Cat Deeley making fun of epilepsy

I have epilepsy and I'm not offended.

What I am offended by is the attitude these days of absolutely crucifying people for the smallest of misdemeanors. Goes something like this;

Person A: makes small non world ending error

Person B: I'm offended!

Person A: Apologises

Person B: That apology was crap, I don't think it's good enough. They need to educate themselves. So they should go and see the people so clearly affected by their nasty words, and prostrate themselves properly until I'm satisfied.

Then they should give those people a big chunk of money to say sorry.

Then this should follow them around for the rest of their career. They need to bring up in every interview how incredibly sorry they are, and highlight this cause for good now, every time they open their gob.

And if they don't, they should lose their job. And if they're a woman it goes double, because women are meant to be KIND* so it should haunt her forever.

It's like that sketch of the police chief who keeps unintentionally offending and has to bring up a representative of that community to apologise to only to do it to another group and then has continually bring up people to apologise to. Where does it fucking end??

*But if you're a man who behaves horribly especially towards women (sexual assault, domestic violence) and you happen to sell lots of records, have good acting chops, or kick a ball really good then you can mumble an apology, keep your head down and people eventually forget all about it!

I don't think she should lose her job, nor will she. She said it accidentally because epilepsy is so misunderstood. But I don't think trivialising a serious illness is something to be dismissed. I think it's a learning opportunity. People die and are left critically ill because of seizure disorders. I wouldn't laugh at cancer sufferers and rightly so. It's not being "oh so offended", it's treating people with respect. The fact that so many people with epilepsy are angry should tell you something. And honestly, if people suffering from mental health conditions started voicing their concern, I would listen, not just dismiss them.

This!!!!
I bet your husband is a normal, professional man, who ok has this condition but just gets on with it, has a job, takes his precautions and lives and lets live.
I can imagine the 'types' getting offended.

The 'I'm so offended' brigade out in force again and CD sadly walked right into their trap. Yes, it's a horrible condition to live with. Did she MEAN any offence? No. Are those people actually hurt to the core by her comment? Most probably not. They are just jumping on an excuse to find an outlay for their bitterness and baying for someone's blood. It is blatantly obvious it was a clumsy ill-timed comment, which she apologised for.
I would silence the great offended and tell them to grow up tbh.

If she said ‘I was going a bit crazy’ would you still think she should lose her job? Your punishment is far too harsh and is far nastier than her mildly careless comment.

Agree with this, it wasn't so long ago that words like spastic were in common parlance. Thankfully they're not anymore. But nothing changes if nothing changes. And it's fair seizures aren't only affiliated with epilepsy, but that's their commonest association.

My husband had pretty bad epilepsy

She was making fun of herself

Honestly...ridiculous work today with such a lack of grace

She clearly meant no harm and apologised

Yes, I thought it was the wrong thing to say too. She shouldn’t be cancelled for it but the casual implication that seizures are ‘a bit of a laugh’ was insensitive. All these people saying she was only making a joke about herself are missing the point. She’s trivialising a serious medical condition.

Would it be ok if she made jokes about having had chemo? “Oh, she’s only making a joke about herself blah blah” 🙄

While some people with epilepsy might be ok with it, many won’t. People die from seizures. They can be violent and cause nasty injuries. They cause unpleasant after effects. They’re not something to joke about on national TV.

Her apology was weak and not what I expected. It would be nice if she invited Epilepsy Action on, along with a few people with epilepsy or who have children with epilepsy. That way she’d understand a bit more and she’d also help educate people rather than encourage them to make fun of seizures.

Remember when people were forgiven because "people make mistakes" that seems to have gone completely out of the window these days. Now if you misspoke one time it's the crime of the century.

The great news is she apologised. The other good thing is that people who might not have thought about the same thing also had it drawn to their attention and so wouldn’t do the same thing. Other people saw her make a graceful apology so might learn from that too. Great outcome all round! Unless you wanted her flogged publicly?

Omg check your privilege please some of us HAVE to take life seriously in fact hand the mic over to those that do and stop taking up space, use your platform for good and decolonise your mind. You should be defunded and cancelled immediately so tone deaf

/sarcasm

When I was a child, I remember everyone saying the phrase, "Having an eppy" for describing someone who was overreacting to something, or a teacher shouting etc.
Not sure if this was a regional thing, but my epileptic brother was one of the worst for saying it!

I can't get worked up about what Cat said.

She apologised, get the stick out of your bum.

It’s quite scary when you say it like that 😮

Ridiculous thread title, that’s not what happened.

Just epilepsy? Not brain tumours, high temperatures, cs fluid build up or any of the other many, many causes of seizures?

YABU. Although I suspect you have reason to be over sensitive, which I'm sorry if you do. Dealing with serious illness is never easy.

Apart from she didn’t say that did she?

Yes you ABVVVU

As nearly everyone else has said, this was a misjudged remark about herself. Chill.

Totally agree. She didn’t do it maliciously. It was just a stupid comment which came across as very insensitive.

The world we live in now is so woke.. this horrific cancel culture. Honestly I despair. It’s a non issue.

It’s not even an unacceptable remark. It’s an everyday remark that anyone might say, that I would never find offensive.

Have epilepsy, have read about it as I don't watch the show.

It was a joke. Life is taken too seriously these days. Can't be arsed getting offended about something that was clearly self deprecating and not meant to offend anyone except herself tbh.

Agree - not saying she should be sacked etc but that the entire concept of 'oh it's OK to laugh at epilepsy' should be re-addressed

Let’s take down another sleb! Go girl! Hopefully this is it, career over. She apologised but still, it’s not ok for her to be a human and make a misjudged comment.

(obviously I don’t mean any of this)

Argh! Ffs!

Do people never tire of looking for offence in everything!!

When did she mention anything about epilepsy?!

Was it funny? No, I didn’t think so but there was no laughing at or belittling people who have seizures.

Have a fucking day off.

🙄