To ask, is Jim Davidson really a nice man?

[ashamedmummy11]

I was just chatting with OH here and I said I quite liked him on CBB. Apart from a few questionable remarks to Casey he seems a reasonably nice guy. OH reckons he has a bad reputation. Is this true? If so why?

Adam Hills has as well on The Last Leg About to restart on Channel 4 + 1 now It happens near the end of the show

I'm glad. I'm just waiting for those right on Guardian journalist to have a go. They were up for tweeting all the way through it and have now gone quiet.

My point is simply that all feminists, gays and non-Caucasians of my acquaintance prefer DA to JD, but a great many Catholics of my acquaintance prefer JD to DA simply because, although JD is a (insert any crude term you want), he doesn't commit the ultimate sin of mocking God.

My personal view is that Dave Allen was a great guy who used his comedy to educate as well as to entertain. JD, in contrast, uses his comedy to entertain those who, for the most part, are in dire need of some education.

My sil worked in a theatre where he was 'performing'. The front row of the theatre was reserved for wheelchair users. He asked sil to move all the wheelchair users because he found them to be unresponsive to his 'jokes' and therefore very distracting
She spoke to her manager and manager had to move all wheelchairs and users to the ends of aisles as he was refusing to come on stage until they were gone. For that and that alone I have always thought he was an utter cunt. I haven't read the thread, I'm going to now to see if anyone has nice things to say about him, but I know I will never change my opinion on him. Nasty prick.

I read about this the other day hallow. JD claimed that the reason he objected to that was that a large part of his act was taking the mick out of people in the front row and he felt it was unfair to do this, exclusively, to wheelchair users and the lighting did not allow visibility behind the front row to pick on others. Believe that or not.

Limited You speak great sense. I don't much care for his comedy or the man he was (I met him in the mid 80s and found him detestable) but thought the man he appeared to be on CBB was a worthy winner

Really piscivorus? Wow, had no idea that he had spoken out about this, can I ask where you read it? As it happens, I don't believe it as sil said he pulled her to one side and said what I wrote up ^^there about disabled people. Nothing mentioned about the reasons you said above. And I believe if that were genuinely the case, he would have explained this before his show.
I have told sil about this thread and she is reading it even though she is not a MNer, so hi sil! Cake tomorrow at 11 if you're up and about!!
Ahem, as you were...

Cannot believe Dave Allen is being mentioned in the same thread as Jim Davidson

More utterly different men and comics would be hard to find

Maybe myself and my daughter can catch him in Bromley hallow...she has Cerebral Palsy and would need to sit fairly near the front (in her w/chair) because her vision is poor ...I will tell her to wear a miners style helmet (complete with torch on the front) and any jokes that she finds offensive JD will be able to see her give him the finger!! . I'm sorry but I do not believe he had the w/chair users moved because he didn't want to offend them..or he would have surely asked the women,gay people,and people who are black/Asian to move too eh?...that's not including any MILs, blonds etc..etc...that excuse is pathetic! .

Ronald only to give lie to the claim that Davidson was old school and of his time.
There is no comparison with the wit and intelligence of Dave Allen.

Other posters have mentioned old school comedians like Les Dawson,Bob Monkhouse. Ronnie Barker and I'd add Frankie Howard to the list. Some of the material will sound a littte dated and bits will have fared better than others but none of them will sound vicious,misogynistic and racist the way JD did.

EXACTLY Caitlin.

There was a thread maybe last year about Frankie Boyle, the one who makes jokes about disabled children and womens looks. I got catsbumface from posters who said its just humour and it appealed to some people, so live and let live. I was a bit

As much as I don't like JD I dont find him as offensive as FB, but in fairness its been a long time since I watched anything of his on tv.

chandlery I don't think JB is funny at all and much of his stuff is very offensive.

OK, let's put the whole Dave Allen vs wankbadger debate to bed:

Dave Allen, used his humour to point out the hypocrisy, misogyny etc. of the Catholic faith. He used his knowledge and humour to educate.

Wankbadger, used his act to preserve a truly awful status quo. He used his act to wound, intimidate, undermine people and enforce his own prejudice.

END.OF.FUCKING.STORY.

There is no direct comparison between Dave Allen and wankbadger because:

NOT A SINGLE PERSON WAS INJURED/HURT/DISCRIMINATED AGAINST/CONCERNED FOR THEIR SAFETY/BULLIED ETC BECAUSE OF THE HUMOUR OF DAVE ALLEN.

And breathe.

I was a wee snip of a child in the 70's and a teen in the 80's, my parents cried laughing at wankbadger and I just did not understand it. The fact I didn't get it gave them another way to bully me, but that's a different thread. I TOTALLY got NTNON and Constable Savage though. That's the difference between the 70's and 80's in a nutshell as far as I'm concerned.

ParkYourPrivilegeTiggaxx

sals I'm sorry if you think I've fabricated the story for entertainment purposes, however sil worked for the theatre at the time and it was her that he spoke to and demanded to move the wheelchair users. He also told her his reasons for not wanting them there, and according to sil, none of these reasons included wanting to protect disabled people and not make them the butt of his jokes. She then called her manager as she was horrified at which point sil says he started raising his voice and said "well I'm not fucking going on til they're gone".
Nice man.
Hope you and your daughter have a wonderful time at his 'show'

Someone referred earlier to the question of why JD won big brother interesting.

I think that one's quite straight forward to answer.

Firstly, he will have been trained by his pr team in what to say and what not to say.

Secondly, it's simple for fundamentally unpleasant people to project a charming image (or really, any image they like) by observing how other people behave, and also what I said above.

If you think that's nonsense, think how many threads you've (general you) have noticed on here where someone talks about (for example) their abusive parent or partner and says something along the lines of "everyone thinks she's a great mum","he's so popular at work" and "people won't believe me".

People place far too much store by superficial qualities like charm which are easy to copy.

is interesting.

I think it's pretty simple. Richard Desmond is notorious got interfering in editorial policy and JD is his close friend who needs help relaunching his career. Hardly surprising that he looked better than the others in the edit.

Why did he win?

In the BB house, JD appeared (for the most part) to be a very kind and reasonable man. He looked even more reasonable when attacked and derided by Linda Nolan for reasons that were never made clear on the show.

The vast majority of CBB viewers will never have met JD in person or seen his stage act and so, when compared with people who were variously horse-punchers, two-timers, nasty-knickered haridans, tit-flashers, cock-flashers, silent non-entities, wimpy sloanes and octogenarian camp dancers, he must have looked pretty good to a lot of viewers.

Yes, I agree with all of that flippinada. I was just surprised at the degree of his self-control.

A few times he walked away from confrontation and I think he had been told to do that. Without standing up for him, I have to say that it was the right thing to do and was hard.

There was one instance, which was a lighthearted confrontation where someone was playfully trying to wind him up as part of a task, where he jokingly admitted that agreeing with her was 'killing him'. I bet it was.

The walking away made him look reasonable and reflected badly on his accusers - like Linda who deserved some sympathy because he had slyly provoked her.

He even counselled people to 'let it go' in spats. Fancy Jim Davidson being the peacemaker

I think whoever coached him deserved every penny of their fee.

Absolutely limited. He played the game better than the others which is why he won and newmorning says what I have tried to say upthread far better, there was a lot to dislike about other contestants too.

None of the other contestants have faced this hatred though about their moments in the house. Jim has been roundly criticised for a tasteless joke (not that it makes a difference but it is an old Bernard Manning joke which has been recycled by many comics,) Lionel had the "Suck my dick" comment to a woman young enough to be his granddaughter and Dappy had a full row with Luisa on the fact that a man can sleep with 5 women in a night and be a player yet a woman who does the same is, in his opinion, a whore

hallow I think I saw this in JDs wikipaedia page which references a BBC Wales page with the following on:
Davidson said in a statement: "I take the mickey out of all the people in the front row and as the people in the front row were in wheelchairs I feared it would appear that I was specifically targeting disabled people."
"I asked if some of them would mind moving."
"My act depends on audience reaction and one part of the show involves getting the audience to gang up on the front row."
"I feared the perception would be that I was picking on people specifically because they were in wheelchairs."
He added: "My intention was not to hurt or upset anyone and I apologise if I have done so."

Piscivorus, you really are intent on defending Jim Davidson.

Why?

Maybe he's judging him on what he saw on CBB, not on a stand up show from 1978 or based on what someone's sister in laws cats aunt heard him say about wheelchair users while he was hitting someone.

Seriously? You think it was one stand up show? Seriously?

And you think there is just one account of him here being a nasty twat, just one, and you've decided that is unreliable?

I'm amazed but at the same time not amazed at all.

Grim.

Ghostly I'm honestly not, I have no axe to grind here at all. I'm being a bit contrary and devils advocate over things but just because I like arguing find it interesting that one person can inspire such vitriol when others who, to my mind when watching CBB, seemed equally if not more repugnant are ignored. I've said several times on threads that I met him once in the 80s and thought he was vile so surprised myself in finding him less objectionable than anyone else in there

I do find it interesting that a lot of the evidence used to back up the dislike is so old. Can somebody change their outlook and stop being racist, sexist, etc? How recent then would evidence need to be? Or are we all forever set in our ways of 10, 20, 30 years ago?

On one of the CBBBOTS programmes the psychologist stated that Jim was benefitting from a kneejerk reaction from the public that saw him as "Ganged up on" by the others in the house which is distinctly possible.

I concede the point, however, that if you were all posting saying what a wonderful man he was, I would probably be the one arguing that he is a knobhead

Mr. Davidson a little more recently: At the time, he declared that "I may as well go to Dubai and be an ethnic minority there than wait five years till I become one here." He moved back to the UK after living in Dubai for five years. (March 2004) So not that old.