1/12/2011

Room 101: Frankie Boyle

I am still stunned by the shocking display of nonchalance both the BBC and Channel 4 have shown this past year. Both British TV channels have in their own way supported the vile and grotesque jibes controversial comedian, Frankie Boyle, has made towards certain factions of society by refusing to publicly apologise for the offense he has caused.


Boyle, a Scottish comedian best known for his shocking and dark humour, has been a panellist on the BBC’s popular comedy show Mock The Week, and currently has his comedy stand-up show Tramadol Nights aired on Channel 4. This past year saw several of his sketches scrutinised by the public and media at their outrageous content.


One incident occurred when Boyle referred to the British Olympic gold winner, Rebecca Adlington, as someone whose face resembled the reflection you get when looking into the back of a spoon. This dig, made on the satirical and often offensive Mock The Week, was magnified in the media’s response to Adlington’s public call for an apology from the BBC and the comedian himself. The public, on the issue of the apology, were split. Many were supportive of Adlington’s claim, but thousands of people also thought that because the athlete is in the public eye, she has to accept that she is now open to public observation.


With this understanding, because she is by trade a swimmer who happens to have won international recognition for her abilities, is she now anyone’s game merely for the fact that she has been on TV a few times? More importantly, does she now have to accept that she can be made fun of on national television for something entirely irrelevant to her ‘fame’ in the first place?


This bizarre logic was used last month when Katie Price’s (aka Jordan) heavily disabled son, Harvey, was picked on once again by Boyle. His quips ranged from “Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey – eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him” to him assuming that the reason why Price married a cage fighter was because she “needed a man strong enough to stop Harvey from f*****g her”.


The ‘price of fame’ logic would suggest that because Harvey has appeared in Jordan’s many reality TV shows he too now has to accept being publicly attacked because he is in the ‘public eye’. But why is it that even a disabled child, who has no means of defending himself, is not off limits? If we allow bullies, of which I would classify Boyle to be, to appear on TV and online for the world to see, what is stopping a child in the playground to laugh at a disabled or ‘different’ looking classmate? We would have to respect what the child had to say, and allow him to continue to say it, if we are to follow the example set by the BBC and Channel 4. And this example isn’t being set on obscure channels that no one watches, they are happening on mainstream television, and more disturbingly, these comedians are being paid to say these remarks.


I find it humiliating that in our society we still have set-backs to social progression in the form of bigots like Frankie Boyle and the bosses of institutions like Channel 4, and it is my biggest hope that in 2011 our moral compass will begin to re-align itself.

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