actually read a book about life in occupied France in WW2 with lots of interviews etc and Rene's stance to life is actually pretty accurate, of course he hates what has happened and wants to do his best to help the resistance, but also life goes on and he has to keep his business going and his family safe etc.

I don't think this will ever happen

Ive seen that woman's TikTok posts and find them really odd. YANBU

I would say it is more comparable to 'Grenfall' than an 'accident'. There were a lot of fatal flaws that shouldn't have happened so I wouldn't call it just an accident....

I cannot see Grenfall ever being mentioned so flippantly, so I see OPs point.

Current actual horrific disaster overtook your fave Titanic in death toll (as did many others before)...

So what makea diaaster interesting? Is it the death toll or who died or what is it? Titanic, at the wnd of the day was simply just one of many ship accidents, some had bigger death toll. Does the draw to it come from the "unsinkable" claim? From the sparkliness inside? Lately from the movie popularity?

“This beat is a disaster, 9/11 this track” Childish Gambino

but could you imagine if someone said ‘going down like the world trade centre’ in a pop song? There’d be uproar.

”Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade”

OK, it references the earlier bombing but it still gets played and there’s no uproar. It’s an absolute banger.

The only joke I can recall hearing about 9/11 was on The Hangover. Alan's response to being told he can't masterbate on a plane and his response is "Thanks a lot Bin laden."
Years ago a friend took me to see Frankie Boyle and I had to walk out half way through.He was joking about Madeline McCann and Harvey Price.
I read a comment on a Gavin and Stacy thread earlier that made me think. I've always found it funny that all the main characters have serial killer surnames... Not so funny if you're mum was murdered by Fred West or Peter Sutcliffe though.

A lot of people think it’s just a film, they have no idea it really happened. I’m not saying who but it’s not the UK!

After a certain length of time, probably when all the people affected are long dead, society does not care anymore about the human life lost in tragedies or wars.

No one would shed a tear today about the lives lost in 1066, or the Battle of Waterloo or Wars of the Roses etc etc. And what about the multiple plagues and the Black Death which killed many.

The Titanic was a tragedy but a very long time ago. If they did not make the film on the 90s, I doubt many people today would have even heard of it tbh.

there have been loads of jokes about the WTC. I remember one being made on Have I Got News for You the same week that some teenager got jailed for making jokes about April Jones (I remember thinking that the line between ‘light entertainment’ and ‘criminal’ seemed pretty abstract).

That video of the photographer posing the little kids was creepy as fuck! They’re brother and sister and she put them in a pose depicting a death scene!

No it isn't...I don't know anyone who died in the twin towers but whenever I watch a documentary about it I cry, because I have empathy for all the people it did personally affect.

So that proves my point: you don't personally know and have never personally met anyone who was on that boat.

It's sad knowing that many people, mainly women, were hung or drowned as witches and yet we still watch films about witches and dress up as them at Halloween. Do you?

There are hundreds of war films and children still play with toy soldiers - is that insensitive?

Did your dc do the Nativity play at Christmas in early primary school, despite it being a story about a lad who was born, indirectly causing the deaths of presumably thousands of infants because of Herod's jealousy, and who was later crucified? What do you think of that?

Do you celebrate bonfire night and the torture and murder of Guy Fawkes?

There are countless films, celebrations, stories, festivals, poems and songs based on death and accidents and suffering and catastrophes. They are part of our culture.

Imagine being sad about a movie! They're not even real!

There was this one gladiator one which was dead sad, but I made sure not to cry, because it wasn't real.

Afterwards, I had a good old cry for the thousands of real gladiators who died, and for all people who were slaves, and for the people destroyed by the Roman empire. I wept for the Medes and the Persians and the Ottomans and the Aztecs and Incas and Druids and Vikings. All dead now. Cried about the Lusitania, and just about all shipwrecks in general. Then I did a good cry about the first and second world wars, the war of the Roses and the battle of Hastings. I had a good cry about the fire of London and the black death. About all the indigenous peoples killed by colonialism and climate change. I cried over the British concentration camps in South Africa in the 1800s. If only they hadn't given Hitler the Idea!

I flicked through a history book and just did a generic cry.

Then I had a good cry over all the cows and chickens that have been killed, all the dogs and cats and hamsters. All the fish flushed down the toilet.

I'm crying too much to carry on typing.

“I have a soft spot about the titanic.”

You don’t like other people using it for their own ends, but you’re allowed to have “soft spot” for your own mawkish entertainment?
It’s long captivated people, a compelling story - but come on, your basic interest is that it entertains you. Your internet may be respectful but it’s not grounded in respect - it’s grounded in a fascination of a story not your own, for your own enjoyment.

As I said, it was very popular at the time, I was in a minority in thinking it was puerile cheap laughs and in poor taste at the time, but comedy is extremely personal, isn’t it?

Yes this- I find it quite insensitive to be honest.

Did you know that under Belgian colonial in the 1800s - 1900s rule an estimated 10 million indigenous people were killed?

And since 1996, in the war that has been waged over the natural and mineral resources up for grabs in the Democratic Republic of Congo over 6 million people have been killed.

What about the forced organ harvesting in China?

Are you starting a thread about that too? Or are you like most people on the planet who pick and choose what to be upset/outraged about.

I also still refer to dinnerladies. 'My cone is out and my dander is up!'

Yep. Still quote it now. I think the PP who objects to it is firmly in the minority