Frankie Boyle has for some years now earned a reputation for telling some of the most offensive jokes around. Topics include incest, pedophilia, murder, the royals and other such taboos. One of his less offensive lines include
"I hear the reason we need to Olympics is to boost national pride, if that's what you want then for £18.9 million we could write 'Fuck off Germany' on the moon"
"I read in the news that Margaret Thatcher might be getting a state funeral, I'd say give everyone in Scotland a shovel and we can hand the bitch over to Satan personally"
"Recent surveys show 3 out of 10 men have a problem with premature ejaculation. The rest just didn't really think it was a problem!"
He recently got into trouble with these jokes
"Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey - eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him. I have a theory about the reason Jordan married a cage fighter - she needed a man strong enough to stop Harvey from fucking her..."
This caused a stink from those involved with disabled kids for very obvious reasons.
My issue with this is two fold. Firstly, his act is based around the idea that he shocks, and he's not exactly an unknown anymore. The chances of someone watching one of shows and being surprised by what he says is very slim. Unfortunately he is in the position that he has to raise the bar constantly and as a result has said he will retire in a few years anyway, least he becomes a parody of himself.
The second issue is that he is far from the most offensive comic around today. Indeed, Jimmy Carr has crossed the line many times with lines like
"Say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re going to have a fucking good Paralympic team in 2012."
"I'm not being condescending, I'm too busy thinking about far more important things you wouldn't understand.
"I saw a charity appeal in the Guardian the other day, and it read "Little Zuki has to walk 13 miles a day just to fetch water". And I couldn't help thinking, she should move.
"African child dies? I watched those, and couldn't help thinking, "well stop clicking your fingers!"
Just as bad as Frankie yet he never gets into too much trouble.
I did find it odd that after some years of taking the piss out of Jordon and her kids, Its only now, when jordons not been in the media spotlight for more ten minutes that she suddenly finds her outrage.
It all boils down to a few questions. Is it ok to tell offensive jokes, if not than who decides if its offensive or not, and if you are offended then why are you listening to it?
Personally there are many many religious, political and racial statements made that i find sickening and highly offensive. But would I every try to stop people from saying these things? Hell no! I just turn off the TV channel, close the book magazine, walk away from the guy on the soap box.
We need to remember that men like Roy chubby brown and Jim Davidson are no longer on TV, not because they are offensive but because not enough people find them funny.
99% of all that we find funny is based on one person laughing at another. A friend making an arse of themselves or an Irish joke. I tend to find those that complain the most about an "offensive" joke are the ones that will happily laugh at others but don't like it when the joke is on them or someone close to themselves
Classic example, Issac Hayes spent many years working on the show South Park, a comedy that has ridiculed every belief and religion going. This he was ok with. But when an episode aired questioning and openly mocking Scientology, Hayes's own belief, he quit the show in disgust and joined the moral band wagon.
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