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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To find ‘jokes’ about Maddie McCann upsetting?

226 replies

Helendee · 17/04/2019 12:45

I saw a clip of Frankie Boyle demonstrating his sense of ‘humour’ by making what I find to be shocking jokes about Maddie.
The audience seemed to find it hilarious but I find it crass and distressing.
Please tell me I am not alone!

OP posts:
LoadOfUtterBoswellocks · 17/04/2019 14:54

I find Boyle very pro-women, actually. He always seems to have more female than male guests on his show, and gives each a space to opine and comment without patronising.

chocomug · 17/04/2019 14:56

derxa there's a lot more before that joke and a lot after it.

If you post things out of context you can get any meaning out of it

madcatladyforever · 17/04/2019 14:56

He is an absolute twat. It isn't big or clever or funny. That is somebody's precious baby.

RomanyQueen1 · 17/04/2019 14:56

People will always like dark humour, you obviously don't and that's fine

derxa · 17/04/2019 14:57

He always seems to have more female than male guests on his show, and gives each a space to opine and comment without patronising. How very generous of him

derxa · 17/04/2019 14:59

He didn't make jokes about Katie price's son, Harvey Well why does the 'joke' include Harvey's name and suggests that he would rape his mother?

JaneJeffer · 17/04/2019 15:00

Madeleine. Not Maddie. Her own mother called her Maddie so why shouldn't OP.

SrSteveOskowski · 17/04/2019 15:04

Obviously in the minority here, but I love Frankie Boyle. He's one of the few comedians who can actually make me laugh. He was always brilliant on 'Mock the Week'.

NoCauseRebel · 17/04/2019 15:35

Tbh I think that banning jokes based on personal taste is a step too far. We are all going to have our own tolerance levels in terms of what we think is and isn’t acceptable, however it’s not for us to say what others are and aren’t allowed to find acceptable.

I don’t particularly like Franky Boyle anyway, however that doesn’t mean that I think that no-one is allowed to like him or his humour.

I went to see that comedian once whose name I have been trying to remember for the past half hour, jimmy someone, eXH liked him, I thought he was crass, vile, offensive, and never,ever again. But someone obviously likes him.

Even with regard to people with disabilities, (and I do have one fwiw) I do feel that the line should be drawn at disabilities which mean people lack the capacity to know or understand that they or their disability is the butt of someone’s joke, iyswim.

And with regards to victims of crimes, I find all the documentaries which have sprung up recently just as much in bad taste. So we’ve had the madeleine McCann documentary which told us absolutely nothing. The ripper files, which I didn’t watch so can’t comment, and tonight we have the James bulger, previously unrevealed evidence one. All of which are designed to pick over the cases of murdered, tortured, missing individuals for the purposes of entertainment. Is that not just as crass as making any of that kind of thing into humour? At least a joke is probably only a matter of minutes at most, whereas some of these documentaries go on for weeks and weeks.

Milkn0sugar · 17/04/2019 15:38

Making jokes about children who have been abducted from their beds and who have never again been seen alive is so incredibly low that it beggars belief. I've found some of his jokes funny over the years but I would have walked straight out if he'd said that in a performance that I had gone to see. He has two kids himself as well. I guess he'd also crack some jokes if one of his own three year-olds had disappeared off the face of the planet and he and his partner never saw or held them ever again. What a total prick.

NoCauseRebel · 17/04/2019 15:51

Do we actually know what the joke was? Or does the mere fact that it makes reference to Madeleine Mccann (who incidentally there is no evidence whether she was abducted, only that she disappeared) make it unacceptable?

FWIW the vile comedian I went to see was Jimmy Carr.

AnnieMay100 · 17/04/2019 15:53

It’s disgusting to make jokes about children particularly missing ones. Bad taste imo there’s plenty of other things to laugh about. The only joke in the whole Madeleine situation is her parents.

BoneyBackJefferson · 17/04/2019 15:53

JaneJeffer

Her own mother called her Maddie so why shouldn't OP.

I seem to remember that there were complaints about the press using maddie as the parents always called her madeleine.

But if the OP is allowed to be "offended" by jokes, then SileneOliveira is allowed to get offended at the name change.

Besides the story has changed so much I would be surprised if anyone actually remembers what was initially reported.

Lifecraft · 17/04/2019 16:02

It’s disgusting to make jokes about children particularly missing ones.

Wow, no jokes about children now, missing or not! That's eradicated a pretty rich seam of humour. I'm sure even Michael McIntyre is going to have to rethink his act if children can't be joked about.

Lifecraft · 17/04/2019 16:09

The only joke in the whole Madeleine McCann situation is her parents

OK, I'm confused now. MM jokes are out, but can we make an MM joke if the butt of the joke are her parents? And if so, how is that different from a rape joke where the butt of the joke is the rapist, or a holocaust joke where the butt of the joke are the Nazis.

It's all getting very complicated.

Samcro · 17/04/2019 16:10

can't stand him. he is not funny just a disablist wanker

PositiveVibez · 17/04/2019 16:14

I too think Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais are geniuses. And I'd add Charlie Brooker to that too

Please don't lump Charlie Brooker in with these. He is in a completely different league.

Whilst I like some of Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais' stuff, some of it makes me cringe inside, which is the reaction they're after.

If I don't like what they're saying, I'll turn off.

Charlie Brooker is not the same. He is pure class. I LURVE him.

idrunthroughanairportforyou · 17/04/2019 16:25

Yes, but not in their attitudes to anyone who isn't 'like them' - ie male. Left wing men are often the worse misogynists - you'll notice the Labour party has never managed a female leader? Because lefty men spout woke crap while despising women a la the repugnant Frankie. At least you know where you are with a Tory.

Again I disagree. I don't think he despises women at all. I'm not sure what the evidence for this is beyond the awful awful jokes about Katie Price.

ChocChocButtons · 17/04/2019 16:28

Frankie Boyle is so unoriginal all his material is bullying jokes about famous People mostly.

TheNavigator · 17/04/2019 16:34

I don't think he despises women at all. I'm not sure what the evidence for this is beyond the awful awful jokes about Katie Price

That's like saying: I don't think Jim Davidson despises blacks, I'm not sure what the evidence is apart from the awful jokes about Chalky.

Of course he is a misogynist - I am a Scot myself and recognise that sort of left Scotsman wanker a mile off. He punches down, with jokes about paedophilia and people with disabilities. But silly sods who like to think they are oh so different from Bernard Mannings' fan base lap it up as 'edgy'.

NKFell · 17/04/2019 16:49

It's always been the case, sweet Fanny Adams? Sweet FA?

I don't think he's misogynistic, on his New World Order he always has women and often talks about feminism.

Lifecraft · 17/04/2019 16:55

That's like saying: I don't think Jim Davidson despises blacks, I'm not sure what the evidence is apart from the awful jokes about Chalky.

It's not like that at all. I can make jokes about Tiger Woods' sex life and that doesn't make me a racist. It might mean I don't like Tiger Woods. Or I might like Tiger Woods, but still think his personal problems are funny. I might be a racist, but you can't tell from a joke I make about Tiger Woods. Someone making jokes about a particular woman, in this case Katie Price, isn't a definite misogynist.

SherryBomb · 17/04/2019 16:55

Though my heart doesn't bleed for him as an individual, I was staggered when someone was jailed a few years ago for copy-pasting Madeline McCann jokes from sikipedia, swapping the name for April Jones, then posting them on his own Facebook.

It's strange that the above is a criminal offence, but if it's on the bbc it's light entertainment.

StillCoughingandLaughing · 17/04/2019 17:23

I hardly think it matters if I use the diminutive of the poor girl’s name!

It suggests you buy into the tacky, tabloid canonisation of a child none of us know; the dreadful ‘unite in the search for the precious, perfect little princess all of Britain wants to bring home’ hyperbole that dominated the press at the time.

HarrysOwl · 17/04/2019 17:52

Humour is so subjective, it should never be censored. At all.

I think some people love getting offended, and to feel all outraged. It makes them feel mighty to vilify a joke or comedian.

Yes, some comedians use shock tactics in their material, but a bad joke is a bad joke regardless of it's subject matter.

I find dark humour sometimes comforting, shedding some sense of irony or thoughtfulness over what would normally be considered an awful situation.

Ever been through a really shit experience only to find the humour in it later? It's sort of like that for me, especially the Humanities stuff. It makes the taboo less shameful, less hidden, and laughing isn't always about laughing at someone, it's about a shared sense of the ridiculousness of life and how we live.