Little Britain apology

[sunlightflower]

David Walliams and Matt Lucas have apologised for playing characters of different races in Little Britain. Walliams also apologised in 2017 for playing a transvestite.

But they haven't apologised for mocking disabled people, women, the working class... Is that all ok then?

Am I being unreasonable to think this just doesn't make sense? I'm not sure where I draw the line on what is and isn't acceptable in comedy and I'm not saying the right approach is to censor everything. But why are some groups fair game and others aren't?

[MrsBobDylan]

They should apologise for the lack of comedy in general. I only watched once and found it hard to break a smile, much less laugh.

[Viviennemary]

Was there anybody LB didn't mock. Still some of the stuff was pretty offensive.

[daisydukes7576]

That they "mocked everyone" is no excuse - did they really mock/criticise rich white men?! Not much to my recollection!

This is so true!! Disgusting isn't it - and
Just disgusting how society has very few if any negative stereotypes and white men. Funny that.

[Xylophonics]

Agree Squishybones. The good thing about Ricky Gervais is that he is always able to defend his position.

[Davincitoad]

It’s called comedy.

[MrsSimples]

I thought it was mocking prejudices I.e. the fact that they exist (xenophobia, homophobia, racism, class snobbery, vs disabled) etc.
Without those prejudices and stereotypes there would be no humour? It's not to everyone's taste but a lot comedy works on exaggeration to generate shock, bordering on offensive, ... because there is some recognition of realism?

[SquishyBones]

Don’t worry about Ricky Gervais apologising, I can guarantee he won’t 😂

[TheVoiceOfReasonableness]

What happened to Omid Djalili? He used to send up every race and religion in his shows of the same era as Little Britain, Harry & Paul, Bo Selecta etc.

Bit different as he’s British Iranian, not white, but he used to send up different races all the time.

He would say that race humour was “not racism” but “playing with race”.

I seem to remember that in mainstream comedy in the 80s and 90s race humour was taboo, and was surprised to see it come back in the 2000s.

Maybe everything goes in cycles and in ten or twenty years time it will suddenly be back again.

I would like to hear from BAME people about how they feel about such humour, as at the
moment there seem to be many white saviour types around with a monopoly on righteousness.

[TheVoiceOfReasonableness]

I watched some “Love thy Neighbour” to see what all the fuss was about.

In actual fact even that comedy was a dig at bigotry and stereotypes.

The premise is that a successful black Tory voter moves in next to a chippy white working class Labour voter.

Their wives get on extremely well and treat the men and their prejudices like children.

It’s obviously notorious because of the language used, but the message is actually anti-bigotry rather than a celebration of it.

Just like Alf Garnett was meant to be a mocking of the character’s old fashioned attitudes (though the thicker members of the audience didn’t quite get that).

[Graphista]

I've always found them unfunny and offensive. Nasty pair of bigots to be quite honest.

That they "mocked everyone" is no excuse - did they really mock/criticise rich white men?! Not much to my recollection! They're nothing but sanctified bullies!

Sooner they disappear the better I'm HUGELY disgusted they chose Matt to take over from Sandi on bake off too. There are loads of women who would do a much better job and not risk destroying it with an ill thought nasty comment

Little Britain was made in the 00's, hardly the depths of the 60's/70's when racism and other bigotry was sadly more widely acceptable, but in years when they must have bloody well known what they were writing and producing was out of order.

they aren’t actually remorseful and are just jumping on the bandwagon.

Exactly my thoughts.

Also possibly trying to avoid not being hired for future work. David is doing relatively well unfortunately but Matt isn't so much so that may well be a concern for him.

@TreeTopTim I stopped watching SVU which I used to enjoy since Mariska hargitay (among other celebs) decided to support a real life paedophile and his wife with their play about how awful their lives were as a result of his being caught!! Mariska has previously made a big thing of supporting organisations that support victims of sexual abuse so really should have known a lot better!

[Campervan69]

nationalpost.com/news/canada/becoming-disabled-by-choice-not-chance-transabled-people-feel-like-impostors-in-their-fully-working-bodies

Link here to information about the trans abled community.

[Campervan69]

Don't you think the Andy and Lou characters were portraying the trans abled people? I believe there is a whole community who like to pretend to be disabled when in fact they are not.

[recycledteenager24]

*little britain

[recycledteenager24]

plenty of people watched it when it was on tv and it seemed to be very popular. if you don't want to admit to it now that's fine but there are plenty of other things in relation to women being put on that do not get addressed.
anyone watch 'love thy neighbour' in the '70's ? that is so bad by todays standards the clenchers would end up with their knickers up their backsides ! far worse than alot of stuff people are whining about recently.

[N0tfinished]

@Serendippity they ended up winning the lottery!

I don't remember the characters' names so I had a bit of a google.
Tim nice but Dim - middle class & job in the City
Tory Boy - self explanatory!
Angry Frank
Loadsamoney

Etc etc

[oprahfan]

Oh flippin ‘eck.....here we go AGAIN!

I remember Les Dawson speaking in the early 90’s about comedy and the ‘offended’ brigade.
He said that there will ALWAYS be a section of the population who will get OFFENDED about absolutely anything. He never swore. Was never racist. He commented that if he made a joke about an infected big toe, someone sure as hell would get in touch to say they had an infected big toe and that he shouldn’t joke about it!
He made mother in law jokes but he got in extremely well with his MIL.
The world is better with comedy.
Gods sake, we need all the bloody laughs we can get.
We have changed for the better in the UK in many areas.
Little Britain took the piss out of everyone. There is a lot of very ridiculous cherry picking of offence going on.
Rather than just being offended about comedy, bloody well make a difference in our society and lives of others instead of sniping and spouting shite.
Contribute to charities, be a better human being, stop thinking about your goddamn selves and how offended you are, and make an actual difference.
Oh, and if you stop watching tv, it gives you more time to make a better society. Please do not forget your sense of fun, laughter is very important. We cannot change the past. We must not erase history. Be better. Do better.

[jobhunter7]

@Pelleas

Well I guess you can remove the odd word, I suppose. I am sure they've done that with Only Fools & Fawlty Towers...

And I don't think Del Boy was a racist...

But otherwise you make a fine point.

[Pelleas]

Television has always been a reflection of its time. I was shocked a few years ago when we bought a box set of 'Only Fools and Horses' and decided to watch them from the beginning - in more than one early episode, a racial slur is used casually. But at the time the programmes were made, a character like Del probably would have spoken like that without attracting comment. We can't change the past and we shouldn't attempt to deny it by erasing evidence - we should acknowledge it and vow to be better.

[AdoptedBumpkin]

I agree, arguably some other caricatures are more offensive.

[Booksandwine80]

Oh this.....again 🙄. Let it go, seriously 😐

[Andante57]

If tv shows and films are being removed then why not literature?

[jobhunter7]

I don't think any of the masks in Bo Selecta actually looked too like the characters in real life. Imagine if you were the target and your children were bullied because of it.

I am not convinced Leigh Francis was actually mocking the people he was portraying.

[Xylophonics]

I don't think Little Britain ever set out to say that all disabled people are faking it to be fair. Used to find it funny, but it's definitely dated.

I nearly had the rage hearing that League of gentlemen was being taken off Netflix and BBC .

It is in fact staying on BBc. Thankfully.

[AragornsManlyStubble]

Not the point of the thread but I found Ricky Gervais’s Derek to be excellent.

I don’t give a monkey’s that he’s portraying someone with a disability when he has none himself. I can’t speak for everyone at all but I certainly wasn’t offended, my son has DS and I found the programme to be well considered and thought provoking while still being humorous. I believe he did a very good job acting something that I can relate to. I would hate him to apologise for it.

[SerenDippitty]

Compare it to Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse- the targets were far more likely to be in a position of power- rich or aggressive white men.

Wayne and Waynetta Slob?