Frankie Boyle on Down Syndrome - horrific

[Lymond]

interesting blog post from a mother of a DS daughter who was blasted by a 5-10 minute diatribe containing all the old stereotypes about people with DS at a Frakie Boyle show. I'm turning off any TV show he's on in future.

blog here

Grauniad article on it here

If I was Frankie Boyle's agent, I'd be telling him to a. contact the mother and offer a full, honest, unreserved apology and b. offer to do a benefit for the relevant charity - Down's Syndrome Association? Let him put his brain to work doing something positive to sort this out.

He could have handled it all so much better. After talking to them and realising why they were so upset, he said he 'didn't give a f*'. That's really cutting edge isn't it.

But how could he do that? I mean, say that he'll get back to the woman and admit that he went too far/do a benefit gig for DS charities etc etc. ALL his humour is along those lines - he'd end up with no material if he had to cut everything out that might offend some people.

Again, he's not my cup of tea but he's very easy for me to ignore. I don't watch him on TV and I don't go and see his gigs.

If you buy a ticket for a show entitled 'I'd happily punch every one of you in the face' - you know what you are getting and you can't complain about ANY of it imo.

It reminds me again of the Russell/Jonathan 'scandal'. The VAST majority of the complainers weren't RB/JR fans, would never listen to Russell's show - but on reading the eughh Daily Mail, they actively went to youtube or whatever and watched the clip KNOWING they would be offended and then complained!!! Huh???!!

"There's a massive gulf between intelligent satirists like Chris Morris and playground bullies like Frankie Boyle. Chris Morris exposes stupidity and prejudice, while Boyle spreads it. "

To some people, to others there's absolutely none, hence Chris Morris having to leave the country for a period after "paedogeddon" and not working on tv for ages afterwards. It's all about subjective taste.

"Of course you are free to object to an act that you've paid to see. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise. You don't get to see the script before you buy the tickets."

No you don't get to see the script, agreed. But you do know the type of humour that you are going to be presented with that night and the shows title is "i'd happily punch every one of you iin the face". It's akin to someone going to a southpark movie and complaining that it was crude and vulgar. Now once again they have every right to complain, agreed, but I'd have little sympathy for them if they said they'd watched southpark on tv many times and were looking forward to seeing the writers without the shackles of tv executives attempting to censor them bu this time they decided to focus on something which was close to their heart.

Hmmm...FB tells a joke about SN..(just like he has a million times before) someone who has paid to see him (and knows what he's about) gets offended...er, where is the story here..?

People like FB because he is offensive...he's built his career on it...I like him (in small doses)

one of his fave words is retard, so there really is nothing to be suprised at...

I agree with MQ. I've seen FB live twice, he was absolutely brilliant both times but went 'too far' a few times in his set and maybe only half the audience laughed.

His act is what it is - and while anybody has a right to complain about anything they've seen, I personally would like to know what edgy jokes have made the blog woman laugh before he touched upon a subject close to her.

I see loads of comedy each year (I live in Edinburgh) and FB is in the paddling pool of offensiveness if that is your cup of tea.

While I'd be demanding heads to roll if this was aired on the BBC I don't believe in censorship of live acts, no matter who is offended by them. I guess now at least there will be fewer people turning up to see FB not knowing what to expect. I won't be going to see him again as I feel he has worn out his welcome a bit and I can't be arsed with all that Kerry Katona stuff. This doesn't endear me to him at all but I doubt he'll sell fewer tickets.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion of his humour and that kind of humour in general. It's a tricky subject and it probably is best if kept to live shows where people pay specifically for that.

I am having trouble feeling sympathy though for someone who went because she enjoyed him being nasty about people and only got offended when she felt it applied to her situation.

Exactly onagar...don't go if you know you are going to be offended...sorry, but a parent of a SN child going to see FB...what did she expect?... I have no sympathy for her.

We need people like FB..who the hell decides what people are allowed to laugh at and be entertained by....the reason he is so popular is because people are fed up with the boring Stephen Fry lot..

I don't want to be told what I can and can't find funny.

In my experience - and I'm not talking about FB and his joke here, but in general - the sort of people that are easily outraged by edgy humour are the sort of people that don't have much of a sense of humour in the first place.

Some comedians were telling jokes about 911 a week after it happened. I'm sure I laughed at some of them - it doesn't mean I wasn't horrified by 911, it doesn't mean that I didn't feel incredibly sad for those that had died or lost loved ones.

It's a joke - it's not real.

Bad taste humour can be funny.

most comedians are going to offend someone, its unfair to laugh at jokes when its about someone else and then complain when it touches closer to home, if you are worried about being offended then don't go. how many of us have laughed at comedy about other people, I do however agree it should be censored on TV but if someone chooses to go to a show then they have to take it on the chin if its offensive.

I don't think 'kids with DS have bad haircuts' is bad taste humour. I think it's just nastiness. I used to write comedy, btw, some of it incredibly tasteless. But never resorted to 'ooh, look at the special needs kids over there, don't they look funny'. Or picking on anyone else who couldn't defend themselves.

Nancy66 perhaps some of us don't find this "edgy humour " funny because it isn't.
would you lol at my dd? of course not, so why is it ok to laugh at a joke that takes the piss out of disabled people.

2shoes....comedians take the piss out of loads of people....there will always be someone who is offended by something...

Jo Brands whole act was taking the piss out of fat people...

Just because you find it offensive means nothing tbh...he will carry on

I heard him say on TV the other day something about how it takes him a full 40 minutes to 'knock one out' while watching Loose Women.

I'm pretty damn sure he doesn't feature very highly in the fantasies of (m)any women.

I've always disliked Boyle and I don't think BBC Radio 4 should give him credibility by allowing him on their shows.

lololololololo

2shoes - you don't have to find it funny, that's fine.

Maybe you think Dad's Army and Terry and June is the last word in cutting edge comedy. That's fine too - I'd never dream of telling you what you can and can't laugh at.

lol Nancy66....Terry and June, the last word in cutting edge comedy....

I am going to bed smiling...

"I do remember an interview with Jimmy Carr where he said that his favourite noise in the whole world was the laughter of the audience which was then cut off by an 'ohhhh...' sound because it meant that they had laughed first and then suddenly realised the deeper thing in the joke and had laughed instinctively before they realised how 'edgy' it was. I'm describing that from memory, I can't remember his exact words so please don't quote me on that.

But what it made me think, was that he was sort of like a child who is told not to touch something and so gets a perverse pleasure out of touching it just very slightly"

i saw that snippet of that interview and completely agreed with him. It's one of the things I love about "edgy" (as seems to be the term of the thread) comedy when done right. It's not a simple case of saying the most offensive thing possible because then the person will either not laugh at all or laugh but not feel guilty about it because they honestly hold these views. What Carr goes for is getting an instinctive laugh because the people find the joke funny but then when they have a second to think about it question wether he's gone too far. Once again the subjectiveness of comedy kicks in because if you like him you are going to justify it by saying he is cleverly juxtaposing the audiences personal humour and dark thoughts against the perceived modern public standards and the morality that people often feign to fit in, and by making them instinctively laugh and then question it he is not revealing his own prejudices and bigotry but revealing the hypocrisy of people who feel the need to justify their humour or present a certain moralistic facade for public acceptance by tongue clucking and ooohing after they have already laughed because they found it funny.
If you dislike him you are going to pan him for doing lowest common denominator facile shock material to equally bigotted morons who, having been deprived of the victorian freakshow (although C4's cutting edge series does a good line in public interest/lets all stare at a freak documentries), need a new socially acceptable medium through whioch to mock those who are different or in the minority.

daftpunk, no suprise that you find him funny!!

2shoes, if you can honestly tell me you have never laughed at someone else's misfortune then you are a saint.....I get jokes sent to me pretty much everyday...99% of them unprintable on MN....I got this 2 minutes after it appeared in the papers;

Q) What do you call a black man who's just lost 20 stone?

A) lenny Henry

I don't think divorce is funny but I lol....
I get loads of Irish jokes sent to me..I'm Irish...they still make me laugh...

mayorquimby - are you seriously saying we should thank him for mocking people with disabilities as otherwise bigoted people will mock them in an even worse manner? Lets all go around doing it then, so they won't bother eh?

daftpunk no I don't take the piss out of disabled people.

I don't find jokes about disabled people funny, but look at Little Britain....they took the piss out of SN....did you complain about that..? and the episode of the office when they were having the fire drill and left the woman in the wheelchair halfway down the stairs...(she was too heavy)

I don't think that Frankie Boyle is cutting edge humour, and I don't think that jokes about the haristyles or voices of people with disabilities is cutting edge, or even vaguely clever.

That's not to say that comedy can't make you feel a little uncomfortable, but Frankie Boyle is a lazy comedian who goes for the easy option every time. It's cheap and easy and I guess it goes with his persona. but it's not clever comedy, or edgy, or even funny.

daftpunk I have never watched the office, and only ever seen one scene of little britain.....
the one when the yobs are taking the piss, the "carer" goes of to get a ice cream and the bloke in the whelchair jumps out and kicks the shit out of the yobs........
now that was funny, probally as that is what I wish would happen.