AIBU to think that Rita, Sue and Bob Too isn’t a laugh riot of a film?

[StanfordPines]

There was a Facebook post a little while ago about the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Lots of people were commenting about what a funny film is was.
I commented that while it is a fantastic film and certainly has a humorous side to it I wouldn’t say it was a funny film. I was told that I was without a sense of humour. I said that I didn’t find a grown man having sex with underage girls to be super funny and was told that that is just how it was then and it was fine.
I deleted my comments and walked away.
I’m the same age as Rita and Sue. It wasn’t how things were then and it wasn’t fine.

AIBU to think that while it is a great film comments like ‘such a funny film’ and ‘you wouldn’t be allowed to make that today’ are just missing the point?

(I know it’s Facebook and I haven’t taken it to heart but was I wrong?)

@RickiTarr
It's a film.
My personal opinion if real life has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a film.
I don't agree with dropping anvils on cats heads, but it cracks me up when Jerry does it to Tom.

I'm very old but I watched a BBC 3video clip about onlyfans I was really shocked is it seen as empowering or whatever to make money this way ?

[quote OhYesChurchill]@RickiTarr
It's a film.
My personal opinion if real life has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a film.
I don't agree with dropping anvils on cats heads, but it cracks me up when Jerry does it to Tom.[/quote]
Are people really this lacking in empathy?

[quote OhYesChurchill]@RickiTarr
It's a film.
My personal opinion if real life has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a film.
I don't agree with dropping anvils on cats heads, but it cracks me up when Jerry does it to Tom.[/quote]
But this was real life. It was real life for a lot of girls like this. It was written from experience.
Hundreds of kids were growing up in homes where they were unloved and uncared for. With abusive parents and no hope.

Yes the film has it’s funny moment, like This is England or Trainspotting, but it is a laugh out loud comedy.

@RickiTarr
It's a film.

Thank you Barry Norman. We got that bit.

@RickiTarr 😂😂😂😂😂

😂

Seriously though, the notion that all “film” is the same genre and social significance as Tom & Jerry. 🙄😏

That word "empowering" crops up when people are selling you a pile of crap ime.

Sounds like the media are still "reflecting real life" in pushing dodgy activity as choice and empowerment. Plus ça change.

Exactly @LookAChicken.

In the 80s being groomed was empowering (and FUN!), in the 90s stripping was empowering and now porn and prostitution are empowering. Same old shit, different day.

You're being a bit of a thickie RickieTarr.

Thank you Barry Norman. We got that bit

HA!

@OhYesChurchill

You're being a bit of a thickie RickieTarr.

Wow. That is your argument?

It's just as constructive.

It us funny, but it’s also dark. I think I would call it a comedy though, if pushed fo assign it to a genre.

I'm northern and was about the same age as Rita and Sue when the film came out. I went to school with quite a few girls who were like Rita and Sue in terms of outward confidence, streetwise etc.

At least 2 married teachers at my school were having affairs with 16 year old girls. People tutted about it, but as the girls were 16 nothing was done - it was legal ( laws preventing teachers from sleeping with pupils over 16 hadn't yet been passed)

I think it's a fabulous film, clever and captures what life was like for a lot of girls growing up in poverty at that time. It has humorous moments and is very watchable even for people not interested in social science, but it's not a comedy.

There are definitely moments of recognition if you grew up in that era. I was actually going out with a boy from Saltaire when the film came out, strangely enough. I remember the film being pretty shocking at the time, despite the comedy gloss it was given, but there was a judgemental attitude to the girls and Bob was not really seen as a paedophile or sexual predator. The 80s were a bloody awful time. I didn't know Andrea Dunbar had died so young and had such a sad life.

Maybe it had to be marketed as a bawdy comedy to appeal to the masses, can’t see a film being promoted about the sexual exploitation of impoverished school girls appealing to a lot of people.
In a way it was a clever to sell it, goes over the head of idiots who think it’s a comedy, but the message hits home to those with a bit of intelligence and sensitivity. I doubt people would still be talking about it today if it’s had been sold as the former, so genius really.

It reminds me of the Snapper, where an older man takes advantage of a very drunk girl and gets her pregnant. I remember at the time thinking it was so funny but i saw it recently and it just felt so wrong. The rest of the film was funny but I didnt like that scene at all.

I watched it when I was fairly young. Say it was set in 1983 for sale of argument they were supposed to be 15 ish I was 10.

Me and my friend viewed it as kind of outrageous funny but exciting what the older girls in the film were doing. Didn't turn a hair at the age gap.

Rita and Sue were sassy and not quite like us but not different either. The bit at the end where he jumps into bed with them both was seen to naive eyes as a win all round :/

And that's how normalisation works I suppose.

Schoolgirls were seen as sexually knowing, tarts etc. Fair game. We consumed it with that understanding of how things worked.

Depressing isn't it.

@fairycakes1234

It reminds me of the Snapper, where an older man takes advantage of a very drunk girl and gets her pregnant. I remember at the time thinking it was so funny but i saw it recently and it just felt so wrong. The rest of the film was funny but I didnt like that scene at all.

Same, the first time I saw it I didn't quite grasp that Mister Burrrrrgess was raping her

Just seen the post before mine.

People say 'won't someone think of the children' to shut up women who have been teenagers and grown up.

Yes someone should because kids/ younger teens do NOT view these things with the same eyes as adults.

Female ones anyway I can only know how I feel and another poster is similar. I have no idea what blokes think about this stuff tbh.

How do people feel about the TV series Shameless? I've only seen bits and pieces of it, not a full programme or series, but what I saw I wasn't keen on. It reminded me of people I've met, or they've lived nearby, or whatever, I know of people who do have such chaotic lives and I couldn't find it funny. But it was very popular so am I just being prissy? I haven't seen enough of it to judge it fairly.

I never saw it apart from clips either. I didn't feel put off or anything. You could say the same about trainspotting or the title family or even fools and horses etc

I mean no one has to watch anything obviously. But I suppose the point of this thread was it's hard to find much without sex thrown in /or for me it's sexual violence against women that I avoid and it's just everywhere. Never used to be.

So more directly I don't think you can judge something you haven't seen but if you don't fancy it then you don't fancy it.

Mrs brown's boys might be an example for me