to be impressed by Frankie Boyle's hunger strike?

[Isabeller]

grauniad link here

Cos they're scrounging from the decent taxpayer

He is just trying to reclaim some right-on credentials - after a hateful joke about Katie Price's defenceless, blind, autistic son, who is also black. If he had homed in on the black angle, he would be in serious trouble. ( "that black kid of hers will probably one day rape her, that is why she married a cagefighter" - see how bad it is with the race angle?). But the disabled angle seems, bizarrely, to be ok even with his trendy-wendy audience. Disabled kids are fair game, probably cos they can't fight back. But their mums can - hence, Frankie's career has been in the doldrums ever since, as has Ricky Gervais' - since his ribtickling "mong" gags. That is why Zi reckon he is doing this hunger strike and Ricky tried to pop a halo on with his execrable Derek series. Knobs.

So what do you think of Clive Stafford Smith doing the same thing? Unimpressed?

I have conflicted views of Clive Stafford Smith solomandaisy. It doesn't seem an unusual position to hold.

I'm glad extremely competent lawyers like him act for people who can't afford good legal representation and who aren't very attractive characters.

There should be more of them and I admire him for that.

Doesn't mean I have to like his clients or agree with his arguments. He's not a saint. There are also aspects to Stafford Smith's personality and public pronouncements that I find unappealing.

I said in my first post on this thread that Jimmy Savile used good causes to manipulate public opinion.

You can take it only on a case-by-case basis; just as Boyle has done in this instance. His highlighting of someone who's been held without trial for more than 10 years doesn't cancel his other actions.

I'm not sure what to think now, but I am glad it has raised the issue of Guantanamo.

I was probably mistaken to start a thread about FB rather than the real issue. Thank you all for the food for thought.

I think it is much more about raising the profile of FB than issue of Guantanamo and like sickofsocalledexperts says claw back some popularity. Still an unpleasant arsehole in my book.

I am not impressed I think its a tiny atonement for all the vile bile he has spouted out over the years.

Are you? Oh well.

Most people admired Saville for his charity work at the time, because although he was odd, annoying and creepy to many,few of the general public realised he was an abuser.
Once that was revealed, the admiration vanished.
But FB began by being known to many as an abusive comedian who targets the vulnerable, so his heroic effort to not eat for a week is seen within that frame.

Re the 'Harvey' (son of Katie Price) joke, FB did not use the word 'rape' - I understand him to have intended to be metaphorical, in the sense of meaning that a disabled child would ruin KP's life. Or rather her career as the superficial, fickle world of celebrities would not be interested in her difficulties with a disabled child.

Really chocco? What an interesting and imaginative spin to put on his comments.

That's why he has 'picked on' KP. She has made money out of having her family in the media - for no reason other than that she's famous. She became famous because she's physically attractive.

What's that got to do with him saying that his theory was she married a cage fighter so she had someone strong enough to stop her son from fucking her?
As if Harvey was destined to become an incestuous rapist?

He didn't use the word rape.

That's why he has 'picked on' KP

Except he didn't just do that did he? He "picked" on a disabled, vulnerable child too.

So, what do you think he meant by the comment about needing a cage fighter to stop KPs son fucking her? Do you think he meant it was consensual sex?

This thread is becoming an interesting polarisation of what MNetter's find funny, and what they find unacceptable.

Did he not use the word 'fucked'?

Meaning ruined. ie her career would be ruined because the media would no longer be interested in her as disability is not glamorous. KP was a glamour model originally IIRC.

He's not having a go at that particular child - he's making the point that people won't be interested in her struggle with a disabled child. They're only interested in her because she's glamorous.

The 'joke' was speculating about which one of Katie Price and Peter Andre would be 'lucky' enough to lose custody of H, and then his theory that KP had married a cage fighter to stop H fucking her.

I think it is difficult to put any sort of spin on a joke like that.

No, choccaluvva, you have the wrong end of the stick, why would a cage fighter need to be strong enough to stop having a disabled child ruin her career. The joke is as much about a vulnerable child with multiple and severe disabilities as it is about KP.

I understand FB to be having a go at people who 'follow' glamorous celebrities for no reason other than their physical appearance and or outrageous behaviour. A disabled child doesn't fit with that image but a cage-fighter might.

Or he might be so aggressive/intimidating to the 'celebrity journalists' that they dare not make unkind comments about his family?

This is not about Harvey Price IMO.

He's not having a go at that particular child

Really? So he was having a laugh at the expense of some other random disabled child connected to KP?