Rodney Marsh

[hopalong]

How stupid is this man?  Just weeks after over 100 thousand lost thier lives in the tsunami disaster he had to make a sick joke. Referring to Newcastle as the Toon army in asia.   Sky did right to sack him and I hope he never works in television or radio again

[jills]

well said El D

[hopalong]

I hope you are never at the recieving end of light hearted humor if you are caught up in any disasters. 

[jills]

why would I care?  if I've been through a disaster of that proportion, some unknown person making a crass remark will be the very least of my troubles.  But, I could rely on the ultra pc mob ensuring that there's suitable outrage on my behalf. How comforting.

[ali_alic]

Maybe they were just looking for an excuse to get rid of him!! 

[bazwillrun]

As usual PC getes its way

[splodge24]

I posted a question relating to this on Sport. I have to say i totally agree with El D. Rodney Marsh did not deserve to be sacked. Am i the only AB'er that will actually miss him??!!!

[Dark Angel]

EI D - yes I've laughed at fat people eating too much, and some racist jokes but I am a bit sensitive about tsunami jokes because I happen to live in a country that has one of the largest death tolls from this disaster. Where Rodney Marsh is concerned, I don't watch his program and cannot comment on it. However, he could have been advised instead of sacked, I'm all for trying to understand the others point of view.

[BenDToy]

What a load of PC tosh. So how long will it be before we can make light hearted puns about the word Tsunami? A week, a month a year, or is it now a totally taboo subject? Are we allowed to make jokes about icebergs (Titanic) or volcanoes (Pompeii) or fires (Great Fire of London). The "joke" had absolutely nothing to do with the recent incident in the far east. It was a play on words (the word is an Asian one anyway) which could have been made 2 months ago, but it has now been more universally recognised due to the sad events on Boxing Day. There have always been, and always will be, Tsunamis in Asia, but we are no longer allowed to mention them. We really do need to be more aware of what really does "cause offence" and what is just idiotic posturing by petty jobsworths. The only person who had any justification for being offended was DB, and I bet he didn't complain! By the way, I have absolutely no opinion about Mr Marsh one way or the other.

[stevie21]

I agree that Rodney Marsh was using the disaster in Asia to make a joke about Beckham & wasn't actually mocking the victims of the tsunami but I still think that it's insensitive to involve that event with such a pitiful attempt at making a joke. If he's so desperate to be funny then there are plenty of other topics which won't get him the sack.

Just to drag the conversation back, I'm relatively sure that Billy Connolly was mocking 1) the media & 2) those people for whom their sympathy is dictated by whatever event it's deemed fashionable or acceptable by others (the media) but who really feel deep down "isn't Bigley dead yet?".
If he expressed it in a particularly inappropriate way then he's obviously open to criticism but I don't think his intention was as described /implied earlier.

[Dark Angel]

BenD Toy -get a life!

[FP]

I can't understand your remark to BenDToy, Dark Angel.  I thought his answer makes very valid points.  Have I missed something?

[jills]

succinctly put BenDToy. 

 Dark Angel your answer from Friday highlights the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the ultra-pc mob.   you'll laugh at fatties or racist jokes but not at tsunamis, cos you're affected by one but not the others. That is the way of humour.  If your mother had died of obesity, maybe fatties eating lots wouldn't make you laugh...DO YOU SEE???? 

And we can only say it once more for the hard of thinking...THE JOKE ONLY TAKES THE P1SS OUT OF BECKHAM.  NO ONE was laughing at 250,000 people dying.  the word tsunami existed for a long time before Boxing Day 2004 rolled around.

[El D]

And even worse, you attempt to take the moral high ground over people who laugh at the tsunami joke . . . You can extrapolate offense from any joke pretty much - even if it was taking the **** out of DB are we saying that it is ok to laugh at stupid people? What ifyou had a brother who was born mentally retarded? Would it be funny? Should tv presenters get sacked for offending your sensibilities regarding slow people? Too much inconsistency. Drop the burning torches and look at your own set of values first.

[Weaza_cfc]

Practically every joke is offensive to someone or other; so should we ban jokes altogether? Political correctness is great up to a certian point - but certain people in this conversation have gone way over my pc boundary.

What is a suitable waiting period before one can crack a joke bout one thing or another? Hmm? The fact is he wasn't even being offensive towards the victims of the tsunami - he was being offensive towards stuipidity.

The memorable joke from Falty Towers; "Well you started it" "No I didn't, you were the ones who invaded Poland!" is renowned. The war was a great tragedy; but its fine to joke about that is it? Falty Towers is a big hit in Germany. They didn't mind.

To all good, law-abiding, practically pc in every way citezins; over-sensitive sense of humour failures are seemingly the way forward

[Dark Angel]

Well, Ben D Toy was being offensive using words like 'idiocy', 'hypocrisy' 'jobsworth' 'PC' 'Tosh' etc. If you read my post I didn't use any of those insulting words, much less say that Rodney Marsh should have been sacked - I only said he could have been made aware that people are suffering and it was not an appropriate joke.

Well, maybe I was a bit harsh on you EI D, without meaning to be. and yes, laughing at fat people is not nice either, or people of different races  but I didn't do it on national TV,  its only jokes in general, among friends.

And Jills, its  bad manners to use capitals in posts as that indicates shouting.

Finally, I'd like to say I am not PC, because I have got told off for taking the side of the person who is being beaten up for saying something out of line. 

 I am upset about the tsunami because even one month later, people in my country are still talking about it and the media is full of it.

   

[Dark Angel]

Also, I didn't know that RM just made a pun on the word tsunami, until Stevie said something about it. Please forgive me for my ignorance.

And finally, I promise its finally, just to let you know that I have never been accused of being pc before on this site or anywhere else for that matter. Its always been friendly banter and mutual imparting of knowledge on AB where I am concerned, so it is extremely upsetting to be called pc by you. Can we just drop this subject and move on? 

[FP]

Dark Angel.  Don't be offended.  Discussions often get like this, but we all respect each other really.  Just think of us as one big family (i.e. plenty of arguments, but we stick by each other)  Best wishes.

[jills]

Sorry for the caps guys. xxx

[BenDToy]

Hey Dark Angel, it's all part of the fun. To quote Mrs Merton "Let's have a heated debate". And for the record, I do have a life. ** BTW I have only just realised that you must have thought that my answer was specifically aimed at you, and I can assure you it wasn't. It was a general rant at the "establishment" that pilloried RM. So I apologise for my thoughtlessness there, I should have noticed that.

[Dark Angel]

OK BenD Toy points taken :o)