Shannon Matthews musical. Sorry but I’m laughing

I know. I find it amazing that the people who mostly do this claim to be left leaning “progressives”.

Free speech doesn’t include illegality and never has. If I write things online about someone that are libellous, then I can expect to be sued. If I make a Facebook post instructing people to go and kill a politician, for example, then I will find myself facing criminal charges.
I’d say that they’re treading on thin ice here legally as Shannon Matthews is likely to be classed as vulnerable because she is a child and is a victim of a serious crime. If she suffers harm (physical or psychological) as a result of this then they could definitely find themselves facing legal action. I’d say that there are probably adequate grounds for an injunction at the very least. It wouldn’t be difficult to prove that this could cause significant psychological harm.

Let me get this straight:

Shannon Mathews was abused and used as part of a plot to try and make money for her abusers.

Now this musical is also trying to make money from Shannon Mathews by making a show about what happened to her. According to the writer anyone who objects to this is a ‘Karen’? But presumably anyone watching the show is supposed to laugh at the stupidity of the people abusing Shannon and using her in a plot to make money??

..Yeah, call me Karen on this one.

I think this whole thing is much more likely an exercise on the ethics of Free Speech.

ITV make a Shannon Mathews Drama.. and this is ok, but a musical is not - you have to question
why. ITV make the drama to make money .. is that ok? Is it laughing that’s the problem, or the subject matter ? I doubt it’s the subject matter, as that has been covered hundreds of times. Which means there must be a list of thing that are not to be laughed at .. not sure what that is, or who decides.

Alan Carr made a joke about Shannon Mathews, he seems to be doing ok. Frankie Boyle ditto

TBH .. none of us even know what the musical is about, could be a critique of the sensationalist media .. who knows

There is an underlying feeling of laughing at people from council estates, on benefits type of people here.

@Lookslikemeemaw

Okay then I’m not going to anything showing paedophiles or abusers of children or the music of paedophiles and abusers? Is that better, pedant?

Not sure what you are annoyed about here?

I was saying this musical is worse becsue it is specifically about the abused person, not about an abusers music.

If you choose to get defensive and call me pedantic for pointing out the non comparative nature here, that's definitely your issue.

I'm not a supporter of any of the above, but I can see a very clear difference in a show about the music of Michael Jackson and a show about the literal abuse of a child, containing songs as detailed in the OP.

Laughing at those things in a general context is a completely different issue. It’s questionable why anyone would make jokes about such things but they’re directly harming anyone by doing so. The issue is that the subject of this “comedy” is a real person who suffered horrendous abuse. To turn that into a musical is a gross invasion of that girl’s privacy and dignity and could potentially cause significant psychological harm. Abused children have the right to be protected from further harm and I’m amazed that the human rights lawyers haven’t gotten involved in this.

Half wit mysogynist has to raise the profile of some doggerel set to music by insulting MN users? If that's considered necessary to drum up interest in the show its probably not the best recommendation for its quality, whatever your thoughts on the subject matter.

The major difference with other musicals is that this is a complete piss take, Les Mis and Miss Saigon and such like look at the subject matter very seriously, it would never be acceptable to make a programme taking the piss out of it, even serious documentaries are considered in bad taste.

It's really not. I can't say I'm a big fan of MBB but we went to the live show with a group of disabled young adults. He and the rest of the cast were absolutely amazing and respectful with the young people. They really ensured they had a brilliant afternoon and took time for photos and autographs etc.

…but it’s a joke, it’s ok to laugh at Trauma, or abuse, or disability .. because it’s comedy.

You’ll find plenty of people on here who will defend that, in particular when it comes to the king of “punch down” humour Ricky Gervais.

If he had come up with it, it would be on a Netflix Special, as a shining endorsement of Comedy and Free Speech

… remember, even Rape Jokes are funny if you are Jimmy Carr.

This.

Absolutely disgusting.

Les Mis is not about the French Revolution.

None of those things involve living survivors of serious abuse who are likely to be traumatised by having the story of their abuse turned into a money spinner by some opportunist who has no moral compass.

Okay then I’m not going to anything showing paedophiles or abusers of children or the music of paedophiles and abusers? Is that better, pedant?

Err, no. Completely different kettle of fish. For a start, one is fiction, and one is fact.

How anyone could consider this funny is beyond me. That child went through severe trauma that will follow her into adult life and then some sicko decides to turn that into a musical? How will she ever move on with something like this in the public domain? They should be forced to donate all proceeds of this to the NSPCC (because there are bound to be people sad enough to actually go and watch it). Welcome to 21st century Britain; selfish, amoral and brain dead.

TBH each to their own but I group people who find this funny in the same group who laugh at Mrs Brown’s Boys. Says it all really

Exactly! Shannon Matthews is still alive and must have some deep seated trauma.

Funny how they don’t make a musical about the posh kids who’ve gone missing

Do you think the children affected by her actions will see the distinction?

Isn’t it more about taking the piss out of the moron of a mother who thought she could hoodwink the police and the community?

She's now 26. Possibly starting a family of her own or getting into her stride in a workplace. Having it all brought up in the public eye could be quite distressing.

Maybe it isn't and she is ok with it but there must be some sadness associated with it as her whole family as she knew it was split up. Her siblings were taken into cat but I think may have gone to live with their respective fathers.

Just an awful thing to happen not just to Shannon but the other children as well.

Obviously the whole thing is abhorrent. I hope she never gets to hear about it and is living a lovely life somewhere, with people who love and care about her.

But all that to one side for a moment, it sounds like a group of people who just don’t have the talent to come up with anything genuinely funny or original, so are relying on shock value instead of talent. In ten years time, they’ll all be working in overpaid media jobs, having terribly middle class dinner parties to reminisce about how outrageous they were and complaining about house prices because there’s some social housing three streets over. A tedious and predictable attempt at middle class rebellion. 🙄

I think we can agree that the OP is more the target market for this thread given their oh so clever arguments on this thread and their choice of news source.

@Lookslikemeemaw

I’m not going to anything that features paedophiles …

I'm not asking you to. I would not go either, but as a comparison a musical about someone's music and a musical about someone being abused and kidnapped by their own family, well they are not the same.