Stoning women to death a joke on the bbc?

[CuttedUpPear]

I've posted this in chat as well but thought I'd come over here too.

Last night I was listening to the programme 'My Teenage Diary' aired at 11pm on Radio 4 (probably a repeat) and at one point the presenter, who was interviewing Arabella Weir, commented that in her teenage dope smoking years she had been "more stoned than an Arabian Adultress".

Horrible and thoughtless. The barbaric practice of publicly stoning women to death is not something to be joked about. At least that's what I think so I filled in the form.

You might want to listen again and comment too.

Monty Python did a joke about stoning in The Life of Brian. John Cleese ended up dead, I think. Is it stoning per se, or stoning of women that you object to?

I think that's rather funny actually. It's not making fun of the stoning of women, merely a pun afaic.

NameChange, stop "Watabouttehmenz"ing. 90% of stoning victims are women. Therefore, it is a women's issue.

CuttedUpPear, I'm with you on this one.

Frothy, it is not whatabouthemenz, though. It's a 'whatarethelimitsofcomedyz' issue.

I guess it's because its more of a historic joke with Life of Brian, whereas in Arabic society its still very much an issue?

pear I agree with you.

You mean that the BBC joke made a play on stoned (meaning whacked out on pot) vs. stoned (pummelled to death with rocks)? Yes, I think that was the whole idea of the joke.

Life of Brian used to to mock Christianity and the Old Testament lawgivers (Cleese's role).

So what am I missing? The currency of the issue? Comedy will quite often offend someone. What did Arabella Weir say?

I cannot listen to the program at the moment. What did Arabella Weir say? Was she offended?

Arabella Weir didn't reply, there was a vague titter form the audience and then the interview moved on. I was left thinking 'Did I just hear that right?'

And yes my objection is not that this was something that happened in bibical times, but that it is happening to women today.