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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to find this " Best Gag of the Edinburgh Festival in poor taste?

418 replies

speakout · 19/08/2019 21:04

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-49389208

I have seen and read this "joke " repeated several times on TV in the past few days and find it in very poor taste. Newsreaders on TV have been chuckling. Tourette's can be a serious and debilatating condition and sufferers have huge challenges in everyday life. Surely we are a bit more grown up these days than to poke fun at people with a neurological condition?
Is is just me being stuffy?

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 20/08/2019 16:27

Making fun of anybody in a way that may upset or distress them is shitty behaviour - even more so if it's done for laughs.

Whilst you're correct, the flip side is some people seem to go out of their way to be offended - which I would suggest rather negates the "offence" they claim ...

MrsBethel · 20/08/2019 16:28

Seeking offense is becoming a national sport. It's absolutely pathetic.

Lifecraft · 20/08/2019 16:29

Making fun of anybody in a way that may upset or distress them is shitty behaviour - even more so if it's done for laughs.

No jokes about individual politicians then?

Yabbers · 20/08/2019 16:30

Seeking offense is becoming a national sport. It's absolutely pathetic.

That may be true. But that doesn’t give a green light for people to be gratuitously offensive then claim “oh everybody is offended these days” which happens a lot too.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2019 16:37

And it’s interesting that many people have said that they don’t find this joke actually offensive- they just find it in poor taste and possibly upsetting- so why not make a joke about something else?
All the “people are just looking for things to be offended by” are very like the people who used to say “Yoj can’t say anything these days” but could never come up with something they couldn’t say that wasn’t racist, sexist, homophobic or disablist.

DGRossetti · 20/08/2019 16:37

But that doesn’t give a green light for people to be gratuitously offensive

Adding the word "gratuitously" to the word "offensive" doesn't change the fact that offensive is itself subjective ...

Original poster
speakout · 20/08/2019 16:51

*BertrandRussell
And it’s interesting that many people have said that they don’t find this joke actually offensive- they just find it in poor taste and possibly upsetting- so why not make a joke about something else? *

Yes- I am not personally offended by this joke- I have never claimed to be.
I have suggested that it is in poor taste and is insensitive to those who may live with the challenges of Tourette's

OP posts:
Lifecraft · 20/08/2019 16:53

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Yabbers · 20/08/2019 17:00

Adding the word "gratuitously" to the word "offensive" doesn't change the fact that offensive is itself subjective ...

It can be. But it is also the case that there are things which are obviously offensive to the vast majority of people. The problem comes where people pretend that line doesn’t exist and use it as an excuse.

Lepetitpiggy · 20/08/2019 17:06

I only have one ear. DD only has one ear (well outed!) I have spent a lifetime hearing (haha) Van Gogh jokes seeing Van Gogh jokes on cards, watching comedians joke about Van Gogh - or ears. I don't give a monkeys. Sometimes I say 'I've only got one ear' which people find hard to believe - then I try to explain our condition - if anyone is interested.

DGRossetti · 20/08/2019 17:11

It can be. But it is also the case that there are things which are obviously offensive to the vast majority of people.

Yes, but you are still only qualifying a subjective judgement ..

Also, where exactly do you lay the blame for the "offence" ? After all, Mr. Falafel didn't suddenly appear behind you and tell the joke when you least expected it. In fact unless you were actually present when he was performing, you didn't hear the joke at all.

What you did get was a BBC reporting of an award that Dave makes every year, that Mr. Falafel happened to win. Which means you were never meant to hear the joke in the first place.

worriedaboutmygirl · 20/08/2019 17:14

“No jokes about shitty politicians then”

If you can’t tell the difference between satire or jokes used to send up people in a position of power and jokes which appropriate demeaning stereotypes about people with disabilities then there is no hope of you understanding this.

Imagine being a kid dealing with a disability and having to really that society is happy to laugh about reductive and potentially stigmatising tropes about your disability. And that anyone who questions it is shouted down for “seeking offence”.

It’s a bit different to being someone who’s put themselves forward for political office knowing that politicians are a target of humour.

Can you see that?

YouTheCat · 20/08/2019 17:18

Those poor politicians! Forced against their will to become members of parliament, working 8 or 9 hours a week, having to have their meals and alcohol subsidised. My heart bleeds, it really does.

It's just not the same as someone who has a lifelong condition.

DGRossetti · 20/08/2019 17:20

I wonder what Lost Voice Guy would make of all this. From what I recall from his T-Shirt, he's only in it for the parking ....

lostvoiceguy.com/

YouTheCat · 20/08/2019 17:23

He isn't making a joke at anyone else's expense though, is he?

PuppyMonkey · 20/08/2019 17:25

Lost Voice Guy has been tweeting today saying he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the joke.

Iggii · 20/08/2019 17:27

My ds has been having investigations for Tourette's. It isn't helped that the condition is already known to him, as something that makes people shout out inappropriately and rudely. In fact it is rare for people with Tourette's to shout swear words, but that's the only type that most people have ever heard of.
It's hardly the most offensive joke in the world but being given the joke of the festival - does that make life easier for people (often children) with Tourette's or does it make it harder?

worriedaboutmygirl · 20/08/2019 17:31

“He isn’t making a joke at anyone’s expense”

It’s reductive and it’s saying it’s ok for a complex condition to be the butt of a joke.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2019 17:32

Yes- I do think it’s significant that it has been chosen as the best joke of the festival. It’s validating making jokes about disabilities. When we have finally managed to move away from that sort of thing.

YouTheCat · 20/08/2019 17:32

I meant Lostvoiceguy - not the joke in the OP.

BarberaofSeville · 20/08/2019 17:36

Why does it matter whether lost voice guy finds a particular joke offensive or not? Is it because he is disabled? I'm sure he doesn't present himself as a spokesman for every person with a disability or neurological illness. He's entitled to his opinion and those of us who disagree are entitled to ours.

Lifecraft · 20/08/2019 20:19

No jokes about shitty politicians then

If you can’t tell the difference between satire or jokes used to send up people in a position of power and jokes which appropriate demeaning stereotypes about people with disabilities then there is no hope of you understanding this

But @Youthecat said Making fun of anybody in a way that may upset or distress them is shitty behaviour - even more so if it's done for laughs.

@Youthecat didn't say "excluding politicians or others in power."

Can no one else see that when you start saying what people should and should not joke about, you run into all kinds of issues. For a start, everybody has a different view on what is and isn't acceptable.

If you can't see that, then I'm afraid it's you who has no hope of understanding this.

YouTheCat · 20/08/2019 20:22

You can find whatever you like to be funny and I can choose to judge you for it if it involves ridiculing vulnerable people.

sonjadog · 20/08/2019 20:36

I really liked the cow joke up-thread. That one should have won.

worriedaboutmygirl · 20/08/2019 21:43

Oh please! Equating finding it a bit offensive that someone is using a tired stereotype that is unhelpful to some with disabilities to an attack on freedom of speech is delusional and massively over inflated. It’s a shame that people don’t have the empathy to understand why a joke like that could be problematic but trying to shut down their opinion by trying to make out that it is an attack on free speech is farcical.