To think the slebs on most of comic relief are a bunch of self promoting arseholes?

[ssd]

they are just doing it to get on the telly - AGAIN

that lot on the apprentice last night
Jonathon Ross
Carol Voderman etc etc

is there anything they wouldn't do?

bet most of them give hee haw to charity the rest of the year

wish there was another way to put forward this cause without making it an ego trip for all the eegits

YABU - I have just watched the Kilimanjaro climb and all I can say is WOW!

That isn't an easy thing for anyone to do. And to have raised that much money is amazing.

My first thought was for the porters and climbers in front and am so pleased they are well paid. I was also pleased to see how much the 'celebs' appreciated them and said they couldn't have do it without them.

I don't watch half of these things, only because I can't see the horrors in which those poor people have to live.

Long may it continue that it is brought to our attention and hopefully in time they won't have to.

yanbu - hardly bono or phil collins up the mountain was it? radio djs and cheryl sodding cole.....? All it needed for total naffness and self absorbedness was myleene klass..............

Only read the beginning bit of the thread (need to get DD2 down for a nap) but I thought I saw Jason Donovan too. Then I thought I must have mistaken him for Denise Van Outen!

YABU they are TV personalities. Thats their day job - being on TV.

YANBU in that tehy are filled with their self importance, but again that just goes with the job!

I know a couple who climbed Mt K just a few weeks ago ..... no trips to the gym or decrompression tanks tho ...and they said it was easy !

They are keen walkers though so maybe that helps, or there again maybe saying it is easy just doesnt make good viewing.

I have to say that although I enjoyed the Apprentice muchly, I found Jonathan Ross to be entirely self-promoting. (And no matter how much 'charidee' work Carol Voldermort does, she will always just be very wrong).

All Wossy needs now is for Surallen to fire him tonight and it will be his sack cloth and ashes moment, his mea culpa, his "I was a bad boy but look what a sport I am now" moment.

But then, isn't that the point of all these celebrities? They are entirely self-serving. You have to have an ego the size of Basildon to believe that you are worth the money you are worth and that the sh't you publicly spout (take a bow Chris Boyles) is actually amusing.

That said, the pontificating antics of these slebs and the nationwide promotion of the day itself, does make us reach into our pockets for an amazing cause.

We only have to stomach a bunch of smug celebrities gurning their way through Comic Relief in the name of light entertainment, for one day.

Those kids dying of Malaria (for e.g) have a whole lot worse to put up with.

Oh I think it's all one big wank, and an excuse for essentially humourous, self-righteous, stupid people to annoy and inconvenience others (barging into workplaces wearing red noses and rattling collecting buckets, blocking the traffic by pushing a bath of baked beans with a wanker in it up the road, etc) cos it's 'all for charidee.'
And yes, stupid people often give more because they've watched some grinning airhead on the telly say they should, but there's no reason to spend a fortune on flying the grinning airheads halfway round the world for a big ego-trip up a mountain. Why not just tie them all to posts in the middle of Wembley Stadium and charge the public to throw turds at them? I'd donate to that...

OK so some of hte fundraising approaches may grate slightly (Cheryl Cole was particularly annoying last night) but this is probably the only time in a year that some people actually pay attention to international development and find out something about it. The celebrities are undoubtedly a huge draw - it quite simply wouldn't work without them.

I'm a fan of Red Nose Day - the organisation I work for has had Comic Relief funding for several projects.

I've also visited the type of hospitals and projects that they show on the programme and our projects have also been filmed. The need is huge. They're not exaggerating that. Comic Relief are also a funder who does really make sure that the money gets to those who need it.

YABU

It's for charity. Who cares so long as it raises the money so desperately needed.

If you don't like - don't watch.

what Hulababy says is true, but I can't help but feel annoyed that very rich people can happily exhort not so very rich people to give lots of money. So I don't think YABU - it's just so much extra publicity really.

The truth is, however, that it takes "very rich people" to do it because no one listens to ordinary people. Money come flooding in for the celebrity-climbs-a-mountain thing but trickles in for this

Well I don't watch any of the smug wankathons. Most of it passes me by - except the packs of twunts dressed in red who suddenly interrupt what one is doing, or get in the way, screaming and yowling and getting all arsy if you tell them to fuck off out of it. I'm not going to give anyone money for annoying me. I have standing orders set up for charitable donations, thanks.

If you want to get other people involved, you always need someone with profile, power, personality or persuasion...whether that is in a workplace, family, school or country!

Slebs happen to have most of these factors, so are very useful 'tools' to fundraisers.

All of the charities I know, big and small, have supporters who are there because of 'who they know' or 'who they reach' not 'what they give'...just as valuable as the next donor, in my book.

I would have had a lot more sympathy for the celebs if (apparently)Gary Barlow hadn't decided that they were not going to fly home on the ordinary flight that had been booked for them and hired a private jet to bring them home in style. Really, he could have just donated the money and saved us all the ordeal of watching them.

Also, did they really need to focus on Fern's fainting fit - shame it happened but compared to what those children were enduring it did not come over well and like a previous poster said, nothing a good meal wouldn't have sorted. Some more intelligent editing was called for.

not read all the posts but in my opinion who cares if they are self promoting and using comic relief to boost their career? if it was just a bunch of 'normal' people doing silly things and making prats of themselves in some cases not that many people would be too interested. Comic relief is only so popular and such a successful charity BECAUSE of the celebs that help promote it, otherwise it would only raise a fraction of the money it actually does raise

i avoid cr like the plague. we've ordered The Wire from lovefilm and we'll be watching about 8 episodes to make sure we don't catch any so called comedians emotionally blackmailing viewers.

yes, giving to charity is a great idea. let's all do more of it.

another great idea would be western governments using the billions of taxpayers money being pumped into the increasingly vampiric banking system to feed, clothe and house the entire developing world.

but not a single 'edgy' comedian is going to take that message and shove it down the throats of world leaders every 15 minutes, are they? not that they have more to give than we do/more control over the world economy/ ending poverty or anything like that. no that's just crazy talk.

'There was a girl who I worked with who organised loads of events for children in need. She so only did it for the attention everyone gave her though. She was constantly banging on about it and made a big speech before a raffle she organised and basically got everyone to thank her for organising the whole thing and tell her how great she is, shed revelled in it like a pig in shite'

yep those poeple exist (did a stint as a prof fundraiser myself) but perhaps it was her cash that gave my son language? Because you havre to eigh up the balances and tbh does a litt;e attention seeking matter when it saves lives / gets facillities for children in need?

Like someone said... the man abseiling down a building amyw ell be an attention seeker..... the difference is when he does it 89 colleagues sponsor him £1.50 each; if Hello sleb f the year does it sshe / he makes ten grand.

Besides if you think about there are a lot of slebs not involved so heck, if the by product of Red Nose day is that the ones who do raise cash get a little extra publicity, why on earth not?

yeah what peachy's saying. I used to be v cynical about charideee stuff. But yeah all that aside, money = help in much needed areas.

Bigger questions on reliance on charitable status and absense of central funding etc etc far more complex than sticking quid in a tin.

YABU

It raises millions for a great cause. And how do you know how much they give 'quietly' to charity?

Celebs are damned either way.

I hate watching Comic Relif as it's mostly a total cringe fest (I haven't recovered yet from some hideous sketch featuring Harry Enfield spanking Ulrika Jonson on the bum) but the fact is, it raises vital cash.

If they weren't celebs, nobody would watch it and there would be no money raised.

Maybe next year we could raise money by letting the celebs we slag off on MN throw wet sponges at us in Covent Garden. Now that would be funny. Who do you think would be first in the queue. We could have our nicknames around our necks!
Of course Gina Ford (lets not say any more)
Any more?

Everything paddad and peachy said....

those who claim that Fern's condition could have been sorted by having had a good meal clearly don't actually have any understanding or knowledge of altitude sickness.

I find it incredible that people are happy to see Jade Goody on the front of every tabloid and magazine in the name of wanting to keep her children at private school, and yet these people are helping raise funds that will benefit millions of underprivilaged people and they are criticised for doing it.

God, I am completely sitting in the fence with this one.

It is great that they are raising money but I find the whole Shleb thing pissing annoying. Didn't watch the Kilamanjaro thing because I can't stand Chris Moyles. Really, i don't have the money to buy a new TV after having hurled my present one out of the window.

I did watch the Apprentice and TBH none of them came across well (except myabe Jack Dee). When exactly, if ever, was Ruby Wax last funny?

While I am at, tonight we will be subjected to Lenny Henry, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and a whole load of has beens. Yes, I know they were there at the beginning but they have to pass the baton on. It really is up there with Jimmy Tarbuck and his caridde golf.

Wannabe is right, altitude sickness can affect anyone. I did the Inca Trail and out of 12 of us, there was only 4 who didn't get very sick on Day 3 (I had to help DH and 2 other blokes down the steep trail who were really weak from vomiting all night, no fab porters for us!). At the time I was really unfit and a smoker, not very thin though, it has to be said!

She didn't have altitude sickness when she was visiting the children in hospital. That was the fainting episode I was referring to.

I think the way she carried on up the mountain with altitude sickness was the most admirable part of the whole event but fainting in the hospital while children were dying around her didn't warrant the attention it got in the report in my opinion.

I did have to give a minor at the porters.... would love to do kilimanjaro but know there would be not a porter in sight LOL.

But Dh said no chance so we'regoing to have to do the Great Wall when we can instead.