Offence according to Jimmy Carr is taken not given. Yes the harder to get rid of than dog turd on the shoe, moon faced, slimy fuckwit (It’s a joke –remember offence is taken Jimmy not given ) and others like him believe that if you are offended by his jokes, then problem is yours not his.
This is a nice convenient theory. This is a theory which cites amongst other things same sex marriage and mixed race relationships and on and on and on. The rationale being that if you find jokes which target and humiliate disabled people offensive and speak out against them you are as bad as homophobes and racists.Yes that's right barrels of defensiveness are now scraping themselves.
The problem is that offensive is a great big cash cow and when you’re the man recouping financially from the misery you bring by making hatred normal you really need to absent yourself from the debate.
You can’t really cry free speech and rights and democracy when your punchlines write the mortgage cheques. When your words signal a green light to bigots and bullies who see you and your mates on TV spouting bile and laughing loud and long with you. Putting yourself at the peak of the mountain of ethical righteousness whilst cracking gags which target disabled people, makes you look like the bullies you are. (it's a joke-remember offence is taken Jimmy/Frankie not given)
Free speech Jimmy wasn’t created for you to make a fortune on your long, long tours- nor was it fought for to enable your mate Frankie to bleat bile and hate speech for money. It’s purpose, which you’re choosing to subvert, is as hideous as the private health care providers selling out the NHS for profit and calling it streamlining re-organisation.
But hey it’s a joke right just a joke. Just a word and everyone getting hung up on semantics is a humourless fool who can’t see the art or the craft in your routine. It's crafty alright but art? Really? Um..no.
Perhaps we can see the truth though. Perhaps we see the insecurity inherent in your need to make audiences gasp and then laugh from embarrassment. Carr and Boyle may see themselves as fiercely fighting a moral crusade of freedom but they are just bullies with a fan base. They are also too lazy to frame a joke without the need to deploy the comedy of cruelty. (it’s a joke –remember offence is taken Jimmy/Frankie not given)
The main thing is it's just a bit boring now. Like a twelve year old who hasn't quite grasped the fact that the same old joke got dull after the tenth telling, these middle aged men are peddling the same old dull gags in the hope that we still find them funny.
Yeah guys we get it. You find disabled people funny. Do you have anything else to say possibly that we haven't heard already? The fact that your audiences respond with huge laughs proves the theory of pavlovian training rather than your skill as comics (it's a joke-remember offence is taken not given)
Popularity is no arbiter of ethics or it seems some commissioning editors judgement.
Being on TV is deemed to be so merit worthy in these aspirational times that popularity is enough. Austerity too breeds a scapegoat culture. Stereotyping disabled millions who face discrimination on the streets, in schools, in hospitals and in the disenfranchising policy framed from political ideology already, is a sick yet lucrative game to play.
Ratings always remember the ratings.
Whether for good or bad people watching is the driver. Whether beautifully observed, satirical comedy reaching a cultural high point or reality TV stars "bitch slapping"one another thereby achieving car crash telly low points- ratings are everything.
To do this for a motive which is as filthy as it gets ie cash is just the venomous icing on the hate cake.
Don’t forget these tours and DVD’s wont sell themselves unlike Carr and Boyle. badum tish
