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AIBU?

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Original poster

Radio 1 Disgusting!

47 replies

Popsie3 · 06/06/2013 17:45

I was listening to an interview on Radio 1 this morning when the host said 'I thought my dancing was good', cue lots of laughter and the person being interviewed said 'Yeah if you're epileptic' AIBU that this has made me so angry all day! Am I being over sensitive? I just don't think it's funny one bit?

OP posts:
LittleMissFuckedOff · 06/06/2013 17:46

Fits are epileptic. People aren't. YANBU.

Antisecco · 06/06/2013 17:46

You are not at all unreasonable to think it's awful but YAVVVVVVVVVVVVVU to expect better from Radio 1

mummymeister · 06/06/2013 17:47

Radio 1 isn't funny or entertaining that's why numbers of listeners have been dropping. Lots of 20 and 30 something DJ's pretending to be 14. I find this type of joke really offensive but may be in the minority.

MrsRajeshKoothrappali · 06/06/2013 17:48

Radio 1 is wank.

Thought it would improve now that burpy, sweary yob is off the air but clearly not..!

Hmm
Alisvolatpropiis · 06/06/2013 17:49

Yanbu.

I was recently incensed by Eastenders when two characters were talking about a girl they were trying to set somebody up with then vetoed it because she had "really bad psoriasis".

What the fuck?

Medical conditions should not be made light of. It's so hurtful to those who suffer from them (and their family)

marjproops · 06/06/2013 17:54

can you complain to radio 1? like with ofcom or whatever it is for tv? I wouold if i was you.

WipsGlitter · 06/06/2013 17:56

They did apologise later.

Elquota · 06/06/2013 18:08

YANBU

Pigsmummy · 06/06/2013 18:08

You can email the complaint, they will respond and hopefully an on air apology will follow.

BlahBlahBlahhh · 06/06/2013 18:24

I have a visual disability but don't get hung up on comedy aimed at me, I just laugh along and even crack a few good ones myself. I think other people often get more hung up on being PC than the person with the issue Smile

PenelopePipPop · 06/06/2013 18:46

I'm epileptic. It doesn't bother me. They are laughing at the person dancing not at people with epilepsy.

If you have a seizure then your limbs convulse and if you danced like that it probably wouldn't look great. Obviously Ian Curtis did do seizure-dancing based on his own experience of seizures, and Antony and the Johnson's sang Epilepsy is Dancing which was obviously based on someone's experience of seizures so some people do literally dance like they are having seizures or have seizures as if they are dancing.

But mostly the two things don't have much in common.

People being precious about hurting the feelings of people with epilepsy can be more of a pain than people just saying what they think. Epilepsy Action did a survey to establish that the vast majority of people with epilepsy (93%) don't find the term brainstorming offensive after two government departments banned its use.

marjproops · 06/06/2013 18:48

yes the pc brigade CAN be OTT but at the same time, now these days no one can make an 'Englishman Irishman Scotsman' joke, or an ethnic joke, or if theyre white put on a Jamaican or Indian accemt etc etc yet somehow its okay (frankie boyle looking at you and jimmy carr) still these days to make ''jokes'' about disabilities and christianity???

Montybojangles · 06/06/2013 18:50

Jesus, really?? This is all you have to be offended by in the world today?

(oh no, might have offended the religious sector there...)

Montybojangles · 06/06/2013 18:52

Ha ha ha, excellent xpost with marj there!

WestmorlandSausage · 06/06/2013 19:05

I was listening ... thought 'ooh thats pushing it' but then thought nothing more of it. Radio 1 can't exactly control what their guests say when they are live on air and they apologised immediately afterwards.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 06/06/2013 19:10

Thank God I'm not the only one who isn't offended by this. My Dad's epileptic and he seriously couldn't give a shiny shite about jokes regarding his condition.

And I find it quite patronising of people to become offended on behalf of others. I live in Birmingham and about 15 years ago the Council took it upon themselves to re-brand the town Christmas celebrations as 'Winterval' as apparently the Muslim community were offended by Christmas. Cue Muslim leader's coming forward to say that they weren't remotely offended by Christmas and how dare the Council make these decisions on their behalf.

This is the same thing albeit on a smaller scale - 'look how jolly right-on I am!'.

Original poster
Popsie3 · 06/06/2013 19:12

I don't think it's anything to do with being PC, when somebody has an epileptic fit is is never funny or it shouldn't be ridiculed! And yes it's very offensive when people struggle daily with fits and people make jokes, I'm glad they apologised

OP posts:
CabbageLeaves · 06/06/2013 19:15

I have epilepsy. Doesn't offend me. I agree with the comments suggesting that the more we try to ban stuff, the more we alienate people towards the people who we are protecting from words.

It wasn't funny but nor was it said with malice

Hopasholic · 06/06/2013 19:17

Well although I don't find it offensive now I would have found it upsetting had I been listening at the age of 14 when I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Given that this must surely be the only age group that can bear to listen to Radio 1 theses days, I do think they were insensitive to their audience.
It isn't great being a teen with epilepsy. In my forties now so water off a ducks back.

PenelopePipPop · 06/06/2013 19:17

There is a bit of a gap between Jimmy Carr and this though. The object of Jimmy Carr's jokes has been to hold up disabled people as objects of ridicule - I've thought about it loads and I just cannot see what the joke is with his Down Syndrome stuff. He is just an ignorant shit.

But here the object of ridicule is a guy dancing badly. The nub of the joke is not that people are really laughing at people with epilepsy.
Maybe it could have been expressed better. But if we all pile in and go 'Ooh you can't say that' it just makes it harder for people to talk about disability for fear of causing offence which is unhelpful.

CabbageLeaves · 06/06/2013 19:17

Its very offensive to who?

I find the attitude of pity towards epilepsy offensive. I'd much rather identify myself as someone who neither needs pity or protection from comments about my condition. It's making a condition seem a bigger deal than it need be

CabbageLeaves · 06/06/2013 19:18

Ooh you can't say that' it just makes it harder for people to talk about disability for fear of causing offence which is unhelpful

Exactly this

Heartbrokenmum73 · 06/06/2013 19:22

It wasn't funny but nor was it said with malice

This. It wasn't meant to be nasty, it was just a thoughtless comment in the heat of the moment. Big deal. OP, can I direct you to getting offended at the EDL and their unbelievable bigotry? Or the Westboro (sp?) Baptist Church in America and their picketing of the funeral's of soldiers? Or something worth actually getting offended about?

MagzFarqharson · 06/06/2013 19:23

Was this the same interview with a person called Robin Thick, with Grimshaw? I also heard some very off remarks about 'large' women, blondes/brunettes and he even managed to insult the entire population of France!

I'm not too easily offended, but I seriously considered making a complaint. - Got to work and was busy straight away though....

PenelopePipPop · 06/06/2013 19:23

Popsie3 do you have seizures? Mine are well-controlled now thank god. But I used to have multiple complex partial seizures a day and they used to mean I did and said weird stuff all the fucking time and it was exhausting and horrible and one of the main ways DH and I coped was by laughing at it. We treated them as very funny indeed. When we saw my neurologist DH explained the difference between the ones where I merely go psycho and the ones where I spazz out (medical terms) and the neuro's eyes popped out of his head.

Being ridiculed by DH and taking the piss out of myself kept me sane.