to think Ricky Gervais is a twat of the highest order

[HeidiKat]

Talking point on the Wright stuff just now, RG claiming that he is doing nothing wrong by using the word "mong" in his comedy and it merely means a stupid person now rather than Downs Syndrome. I was no big fan of his before but now I actively loathe the smug cunt.

Maybe because teenagers are likely to use insults more often than grown-ups? It's not a very adult thing to do, is it?

"although let's please not close our eyes to the obvious development from using it to mean special needs to stupid" I agree Flangelina

I asked my teenage son. He and his friends know what it means and pretty much always have done. They also know what 'retard' and 'downie' mean.

He thinks the words are useful as a wank-o-meter

Malificence so really, the word does still mean 'a person of special needs' doesn't it - i.e., stupid, lazy, careless. The etymology hasn't moved on that much. If 'mong' had now come to mean 'a person of considerable sporting prowess' for example, then I would agree that the meaning of the word had changed - it hasn't, it has widened to infer that people who are not 'mongloids' can have the preceived characteristics of 'mongloids'.

In the same way, if something is 'gay' it is 'lesser, weaker, a bit rubbish' which again hasn't changed the definition of the word, it has widened the meaning to 'taint' more people with the percieved negative characteristics of a group of people.

RG is a prize twat by the way

at Pagwatch

I've never met an young adult/teenager who thinks mong= mongoose. How utterly ridiculous.

The only time I've ever heard someone say mong is when they are taking the piss out of someone with a disability. Good indicator that the person saying it is a jerk and best avoided.

Namba - can you please refrain from the personal attacks on threads. This is the second thread of the morning I have noted you calling someone out and making things personal.

Ricky Gervais is a bit of an idiot though to be using the word mong

a bit of an idiot is an understatement

good post wilson.

Easiest AIBU I have ever read.

Of course YANBU. He always was a twat though.

Well I have ALWAYS though RG was a twat of the highest order. This latest controversy though has placed him in an order even higher than the highest order of twattery

As someone with a special needs child, I just cannot get my head round the fact that disabilist insults are not in the same category as racist or homophobic ones, and that 'comedians' such as FB and RG escape without any censure when they make their outrageously offensive comments.

Does anyone doubt that if either had used the 'n' word that they would still be on telly?

Can they not see that it is so utterly, utterly cowardly to target the most vulnerable in this way? To use them to boost their risque credentials? If they really were daring they wouldn't restrict their prejudice to the voiceless.

Whatever RG meant or didn't mean (choke) his comments have stirred up a lot of disabilist bile from hundreds of his thug followers on twitter and for that he should apologise if nothing else.

It's easy to accuse people of looking to take offence, but this is insulting to those of us who live with disability, and have to face these types of insults. Walk in our fucking shoes first

That they would not still be on telly

I have never liked him, and can't bear his teeth.

He's so needily desperate for attention & thoroughly unpleasant. Like he doesn't realise his thoughts & actions have consequences for people.
AND he plays exactly the same character in whatever he does.

He's a twat. Seemples!

YY to his teeth. Was trying not to mention them. But My Word, yes.

OOh yes his teeth. All that money and he still looks like a costive rat who has had his head kicked in.

Like a partially boiled skull in CSI Miami. Death snarl ago-go.

Talentless twat.
OH and I'd love to sit him down in a room with my friend and DC who has Down's and call it to her face and then explain it wasn't personal. I expect he'd be too gutless to do that.

YANBU. He has been targeting people with SNs for years.