To be utterly pissed off about people of short stature being used in Peter Kay's thing

[Verycold]

Yes yes they didn't have to do it. But they probably needed the money. As the mother of a boy with dwarfism it just makes me so cross.

Yeah I obviously didn't care one big about thf dying babies...

Well, it will never top, Amarillo or the cartoon one. Agree with OP, it was lazy.

erm why not use them - or are small people not allowed to be actors or to take the piss out of themselves

not a fan of PK but these small people have always been part of his work - certainly his RND stuff

Maybe they haven't got that many offers if they want to work in the entertainment industry, so pulling Peter Kay on a sofa becomes an opportunity they can't turn down?

Of course they were there to be laughed at, otherwise why specifically choose them at all, or have a mixture of people?

so patronising to assume they're only doing it because they're desperate for cash.

YANBU. A close friend has a 13 year old son with achondroplasia, who is a completely normal boy in every way apart from his dwarfism. Dressing people up in leprochaun outfits?? I was just thinking WTF before I saw your thread...

If they were just being used as normal people, why have a 'matching set'. You only do that to draw attention to their stature, to make a point or a joke. If you were genuinely just respecting them as entertainment professionals, they would be mixed in with the other people, just as other people were.

I agree Very - I thought it was tasteless and patronising.

Saggar in fact he's nearly seven!

Yes yes to what MrsDeVere said. Much better than I managed.

can 'small people' not make their own choices then? are they to be patted on the head and pitied and shall we assume they are being exploited by the big bad 'comedy mafia' how horribly patronising

I didn't think he was particularly funny, but I never do. But I recognised a couple of the people pulling him along so wondered if they were from some relevant show that I hadn't seen. (If they're part of his usual team that might explain it.) I thought they might have been doing it because of the scale - to make him look like this massive load being dragged along.

FFS - when will people stop looking for things to be offended about. Honestly.

A " Matching set" !

V good post mrs D.

but their size was the joke surely? that they are the worst people to be pulling the sofa because of their size. So thats crap

posted too early

so thats crap AND disablist for want of another word and rather lazy script writing

it was too subtle for me then-I didn't see irony I just saw tired old lazy comedian doing poor quality extended sketch

RoseandViolet - Oh god, are you quoting me? I wasn't meaning to be offensive. I was trying to highlight the dismissive non-person way that those actors seemed to be being treated in. Hence the quotation marks.

I didn't like the sketch, but you are wrong in saying that they isn't use a variety of people. They had loads of different people pulling that sofa. I don't think the idea was that you were supposed to laugh at them just because they had dwarfism, it was about laughing at PK being a lazy arse while people pulled him along. Granted, it wasn't funny, but I really don't think it was meant to be about laughing at anyone other than PK.

do any of you ever laugh at yourselves?

I might well be rather sensitive in this. But try to see where I'm coming from - I read about the horribly high suicide rates amongst young men with dwarvism, and I really can't see how rubbish like this is in any way helpful. Have you heard about Martin Henderson, the man who was used for "dwarf tossing", Peter Dinklage mentioned at the Golden Globe awards. This is the kind of thing my son will be up against, and I'm bloody scared!!