Frankie Boyle- Apologise?

[RippingFleshFromBone]

The thing with 'decency' & 'good taste' is that everyone will have a different idea of what that is. It's the old 'what is offensive to one person may not be offensive to another'

Personnally I find almost everything that Price woman does offensive. She uses everything and everyone around her for her own benefit, including Harvey. So, if she wants to put him up in front of the world so we can all see how 'great a mother she is' or whatever angle she is flogging this week, then you have to accept that with that comes the potential for getting the piss ripped outta you both.

Everything these days is just too censored and politically correct. Humour is just there to make you laugh. If you don't find it funny...then you won't laugh. But in the end it's just like newspaper...it's tomorrows fish n chip paper. Or it would have been when we were still allowed to wrap them up in newspaper!

No doubt that Price woman will be selling her story about her disgust at this 'horrendous attack on her Harvey' to all the gossip mags in the next few weeks and make even more money off of her son.

Was the joke funny? Not really. Does it deserve an apology? No. It was a joke! Good, bad...who cares? It didn't insite violence or hatred. It was just a joke.

[skinnymartin]

It's a myth that with free speech must come responsibility. Free speech means you can say whatever you want, whenever you want to. With reference to that old chestnut, if you want to shout 'Fire' in a crowded theatre where there is no fire, go right ahead. Free speech cannot exist if we curtail it based on what might result from it.

Katie Price has every right to be offended but Frankie Boyle has every right to offend her. Frankie Boyle has no need to apologise. Whether you, me or Katie Price likes the joke or not is irrelevant.

Of course, it's also a myth that we have free speech.

If you shout "Fire" in a crowded theatre you take responsibility for the consequences of your actions - even if that includes a court case that results from injuries incurred as a result.

No country has true free speech - because of laws like slander and libel. Quite right too. But there is also a balance between what is slanderous and/or libellous and what is fair comment. I know I have taken legal advice where people have libelled me a couple of times.

Insulting a disabled child because of who his mother is is poor taste whatever. It is not the child's fault how his mother behaves. It has nothing to do with political correctness. Political correctness is the stupid end of this where you can't make fun of the French or make jokes about women/men in a generalised and seemingly non-offensive way - different thing and something I have no truck with.

[frontier(s)]

If you shout "Fire" in a crowded theatre you take responsibility for the consequences of your actions - even if that includes a court case that results from injuries incurred as a result.

Absolutely, but you should have no responsibility in terms of not shouting it in the first place. Everything we do has consequences, but preventing people from saying things because of what you think the consequences might be means that you do not believe in free speech.

No country has true free speech - because of laws like slander and libel. Quite right too. But there is also a balance between what is slanderous and/or libellous and what is fair comment. I know I have taken legal advice where people have libelled me a couple of times.

As I said, the notion that we have free speech is a myth. That doesn't stop some people believing that we should have it.

Insulting a disabled child because of who his mother is is poor taste whatever. It is not the child's fault how his mother behaves. It has nothing to do with political correctness. Political correctness is the stupid end of this where you can't make fun of the French or make jokes about women/men in a generalised and seemingly non-offensive way - different thing and something I have no truck with.

I don't think anyone's denying that the joke was in poor taste. Had the joke gone, ''I have a theory about the reason Jordan married a cage fighter - she needed a man strong enough to help her look after her disabled son..." it wouldn't have been a joke. If we banned everything that somebody, somewhere doesn't like we'd have to ban everything.

[RippingFleshFromBone]

Insulting a disabled child because of who his mother is is poor taste whatever. It is not the child's fault how his mother behaves. It has nothing to do with political correctness. Political correctness is the stupid end of this where you can't make fun of the French or make jokes about women/men in a generalised and seemingly non-offensive way - different thing and something I have no truck with.

And I agree with that. I only mentioned the political correctness thing as an added comment relating to how things, in general, have gone in recent years.

It seems like, these days, no-one can say anything for fear of upsetting someone else. And that's what I don't agree with. If I have a belief that I hold and there is a possibilty it may upset someone else, why shouldn't I be able to say it without the consequence of being forced to apologise?

As long as what I believe is not inciting hatred or violence then I should be able to voice it.

At the end of the day comedy is there to make you laugh and if it isn't funny, no-one will laugh!

No, it isn't the childs fault how his mother behaves, but if his mother wants to put him in the public eye then you have to accept that you, potentially, are putting him up for people to comment on, either in comedy or just in a general debate where people will make an opinion known. If she didn't want this then she should not have put Harvey in the media as she has been happy to do to sell her stories.

Anyone remember the Piper Alpha & NASA jokes that went around when those disasters happened? Personally, I found those really offensive because people died. Joking about people dying is not funny. In this case no-one got hurt, no-one died...so what's all the fuss?

[frontier(s)]

It seems like, these days, no-one can say anything for fear of upsetting someone else. And that's what I don't agree with. If I have a belief that I hold and there is a possibilty it may upset someone else, why shouldn't I be able to say it without the consequence of being forced to apologise?

This is what I dislike most of all, the automatic assumption that the 'rights' of the person who claims to be offended are unassailably more important and to be treated with more respect that the rights of the other party to be able to say what they wish.

Ultimately, it doesn't actually matter that Katie Price feels insulted - that's her problem. And let's not forget that the target of the joke will not care one way or the other.

[nicksmithworld]

I don't actually think the joke was about her son. It was about a concept/an assumption he is a wild beast in a boy's body - That he has no moral compass and would have no qualms about having sex with his OWN mother, the twin taboos of rape and incest- We know THAT It probably isn't actually the case but we laugh at the Notionthat he could be..

He is actually delievering difficult and uncomfortable thoughts that most people keep buried.This is where the outrage lies.Frankie Boyle is becoming a scapegoat for middle England's psuedo moral outrage...THIS is the real story

the guardian is reporting on a different joke:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/de ... atie-price

personally anyone who can get under Jordan's 'Rhino-hide' skin gets my vote!!

Is frankie Boyle funny? yes, very funny- If you don't like him, TURN IT OFF!

'I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.'-Voltaire

[frontier(s)]

Price's comments should have been disregarded the moment she'd whipped out the 'bullying' card.

The joke was not 'bullying' on any level, unless, of course, she's using the modern day definition of bullying, which is essentially, 'Somebody doing anything I don't happen to like'.

[Father Jack]

Who cares about what she thinks ? If it was sooooo offensive why isn't THE REAL FATHER, Dwight Yorke, racing round to confront Frankie Boyle ??
Oh yeah, I know why.
Why do people get so stuck up their own arses in this country ? Its a joke, get over it.