Beefy's corner- the place for off topic stuff

Prank calls can be funny, like this one

[video=youtube;dBtdVcJeOTk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBtdVcJeOTk[/video]

 

The DJ's can't be held responsible. They were only having a laugh. How were they to know what was going to happen?

 

Agree. I assume she just felt her career was over and she would be a laughing stock and just could not cope!

 

Most likely she would have been sacked. Giving away patient information, whoever it is, is a big no-no in medicine.

 

The reporting on this incident is ****ing ridiculous. The woman who killed herself is not the same woman who gave away the information. She is in fact the duty nurse who picked up the phone initially and forwarded the call to another woman who then gave away information to the pranksters. Most media reports on this have conveniently glossed over this fact, in order to make it seem more like the prank phone call is directly responsible for the suicide.

 

Found a nice little stat about the Vikings

Wow. Here's a stat to gnaw or gag on: Adrian Peterson averages more yards per carry (6.2) than Christian Ponder does per completion (6.0)

 

Yet another conspiracy theory that has been going around - she was killed on orders of the Royal Family! What a load of bullshit!

 

Agreed.

I doubt if it helped the woman at all though, Joe. It could have been the trigger to push a depressed woman over the edge. Perhaps someone/anyone will learn a lesson from this episode. I understand this isn't the first time the radio station has been caught with its pants down. Maybe somebody there needs to review what is important and what isn't. There's a couple of words out there that are often overlooked. They are... personal and responsibility. And linked together, in that order, they are very powerful.

 

Not sure on all of the facts, but if someone with a posh, elderly female voice claiming to be the Queen phoned the hospital to speak to Kate, then even if there is a lot of doubt over its credibility, you wouldn't take the risk of refusing the Queen access to Kate. Most people in the nurse's position would have taken the call seriously so she shouldn't be ridiculed.

 

Yeah, but how careful should we expect people to be? The idea of this prank call was "let's see if we can get Kate on the phone". The intention wasn't to humiliate anyone or even give them a hard time. I'm not even sure if it can be called a prank. You'd probably expect the nurse who gave away confidential information to be a little distraught by the whole thing, but the woman who literally just said "okay, just a moment please" and transferred the call? She wasn't the butt of the joke and she wasn't humiliated in the slightest. It might be that it was just the last incident in a chain of misfortune that led to her deciding that enough was enough, or it could just be sheer coincidence.

I'm sure every single one of us has, at some point, complained to a waiter or sales assistant, shouted or honked at a bad driver, told a cold caller to bugger off, or scowled at an annoying commuter in a busy tube station. Any one of those people could have gone "right, that's the last straw" and gone home and ended it all. Should we all constantly be extra careful to be nice to everyone, just in case we end up being part of the chain of causation that leads to a person's demise? Sure, it's great if you can keep that up all the time, whatever your mood, but it shouldn't be expected of people in my opinion. No one should be expected to foresee that such a harmless act could end a person's life.

 

I am no Royalist as many of you would have gathered but I am ashamed to say that if you young fellows really believe the utter crap you have written on these last few postings supporting these two Aussie DJs then you have a hell of a lot of growing up to do. I have received many emails from my Aussie friends and relations showing utter contempt for the behaviour of this highly offensive pair.

Please tell me what is so very funny about playing a stupid prank at the expense of someone who is not well and her worried family and the people responsible for her care.

If someone telephoned your GP pretending to be your close relative and seeking confidential medical information about you would you laugh that off as a great joke?

I will agree that it the over reaction of some people to the nurses suicide is worrying but I am very much with those who are seeking the dismissal of these two childish and irresponsible DJs. Their behaviour is just about on a par with that other moronic non funny duo Ross and Brand.

 

I think the overwhelming opinion on this is that it was not a funny prank. I haven't heard one person say that they thought it was funny, let alone a "great joke". The point is that, while they weren't being funny, they certainly weren't doing anything that could reasonably be expected to do any harm. As a grown-up, I am capable of coming to this rational conclusion, without having to be "for" or "against" the whole thing to either extreme. If you're so much more mature than the rest of us, I'd at least expect you to realise that it's neither fair to call it harmless fun, nor to blame the DJs for the unfortunate suicide, and that it's a far more complex issue with a lot of moral ambiguity. But you don't seem to have even managed that.

 

Indeed, and I completely agree with you. The perpetrators were just engaged in a harmless prank, like you say, but let me give you an example.

When I was 8 or 9, I was in a crowd of friends [not a gang, just a loose association] and we'd all banter like kids learn to do, and I was pretty damn good at it. There's always the weakest one in the crowd, and banter would more often be directed at this lad than at everyone else. He took it cheerily on the chin, all of the time, but one day I made a remark and it literally crushed him. I can see him bending now at the body blow I'd laid into him, and I remember how I stood back and let him suffer, while all the others laughed. I didn't because I was so shocked at his reaction and I felt what I'd said. Tbh, I can't remember the comment or the subject because they don't matter. The fact was that I'd hurt this person, badly and needlessly, in humour. I took trouble to make it up with him and we got along fine until our paths diverged, but I have never lost the lesson. Never look for humour in the humiliation of others weaker than yourself.

 

Why shouldn't we? People should be nice as a matter of course, and Mr. Nice can lead the way.

Plus, for all you know, showing a degree of niceness to a stranger may make them decide not to commit suicide, it may be that little spark that's needed to bring them from the brink.

 

Well said Lapras, hear hear.

 

On another off-topic, especially for this thread...

I have been selling Nigel Adkins short. No, really I have been. I've just spent an enjoyable few minutes watching and listening to his pre-match press conference re: Reading, and by Le God, is this man a tonic. I was in a pretty good mood before I decided to watch it, but now I'm bursting with positivity. The man is the embodiment of a book I read at least 30 years ago called Psycho-Cybernetics [recommended for any overly negative football fan or ordinary person], and I'd lay bets he's actually read it. BTW, I'm not a gambling man.

 

Indeed, well said PL. We could do with more of this in the World.

 

Please reread my post Joe.

Nowhere did I blame the DJs for the tragic death of the nurse but expressed concern that there were people who were doing so however the actions of the DJs could have been a contributory factor. Please remember I lay no claim to being cleverer, wiser or more mature than any other person however I do recognise stupid crass juvenile behaviour when I see it and I don’t find it amusing.

Finally putting words into other peoples' mouths is a clever trick but I doubt you will get away with that if/when you get the chance to practice law.

 

So they should be sacked but not blamed? That's some very strange logic. We've all agreed that it could be a contributory factor, and probably was, but there was no way that they could reasonably have foreseen what happened. If you want to sack these people on the basis that these sorts of practical jokes are not acceptable, then there is a matter of precedent. All of those silly TV shows with prank phone calls, such as Phonejacker, should be canned also. Not only that, but any form of prank which may cause humiliation on the part of the recipient must be deemed just as unacceptable: Punk'd, Dead Ringers, Trigger Happy TV, The Tom Green Show, The Ali G Show, even ****ing Borat. Should we ban all of those? Come on, let's at least have some consistency here.

You put words into the mouths of others when you claimed that some of us thought it was a "great joke". Don't be a hypocrite.

 

I'd ban them all as I think they're all **** .