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?)

Definitely hits close to the bone this film. I grew up in the south-east and one of the guys running the local funfair was known to take young girls home. He gave my friend his number once - we were 12 and looked it.

I had no idea what a tragic life Andrea had, plus what happened to her daughters- absolutely shocking. I hope her son has had a better life.

It's Alan Clarke, it's 80s British cinema. It was fucking bleak.

Willy Russell's 'Stags and Hens', that was another one.

I found it pretty grim/depressing, though it is actually described as a black comedy.

I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, to be honest I never heard of any 15 year olds having sex with 40 year olds.

To be honest, the worst (and it seems worse now than at the time) was dodgy 24/25 year olds hanging around our 6th form, 6th form parties and various indie/rock club's. (I would describe my background as working class/lower middle class if that is relevant)

East is East is also really true to life and in the same vein. The film captured domestic violence and the mix of Pakistani / Irish culture and kids rejecting their fathers culture well.

I always hated this film although pretended to find it funny as everyone else seemed to. I was the same age as Rita and Sue and it was nothing like my experience growing up although I did hear about similar things happening to girls at school.

I grew up in the 80s and sexual harassment of schoolgirls was common. Sam fox on page 3. Girls seen as 'tarts'. And it cut across all society.

Remember this is when we had Mandy Smith on TV aged 15 I think it was. Being interviewed with Bill about the exciting romantic engagement.

It’s absolutely dreadful, poverty porn at its worst.
So depressing that the writer was just talking about her own experiences.
It wasn’t like she “got out” and so she could laugh at it from the perspective of a better life.
Sadly it got no better for her own kids and her poor poor grandchild.

I was a teen in the 80s, grew up on a Northern council estate and yes, there were always teens who pursued and went with much older men. It was a badge of honour if they had a car and could pick you up from school.
Bob, Sue and Rita too was never meant to be a comedy, though it is funny in places, but too close to home in others. It does leave you feeling grimy and a bit uncomfortable, which I'm sure was the idea.
And yes, it was a time when the Mandy Smith and Bill Wyman thing was all over the papers and Sam Fox only being 16. The 80s were grim in some ways.

Those mentioning Mandy Smith & Bill Wyman, i also remember Emma Ridley (the "wild child") who eloped with a 30 year old man when she was 15, Amanda De Cadenet married John Taylor from Duran Duran when she was 19 & he was 31 (so technically an adult, but significant age gap for a teenager.

All this was celebrated in the newspapers and I remember (as an impressionable teenager) thinking how cool they were. Teenage girls & much older men was almost celebrated.

John Peel married his first wife when he was 26 and she was 15.

John Peel because he was respected as a DJ is often excused for his behaviour

He didn’t hide his liking for school girls

Unfortunately others are excused too David Bowie and Jimmy Page because they were/are great musicians 🙄

@StanfordPines

John Peel married his first wife when he was 26 and she was 15.

How did he marry her when she was 15?

Never heard of Google?

'While residing in Dallas, Texas, in 1965, he married his first wife, Shirley Anne Milburn, then aged 15,'

@VanGoghsDog they married in Texas in the 60s.

Until 2017, with a judge’s permission there was actually no minimum age to marry in Texas.

www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/12-year-olds-married/

Try this to read about US girls aged 12 being married off, in the 21st fucking century 🤬

15 in the 60s was nothing compared to that!

Yuck!

I think it one of the most tiresome films I have ever watched.

@NiceGerbil

I grew up in the 80s and sexual harassment of schoolgirls was common. Sam fox on page 3. Girls seen as 'tarts'. And it cut across all society.

Remember this is when we had Mandy Smith on TV aged 15 I think it was. Being interviewed with Bill about the exciting romantic engagement.

Safely these things are still common now and seem to have lately regressed. The awful stories about what's happening in our schools are evidence enough of that.

Sadly - that's meant to say.

@Cocomarine that is shocking

I remember watching this film as a young teenager in the 80s and being equally horrified and depressed.

Thankfully, it was nothing like my experience of being a 'Northern' teenager in the 1980s.

Watched it recently and found it so depressing. Girls with no aspirations and sleazy men. Andrea Dunbar had a similar life...died very young

The girls knew there probably wasn't much point in them having aspirations beyond getting pregnant and getting married was the point that Andrea Dunbar was trying to get across, I think.
But the film makers changed it into a sex romp comedy, to a certain extent, for some odd reason.

I've just had a look at her biography on wikipedia, sad indeed.