“Is that our job rather than other peoples’?”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Northern Irish are almost devoid of humour, especially when we are the butt of other people’s jokes. It’s as though we are always straining to see echos of Punch’s simianised caricatures of the 19th Century in every new poke at our sensibilities. Beano picks up the news that Ofcom is investigating Catherine Tate Show because it portrayed a Northern Irish family as terrorists in its Christmas edition (added above).
“The scene saw the family opening their Christmas presents, which included a balaclava, knuckleduster and an apron which showed a balaclava-wearing terrorist alongside the words “Remember Everything, Forgive Nothing”.
Beano’s right in at least one respect. It wasn’t that funny, though who can argue that the last part has absolutely no resonance in generality with people here?
But he’s also makes a salient point in another regard: “Northern Ireland needs to improve its image, certainly, but isn’t that our job rather than other people’s?”
According to the ‘superiority theory’ of humour espoused by Plato and Aristotle, it is the nature of humour to cause offence since it depends on feeling superior to others – who, naturally, will feel offended by being considered inferior. Since the mass neurosis known as Political Correctness is opposed to anything that causes offence to others, it is opposed to humour by default. So there you have it, PC types really are dour, humourless spoilsports.
Bernard Manning must have been from the school of philosophy as those two Greek geezers, this from his self-penned obituary:
I don’t think the Commission for Racial Equality will be holding a wake for me, either. Nor will the Lesbian and Gay Rights lot or the feminists. They were always banging on about how I was sexist or anti-gay.
In their obsession with turning comedy into a branch of Left-wing politics, they forgot that the only point of jokes is to make people laugh.
No, she’s a UK comic with a UK audience watching her on national UK television. That’s the context. NI characters should be proportionately represented on national television shows. It would be wrong if they weren’t. Same with proportion of newsreaders, presenters etc.
The only unfunny thing about her sketch was that there is more than a grain of truth to the idea that there exist some families in Ireland who embrace violence as a form of identity.
Were those characters really so far fetched as to be non existant?
I need only remind you all of the jubilation displayed at the release of one of the Omagh bombers, by his family members who know only too well his level of involvement in violence.
If her skecth has pricked the sensibilities of some, maybe we’ll be the better for it.
Jo
Please stick to the topic rather that trying to dictate who can or cannot comment on this site.
I thought is was very funny, along with the other NI sketches the show has been doing. Seriously, nobody holds these stereotypes of NI folk these days – as others have said, they’re about 30 years out of date, which makes it even funnier. Everyone on the show gets mocked. I’m surprised by the reaction here – I thought NI folk loved dark humour!