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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask, is Jim Davidson really a nice man?

327 replies

ashamedmummy11 · 29/01/2014 19:30

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?

OP posts:
BumPotato · 01/02/2014 13:51

Even if JD's excuse is true, it is still bad. These people happen to be in wheelchairs, that's all. They've not also had a sense of humour bypass well maybe they have if they're JD fans

ComposHat · 01/02/2014 13:55

And if you can't adapt your act to suit the circumstances and are reliant on taking the piss out of the audience as the basis of the evening's entertainment then you're a pretty shite or lazy comedian.

Ubik1 · 01/02/2014 13:56

The reason all this stand up stuff is old is because Jim was not on TV.

He is really unpleasant. Doesn't need anyone defending him.

Thisisaghostlyeuphemism · 01/02/2014 13:57

Pisc- so you are just arguing for the sake of arguing?

Now that I can get my head around Grin

Piscivorus · 01/02/2014 14:14

ghostly Guilty as charged Grin

I got sucked into CBB this year, ironic after years of berating DCs for watching trash tv. When it started I expected to dislike Jim and Dappy the most and expected to like Linda most then found exactly the opposite by the end. It did surprise me which I think is why I am enjoying exploring the argument

CaptainGrinch · 01/02/2014 14:28

ghost - I know it was all his stand up shows back then, no need take my statement quite so literally.

And guess what? I found them funny back then - Shoot Me!

I must admit, I've not personally read any accounts of his behaviour because, to be honest, it's not something I'd read - I'd scan the headline & think "who cares" and move on to more interesting news, the same I do with any "celebrity" news.

I just find the vitriol quite amusing. That, and the "Mumsnet Has Spoken" attitude on here which will hang, draw & quarter anyone that disagrees with that view.

Piscivorus · 01/02/2014 14:52

dawndonna That's kind of proving my point. You say evidence from 2004 is not that long ago so sufficient to prove somebody's current views where I am saying 10 years is surely time enough for somebody to change. I have certainly changed some of my views in the last 10 years so would expect others might have done too.

newmorning · 01/02/2014 14:57

There can be no denying that JD's act (and public persona) are highly-appealing to people who enjoy seeing womankind humiliated. His act (and public persona) are therefore highly-offensive to people who think womankind should be treated with a respect equal to that accorded to their male counterparts.

It's impossible to defend him in that respect but we should be prepared to admit that he's not the worst offender in the world of big-name misogynistic comedians.

I once started listening to a Chubby Brown recording and turned it off after a few minutes, wishing I'd never turned it on, and searching desperately for something to be sick into.

flippinada · 01/02/2014 15:02

limited I reckon that's spot on. He was trained to win by someone who did a very good job!

Darkesteyes · 01/02/2014 16:20

Having been brought up with Catholicism with all the mysogyny it entails it was incredibly psychologically damaging and i still feel the effects today. Dave Allens humour actually helped me through some bad times as well as the fact that i found him hilarious.

Agree 1000% with dawntigga.

revealall · 01/02/2014 18:18

hallowisitmeyourelookingforwhy were the wheelchair users at his show? Hopefully it an outing they had signed up to because they wanted to see him. I think the whole outrage at moving the disabled from the front row is a bit unfair. What if they had cerebral palsy or were old and hard of hearing- hard to do stage show banter with the front row then.
He was prime time TV back in the day. Times have changed.

Personally I thought he was a complete idiot when he made an argument about women ironing their husbands shirts. However I can see why people think he's funny. When he was consoling Casey with a chat and he hug he was very sympathetic and then made a joke about his zip coming down. It was so inappropriate that it just made me laugh. It was also funny because you knew everyone was thinking "look at the dirty old git, bet he's loving it" and he wasn't afraid to confront that idea.

Despite being a old fashioned sexist pig (and wife beater) he's been married four times before the current wife. No wonder he thinks we're stupid TBH.

limitedperiodonly · 01/02/2014 19:36

He must be terribly fussy about who gets to sit in the front row.

He's the only person I've ever complained to the BBC and that was about 10-15 years ago when they televised one of his stand-up shows.

My complaint was over a comment of his that he knew there was a pensioners' coach trip in the front because he could smell the old ladies' fannies from the stage.

All these years later I still lie awake at night wondering if that bit of Wildean wit went over my head.

limitedperiodonly · 01/02/2014 19:38

he's been married four times before the current wife. No wonder he thinks we're stupid TBH.

Why? That's only five of us out of a worldwide female population of billions.

revealall · 01/02/2014 20:05

I'd understand if any of his wives was one of the female billions who had never heard of him.
Except for the first wife, the rest would have known he was a sexist, alcoholic given to cheating.
Still they marry him. No wonder he thinks we don't expect much.

Piscivorus · 01/02/2014 22:27

Bet he wouldn't like a front row of Mumsnetters! Grin Mind you we probably couldn't get enough to go to fill the front row.

He made a joke on the Wright Stuff this week when they were talking about buying and selling houses that he'd bought a few but never sold one as he always ended up losing them in divorces which was quite funny (well it was much funnier when he told it than it looks typed out here)

limited that is indeed a horrid joke

limitedperiodonly · 01/02/2014 22:51

pisc I smiled at that house comment and the one he made to Rylan on a pre-House interview about donating his money to charity and then revealed it was his alimony payments. Like you said, it was the way he told it. Just like Frank Carson used to...Wink

It was in the same spirit as Sarah Millican saying that when people commiserated that divorce was just like a bereavement she answered: 'No it's not, because if he'd died I'd have got my mortgage paid off.'

All in all, he's still a cunt Wink

Piscivorus · 01/02/2014 23:01

Haha limited you and I are on the same wavelength, I almost put it's they I tell 'em in my post then decided not to push my luck. Incidentally Frank Carson lived near us, was close friends with a friend's dad and was a really lovely man

With regard to your last comment, did you watch CBB? When Ollie was upset, JD said "Would a cuddle from an old cunt help?" when he hugged him so, clearly, he agrees with you too! Grin

cjel · 01/02/2014 23:23

I think that if I was a person just going on stage to single handily entertain a lot of people who had paid money to see and may be having nerves and I was concerned people would gang up on me if I picked on the disabled people in the front, asked for them to be moved and then some 'jobsworth' started to argue with me I think I'd explode too.

I always found Dave Allen a sleaze and he gave me the creeps.

Darkesteyes · 02/02/2014 00:08

You are entitled to your opinion cjel but i thought/think Dave Allen was great.

CuntyBunty · 02/02/2014 00:26

It's a pity that the Big Brother winner's prize for this year wasn't a lethal injection. It would be kindest all round, I reckon.

CuntyBunty · 02/02/2014 00:27

Another Dave Allen fan here too. BTW, did anyone watch "The Many Faces of Dick Emery" the other night if we are going old skool? I did make me snigger.

Darkesteyes · 02/02/2014 00:51

the link is about all the stuff he did AMAZING!!

cjel · 02/02/2014 11:41

DARKESTEYES. Its weird isn't it how you can just take against a person? I couldn't put my finger on the DA thing but somehow it didn't work for me and I can't remember what it was about him I didn't take to.x

Darkesteyes · 02/02/2014 16:16

cjel ive loved Dave Allen as a comedian since i was 13. And one of his documentaries In Search of the Great English Eccentric is on youtube.

He comes across as insightful kind and non judgemental.

Very rare traits now , on tv or off!