Chris Smalling has had to apologise after being caught wearing a suicide bomb pack....blaming 90 minutes against Aaron Lennon the other week. please log in to view this image Continuing the theme! Downunder, Matt Prior has saved an Aussie from leaping to his death off a bridge in Sydney...the bloke couldn't argue Matt had more reason to jump. Does Smalling really have to justify this, a fancy dress party in his own home? It was a twist on Jaegerbombs apparently, as he had empty bottles of that stuff and cans of Red Bull hanging off his costume. PC gone utterly mad imo.
Thanks for explaining the costume, Notso, I was trying to figure it out for ages. It's a total clusterfuck. I don't think there's any reason to dress up like a suicide bomber and as a footballer surely he should realise that if the pictures get out it's going to cause some offence, regardless of whether or not he's glorifying suicide bombers or using it for a pun. Footballers never cease to amaze me with the stupidity they get up to.
Thats the thing YV, he dressed as a 'Jaegerbomber', not a suicide bomber. He was supposed to be in the confines of his home with only close friends...so much for them!
I didn't say he dressed up as a suicide bomber but like a suicide bomber. I'm not saying he's a bad person for doing so but he is incredibly stupid for doing it, these kinds of pictures always have a good chance of surfacing.
I never meant to imply you did, I'm merely stating my first thoughts on the subject as are you. Interestingly opposite thats all. Looking like something else is something we should not have to worry about. What if he'd gone as Aladdin in Arab gear, would he be accused of going as Osama Bin Laden? Its bloody ridiculous mate imo, really is.
These days Smalling may need a disguise for when he leaves home - something less conspicious though, I think. How about dressing up as a PL defender? He'd never get recognised.
Aladdin, in the Disney film at least, is dressed very differently to how Bin Laden dressed. There's nothing wrong with wearing traditional Islamic clothing though because to then say they're trying to look like Bin Laden or another terrorist is quite a leap. There's no real leap from an Islamic terrorist to Smalling dressed in odd, fairly Arabic looking clothes with a mock bomb strapped to his chest - it's even his intention to look, in part, like a suicide bomber. Some people will find it distasteful for someone else dress like a suicide bomber, rightly or wrongly, and if you're in the public eye it's best to stay well clear of anything like that. It's like Prince Harry dressing as a Nazi, clearly it was no attempt to affiliate him with Nazi ideologies but many people will be offended by the imagery of a high profile person dressing like a Nazi as a joke. Smalling could've done the joke and dressed several other ways but he stupidly chose a contraversial way to express the "bomb" part and as a result has been forced to apologise and looks like a prat. Next time maybe he'll chose a better drink to dress up as, like a Black Russian or a Kamikaze... okay maybe not the last one.
Bad taste, that's the extent of it. Nothing more. But that never did Posh & Becks any harm, did it? And why is simply referring to an uncomfortable or taboo subject always interpreted as an endorsement of it? We should all conveniently pretend certain things don't exist shouldn't we? That's better for everyone, isn't it?
You're right, it's bad taste and nothing else. It's not pretending they don't exist to say that dressing up like a suicide bomber is a bad idea though. Fancy dress costumes are generally meant to be fun and turning a terrorist into a lighthearted subject is not to everyone's taste. It's like our general behaviour, there are certain ways you'd dress and act for some occassions that you wouldn't at others. When you're in the public eye then generally you're expected to have a higher minimum standard for behaviour because when you do something like this, people will find out and take offence.
I'm sure Smalling meant no offence. He was probably naive in thinking that one of his so-called mates wouldn't look at him and think, "I bet The Sun would pay a few quid for that photo!"
I dressed as Jimmy Saville for Halloween a couple of years ago and not one tabloid was up in arms about this.
Also in the news today, SSN reports David Moyes has been nominated for manager of the month (this is no wind up). They didn't say which month - April 2003 probably.
They did kick off about a Zombie Jimmy Saville outfit which was being sold online though, causing the retailers to withdraw it. please log in to view this image