Bernard Manning has died...

[beansprout]

And while I respect the grief of his family and friends, he's frankly no loss to the rest of us.

I too hail from a coundil estate though and wouldn't agree

But thats OK, not agreeing is allowed

Yes, and you are the only person on MN born on a council estate

Um, no she isn't

I don't recall saying I was born on one.

I liked Bernard Manning. Draw from that what you want. The world is like that these days.

BM = crass

In your generation, maybe.

In my generation he was controversial and funny.

Desi, lots of people didn't like him. But you did and good on you for standing your ground. I didn't know his humour, but if I had, I too would have stood my ground.

Nite Hun.x

No he wasn't. You're younger than me.

G'night, gorgeous UCM.

"But the world becomes a smaller place when we lose the ability to laugh at each other."

Yeah... "I keep fit by punching the old bag about every morning. Then I kick her out of bed and tell to make breakfast."

Every time I fail to laugh at that I can feel the world getting a little smaller...

I'm one of the maturer MN-ers (OMG - the bernard manning generation??)...what on earth does it have to do with age or egneration? My parents (really ancient) thought BM was racist and obnoxious in his 60s/70s heyday (as they thought much of the other TV you refer to was pretty damn insulting, too)

I am amazed how confident people are about what other people ought to find funny when levelled at them.

I remember spending the first few minutes of a drama club with two Asian girls crying because someone at school had repeated a BM joke to them.

It was 'what's the difference between a dead paki in the road and a dead rabbit?'
'There are skid marks in front of the rabbit'

Excuse me a mo' while I drop dead laughing.
Or maybe from depsair....

Blu.

The picture painted by BM apologists is that everyone was cheery and racist, it was the norm, and then the "PC brigade" came along in the 80s and stopped the fun.

But my parents were university students in the 50s and were protesting against racism even then. They weren't weirdy radicals, just decent people who saw that it was wrong.

They are just as much "of their time" as BM.

i'm certainly not a bm apologist and do not find his racist act amusing (just some of the other jokes). But it was a different time and majority of the viewing public did watch them. of course we all know it's wrong now.

still no-one answered my chav question! and some radio 4 'comedy' shows take great fun picking on the working class.

another one from the "BM generation"..that sounds awful......no, lots of us knew it was "wrong" at the time and didn't find it funny. I was raised though, for the large part, in 'multi-cultural' inner city Manchester, so laughing at jokes that poked fun at friends/neighbours for the colour of their skin would have been absurd.

And it is a real shame. Lots of evidence he was a really funny man, witty, off the cuff etc. Just...wrong.

I didn't like him and neither did my parents, we're working class from the East End of London. Some people in my family liked him but they're still rascist now and I don't get on with them. In the days before pc my parents still knew rascist humour was wrong and not funny at all. I was raised not to make fun of other people on the basis of race/religion etc and that was right. I'm always amazed people can find rascism funny.

oh i love the way that in dying he has become rehbilitated into not a racist, homophobic, misogynistic, deeply unfunny, sad little man. it always happens.

and Adolf really liked "art"

and he was vegetarian.

People can be really odd, I think. If someone was a bastard they were a bastard. They're just a dead bastard now. If they were criticised - to their face or behind their back - when alive and folks then say what a nice person they were really, just because they have died, that just makes people total hypocrites, doesn't it?

I mean, you wouldn't go up to their relatives and say "thank fuck for that, wasn't he a twat, mind if I have a quick shit on his headstone?" but to sing the praises of a horrible person ??????

And if people really felt there was so much good in the deceased, why didn't they focus on that when they were alive, when it would actually have done some good?!

What is it about stopping breathing that triggers a metamorphosis into Mother Teresa/Ghandi?! Mourn the good, the nice, the deserving, I think.

but who says he was a bastard? it was an 'ACT' he actually did alot for charities and for up and coming comedians.

To lighten the mood

look at this

I have some sympathy with Fio's POV. But it's natural that when someone well-known dies, people comment on it. And BM was well known for being a digusting, racist, misgoynistic bully.

He had a record of picking on the one black person in the audience (at a police function where lots of white coppers applauded or the two black waitreses at a Round Table do). Not enough to tell apalling racist, sexist jokes, he had to target people who were not in a position to defend themselves.

Some of his 'jokes' are so horrendous and hate-filled I wouldn't even post them on here for discussion, tbh.

I kind of agree with you too re timing Fio. But...

Anyway, just to add to the chorus of 'age is no excuse', my parents and grandparents were disgusted by racism and made it very clear to me when I was very small that being nasty to someone because of the colour of their skin was stupid and wrong. I remember my mother trying to explain what the graffiti about 'Blair Peach was innocent' meant.