Further to my comment on the open thread about unintentional bias and moral superiority I just looked at Chas Newkey-Burden’s blog, and lo and behold, here’s an example.
Frankie Boyle has been mildly rebuked by the BBC Trust for a ‘joke’ he told a couple of years ago. It wasn’t even edgy and it wasn’t even funny; it was a cheap dig at Jews because of Israel, “an aggressive terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal.”
When he’s on the receiving end, Frankie Boyle, master of the nasty personal remark that passes for humour (as well as the occasional genuine humour,) he fails to take criticism on the chin.
His open letter is a blustering expression of pique with a saccharine topping. Attempting to justify his ‘joke’ he shows what an ignoramus he is, and too much of a smart arse to recognise his vast shortcomings.
The BBC Trust is a bit like a big cake; well, that cake’s being punched to pieces by a very angry very petulant very misguided Frankie Boyle.
The Frankie Boyle bleeding heart act fails to convince this reader. Waxing sentimental and lamenting human beings being treated badly…hm… the way Boyle treats people leaves a lot to be desired. The targets of Boyle and these laddish lefty (often homosexual) types are always carefully selected from specific groups: women, Jews etc, and are never people like themselves.
Boyle crying…am I supposed to be impressed? Reminds me of the tears of a drunk mewling into his beer.
“The targets of Boyle and these laddish lefty (often homosexual) types are always carefully selected from specific groups: women, Jews etc, and are never people like themselves. “
Not true. Boyle has made some pretty tasteless gags at the expense of everyone including gays, the labour party, the BBC and the Muslims. The joke he made about Mark Speights suicide note being written in sea shells and glitter, and about gays on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy less interested in giving him fashion tips and more interested in trying to fuck him could just as easily have landed him in trouble.
I don’t like Boyle and I don’t find him funny, but the truth of the matter is that if you or I had made a complaint about this one joke, the BBC would have dismissed it.
As it turns out, this one complainant is very high up in the food chain. The BBC know this and have caved not because they find the joke offensive, but for fear of the complainant himself.
Either way I don’t care a toss, the BBC deserves all it gets, but suggesting Boyle targets specific groups is just nonsense.
Whether or not Boyle targets specific groups is not the point. Too often he’s offensive, not amusing. His witticisms depend on the audience’s collusion in an empathetic group ‘know what I mean’ nudge wink.
The Rebecca Adlington joke was a case in point. She is a sportswoman, in the limelight for swimming. Not a celebrity. Not a glamour model. Not a fashion icon. Frankie Boyle’s remark about her appearance was cheap; his spiteful follow-up quip demanded the audience’s collusion in his laddish misogynistic disrespectful assumptions. As dull as thinking swearing is edgy.
The BBC has spent decades providing half the story about the I/P conflict, and has whipped up the public into an intensity of righteous indignation that could only have been achieved by withholding the other half, and suppressing the notion that there IS another half.
If Frankie Boyle wants to amuse, be edgy and clued up, he should try aiming higher than lazy ignorant unsubtle Israel bashing.
Also, if he dishes it out, he should be able to take it.
Are you saying that the BBC has caved in, like a cake being punched, because of lobbying from very angry Jews?
In the unlikely event of that being so, all I can say is: about time too.
Boyle is one of the most repulsive of the BBC’s infinite number of left-wing comic clones, but lots of competition.
He wrote that he had been moved to tears after watching a documentary about life in Palestine and had promised himself he would do something.
Somebody pass me the sick bucket.
Never heard of the guy till this thread… but I do find it tres amusing that a guy with a…
Red Beard and Blue Glasses attached to a face which looks like a SMACKED ARSE..
Should be making fun of anyone.
As we say in Scotland ‘if you can’ty laugh at youself don’t dare laugh at anybody else’
I suspect that Mr Boyle and a lot of other BBC left wing comedians take themselves far to seriously to laugh at themselves.
Hundreds of comments on this subject over at Harry’s Place. Note the contribution from Truer Word. Today 1:46pm
Only two years for a complaint to go the whole course?
And the punishment is ‘censuring’ a joke that will never be retold and no one remembers?
If Frankie Boyle was a cake he’d be claiming to be kicked to death by a paper cut-out of Gumby.
Boyle is evidently an anti-Semite suffering from a particularly infantile and yet virulent manifestation of the disease, as is so prevalent among the left:
*The BBC is cowardly
Subtext: Anyone who bashes Israel is bold and daring, since those Jews are bound to get him or her sooner or later.
*The BBC refused to broadcast a humanitarian appeal in 2009 to help residents of Gaza rebuild their homes. It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying.
Subtext: The Israelis must have bullied the BBC into not broadcasting the appeal because everyone knows the Israelis rub their hands at Palestinian suffering and would never agree to anything that would alleviate it.
*The situation in Palestine seems to be, in essence, apartheid. I grew up with the anti apartheid thing being a huge focus of debate. It really seemed to matter to everybody that other human beings were being treated in that way. We didn’t just talk about it, we did things, I remember boycotts and marches and demos all being held because we couldn’t bear that people were being treated like that.
Look, our hearts are in the right place. But why oh why can’t we be bold and organised and help defeat Israeli apartheid as we helped defeat South African apartheid?!
*I cried at that and promised myself that I would do something. Other than write a few stupid jokes I have not done anything.
Subtext: Even though I have fallen miserably short of the glory of political activism, the wicked BBC, in collusion with the Jews, has censored me. Oh, the unfairness of it all! If only I had the guts to be like Rachel Corrie!
Neither have you.
Subtext: Well, what are you waiting for? Avenge Rachel Corrie!
In short, this guy is really an ar*ehole. I really hope he is not related to Susan Boyle, of Britain’s got Talent fame.
*The BBC refused to broadcast a humanitarian appeal in 2009 to help residents of Gaza rebuild their homes. It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying.
Any businees or lobby in the world would sell their souls to receive the quantity and quality of coverage that the non-broadcast of the appeal received, generally with telephone numbers and email/URL where to donate, an unheardof privilege.
The non-story was not the unshown appeal. It was shown on other networks, radio, newspapers and on the Internet with far less fuss. The non-story was the BBCs failure to report how little the people of Britain contributed to the appeal, despite the free publicity.
Meant to add that Boyle’s letter reminds me of the lefties who flooded the The Editors blog by Mark Thompson after the BBC wouldn’t air the DEC appeal for Gaza. It was instructive regarding the typical vitriol, paranoia and jumping to confusions from the left about the wicked BBC, suddenly regarded because of this one decision as somehow being in league with Israel to help oppress the Palestinians.
The blog attracted well over 2000 comments, many of them directing abusive personal insults at Thompson (and strangely escaping the notice of the moderators). Others were a little more moderate, but no less blind. The following is typical:
<i>500. At 10:52am on 25 Jan 2009, rainbowDavidM wrote:
The BBC’s decision not to broadcast the Gaza appeal is utterly appaling and indefensible. Caving in to Israeli propaganda like this is not what I would’ve expected from an organisation I’ve previously respected. I’m sorry to say that Caroline Thomson’s explanation was callous and cold-hearted, as was Mark Thompson’s explanation too.
We will know who to blame when Palestinan children die in hospital because not enough aid has got to them.</i>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/01/bbc_and_the_gaza_appeal.html
Oops, forgot there is an italics key.