to complain about Peter Kay's 'Autism' joke ?

[densekay]

BBC One show last night, Peter Kay enters studio flanked by a couple of Children in Need 'Pudseys'. Peter Kay falls prone on floor & flails arms etc. Jokes he is 'autistic'. Laughter.

Not on iplayer, been cut. Very offensive so not surprised.

Is he that dense that he can't see it as unreasonable to get a cheap laugh from those with a condition that benefit in many ways from financial aid supplied by Children in Need?

Google throws up he often jokes at expense of those who are Autistic.
But on a show with Pudsey?

I think it not unreasonable to not only complain to the BBC but also wish a child with autism on him & his wife, maybe he would be less insulting.

oh and densekay I just googled 'Peter Kay autism' as in your op. It was hardly a rich seam. This thread comes up first, then a benefit PK's done for autism, then a DR Peter Kay involved in autism treatment

[can't believe she's sticking up for Peter Kay emoticon]

How does being on the sofa rather than the floor make any difference?

They always "never meant anything by it" though, don't they? because these "jokes" aren't a daily reality for them. Just because disabled people can't always make as much noise about it, doesn't make any difference to the offence it causes.

He should be taken off any Children In Need promos. Why are disablist jokes are so acceptable? If it had been a racist joke in a Comic Relief promo, everyone would be up in arms.

"I think it not unreasonable to not only complain to the BBC but also wish a child with autism on him & his wife, maybe he would be less insulting."OP

What a truly vile and cuntish thing to say.

Totally agree forevervacuuming.

By the sounds of the OP she is a tosser, I believe the man was making a comment about running a VC not about being/acting autistic.

but if that's what he said (and listening back to it the "cut to vt about autism" does sound like it - I'm actually not sure how that was a "joke" about autism???

So actually unless someone can show me where he flailed around on the floor saying he was autistic (and as others have said they watched it and never saw that bit) I'm going ot back track

So was that part the whole joke, or was there something done on his entrance to the show?

I read the OP as if he had done the offensive joke upon his entrance, and that part has been edited out on bbc iplayer. The bit on 2:40 on the iplayer, is not his entrance and has not edited out.

The bit on here is still on the iplayer, so was this a seperate refernce to the original joke?

Just trying to work out exactly what went on as I didn't watch the one show.

agree with all dissenters!!

He wasn't just trying to distract attention away and the reference was not some kind of coincidence
He knew full well he was referring to his behaviour resembling a autistic meltdown.

what? having your leg stretched?

are you shore??

Promoting an offensive and mistaken stereotype about a condition that isn't widely enough understood as it is? Nah, that's not offensive.

I only made the sofa / floor point as the op made it sound like he fell on the floor whilst entering the studio being flanked by 2 pudseys and joking he is autistic - none of which happened. The way the op was written was not reflective of what actually happened - he didn't say he was autistic, he said 'run that vt about autism'. Of course it's irrelevent if he fell on the sofa or the floor!

The One Show is famous for running a variety of serious vt's alongside less serious ones - something that Chris Evans joined in the joke with afterwards when Peter Kay then went on to say something like 'oh it is gas meters then tonight?' - Peter Kay could just have easily said 'run that vt about blind greyhounds skiing' - it was just a comment I interpreted to be Kay trying to bring the stretching to an end!

I'm not sure Baggy some people have said they watched it last night and didn't see the entrance bit

We commented on that at the time, seemed 'odd'.

I didn't hear it as a joke about autism, I heard it as a joke about quick cut to the vt.

forevervacuuming, I don't think you can say 'it WAS this' or 'he knew full well' etc as only he can know what he meant. Of course if offence is taken then that's a valid point of discussion but to assert definitively that your perception of something is correct is just not possible. Especially considering many, many people did not hear it that way at all.

And acknowledging this ambiguity does not excuse disablist jokes. Or the travesty that is the One Show.

the OP made it sound like he was flailing around on the floor faking an epileptic fit or something - totally exaggerated in order to make her (ridiculous) point more valid.

Not in the least offensive - not one tiny bit.

He was doing some 'comedy' stretched - couldn't get up so made a joke about running a VT to fill the time...

I just watched the link, and I don't think PK was pretending to be autistic or poking fun at autistic people- he just said 'cut to the vt about autism'. People laughed as he was saying it like- stop manhandling me and go to something else. Perhaps autism was first thing that popped into his mind.

I like a lot of PK's early stuff, he's not as funny now though.

Can't believe people are angry enough to complain about this. Not offensive at all.

YABVU.

MaMoTTaT - it seems very uncertain what actually happened doesn't it. i don't find the bit on the sofa that bad by itself. But if there was an earlier skit that has been edited out, then maybe the two together were alot more piss taking.

I am planting myself firmly on the fence as I can't grasp what exactly occured. Has a bit been edited out or not???? Hmmmm

I don't think OP means at the start of her OP that he walked in and immediately did this, but that making this joke was inappropriate considering he knew he had the Pudsey bears walking behind him in the corridor to the studio (doing the "Is This The Way to Amarillo?" bit).

And YES, SpringHeeledJack, I AM sure how much having two people holding a person's arm and leg, with that person laying down with their other limbs outstretched while they are shouting "ohhh", resembles an autistic meltdown, because I AM autistic, as is my son who I have had to manage in that state more times than I care to remember

The "gas metric conversion on heaters" wasn't as random as "blind greyhounds skiiing" would have been either as I think that may have been a reference to the NUJ strike.

but if the bit on the sofa is the bit that the OP is talking about he doesn't say he's autistic

This is just semantics now. He hardly had to spell it out.

actually I think the details are important

the op says

"Peter Kay falls prone on floor & flails arms etc. Jokes he is 'autistic'. "

now - some people that also watched the show last night say he didn't do that and that the bit where he mentions autism is where it's still on the iplayer.

'just semantics'? I have a postgrad degree, that's probably about 40% semantics. It's never just semantics.

It just isn't possible to know. It is possible to argue quite comprehensively that he meant nothing offensive at all. Just as you can argue that it is offensive. Without being Peter Kay you cannot know which is the truth.

I do think if this was the only reference that the op is quite a damaging and hyperbolic post. Of course I don't know if something has been edited out.

Perhaps the op can confirm either way?

fwiw - as you'll see from my earlier posts - when I read the OP's description I agreed it sounds like a bloody offensive joke.

However, if the clip that's still on iplayer is what she is talking about it's entirely different from what she described