I think you'll find that Irish jokes are now considered politically incorrect Gandy and are never told on TV or radio, but comedians are still allowed to crack stereotypical jokes about Norfolk
Didn't stop you cracking one! I have to say, as a son of Norfolk and also an Irish citizen, neither bother me in the least. It's lazy, repetitive and pretty pathetic. I find I can rise above that, EDIT: Just wanted to add that, yes, I found the whole Burnley thing very offensive
Whilst I agree there is little difference in using these stereotypes against people, I find it difficult to get wound up by any of them. The use of stereotypes can often give rise to the funniest observational humour. I'm not sure that every scouser is a thieving, layabout benefit fraud but it can be funny to poke fun at them in that way (especially if they're your mate). Have you not sung "Sign on, sign on with pen in your hand, cause you'll never get a job...." Cause this is also no different to the 6 fingered, sister shagging slurs/banter. To the recipient generally not; Original, funny or clever at all, but often a good laugh to the perpatrator and his friends. But where would comedy be without poking fun at people? Women might want mother in law jokes banned, or all jokes to their detriment including blondes! How about the old? Or victims of natural disasters? Gary Glittler probably doesn't like the dogs abuse he got, we better stop the comics from taking the pee there too! Fat people, anorexic people, ugly people, gangster rappers they all have feelings! Where is the line? Should a white comic be able to take the pee out of black people the way they used to? and the way black comics sometimes do of whites now? Is it only funny if the recipients have a sense of humour or have not been wronged by the comic/abusers ethnic heritage? Can I only take the mickey out of Christians? They come in all colours, shapes, sizes, sexes and ages! Why can't I say anything about Allah or Islam, or Jews and Jehovah with out it then being a hate crime? I'm not sure the country becomes wholey a better place if we try to eradicate all of this. It is part of the great british culture that we tear strips off each other and are still friends afterwards. In fact it is our friends who will likely take the brunt of such jibes. So much of the world seems to be becoming a more sterile and uninteresting place as free spirit and individuality is attemptedly crushed by the increasingly inflexible one size fits all education system. So why should we bend down to accomodate others? Is it not they who should adapt to our cultures in this country? Obviously someone shouting "Black c#nt, go home" is horrible and that is far from banter. The banter / abuse line can be blurry, but I think if something is randomly shouted at a stranger and ment to cause offence then it needs looking at. If it's a whole stand of footy fans it will likely be banter, but then that doesn't excuse what they are saying. A rule of thumb should always be, if you were in a pub with a stranger who was the subject of the joke, would you say it to them? If you change that to a mate rather than a stranger, the shackles are off! Bah!
Very well said General. I'm a firm believer that everything should be open for lampooning or none of it is. I've always though that the best way to come together is to be able to make fun of each other. Admittedly, the inbreeding jokes about Norfolk get tiresome as it is wholly unoriginal and there are plenty of other places around the country that deserve the "inbred" tag, ***Cough*** SUFFOLK ***Cough*** but I never get offended by it. It usually just shows to me that the person saying it isn't that clever or funny. I think one of the best explanations of all the PC stuff has come in South Park in recent years, as well as in the Episodes "Cartoon Wars" from ages ago. The moment you say this is ok and this is not you are creating a divide and forcing people to go either side of that line and that immediately breeds conflict.
Is the 'SUFFOLK inbred' tag directly referenced at me or just the county, because i'll put it on record now that my parents are not related and I have the correct number of fingers and toes thank you!
I was born in God's own county of Norfolk but was then dragged kicking and screaming into Suffolk at age 4 through to 16!
Left home at 16 and moved to Hendon Met Police Cadets, then to Ashford in Kent, then to Upper Norwood in London, then back to Hendon, then to Greenwich then Brockley then Catford, finally left London for Lincoln, then down to WsM in 2000
