Two things -
First I haven't any problem with people telling jokes about anything, anything at all. I've said that from the off. I don't think there should be any boundarys on what is a suitable subjet for comedy. For example I've always really liked Jerry Sadowitz who has had some criticism for the material he does on the subject of race.
linkage -
http://www.jerrysadowitz.com/Secondly if you want to actually read my previous posts properly you can see that I'm not saying BM is equivalent to Hitler or the Kray twins, I'm just using them as examples of people who are clearly vile but who can't be mentioned without some prat saying "oh will he might have been a vicious nazi dictator/ psychopathic killer / obnoxious ignorant bigot but......etc etc."
In the other post in which I mention everyones favourite Austrian painter and decorator / Charlie Chaplin lookalike all I did is point out that posting up a small clip of someone not talking about something doesn't prove they don't regularly talk about it. (I could for example dig through this site and post up links to a myriad of threads in which Ralphy does not talk about his car, and Birdy doesn't call anyone a cunt, but let's not pretend that proves these things rarely happen).
Oh and just do that Arriba can stop going on about it. So he was Catholic and had a distant Jewish ancestor and told jokes that took the piss out of them. Well so what? I know he told jokes about other things, I know he ripped the piss out of all sorts of groups, I'm not really bothered about the jokes.
I just didn't like the fact that he was a racist. Now I know you like to argue that he wasn't, that it was an act etc. but I'm not sure much of that holds water.
Little story - A few years ago BM was booked to play the Red, White and Blue Festival by the Trafalgar Club, the "cultural arm" of the BNP. Now he pulled out of the gig in the end when the press blew up about it, but the BNP wanted him, and Mannings agent took the booking without a second thought. Can you imagine any other comic's agent doing that without consulting his client?
And the "he was very friendly with some of his black neighbours" thing. Come on. Virtually every, "send 'em all back home" racist I've every encountered has, when faced with a black individual that they acually know, had a very different attitude. The whole "you're all right, you're different" attitude is a complete cliche.
Are we done now?
