It's the question everyone's asking!
Comedy relies on consensus. If nobody else thinks that people from Wiltshire lay eggs, you'll die on your bum doing gags about those nest-squatting goons from Devizes.
It used to be easy. The Irish were daft, mothers-in-law were fat. Job done. Everyone who wasn't Irish or a mother-in-law laughed and we were all a bit bigoted and unfair. It'd be nice to think that we'd moved on.
John Prescott's admission of bulimia was meant to give his forthcoming memoir a till-friendly whiff of tragedy: one man crumbling like a Hobnob under the pressures of public life. Instead, because it came from topical comedy's fat-kid designate, it played into the cruel gagcensus that drives many people to eating disorders in the first place.
"Yaroo!" the papers and the bloggers howled as one. "Look at Tubby Prescott! He's got a disease like a girl!"
Jane Moore in today's Sun accompanies a playground-level insult that's taken her two days to think up with a stock image of Star Wars' very own Rowland Browning Jabba the Hutt.
Whatever the reasons for Prescott's sudden admission, what message does this bullying of the fat kid send to people fighting eating disorders? That dangerous eating is okay as long as you throw up enough to look great in a bikini?
Hey everybody! Stephen Hawking's got a wheelchair! Jeremy Beadle had one small hand! John Prescott's been sick from buns!
And that's how you do jokes.
What do you think? Agree or disagree? What are your reactions to John's announcement?
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14 comments:
I believe I now know why he punched that protestor. It was because the egg missed his mouth.
He might have had a bit more sympathy if he'd been any good at bulimia.
...or good at anything
Sometimes I drink so much cider I feel like throwing up. I guess I must be Bulmerslimic?
Agree with Mr H. Check out this article from the Sun. Even the doctor can't resist having a go...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article1069897.ece
John Prescott wrote "People normally associate it with young women - anorexic girls, models trying to keep their weight down - or women in stressful situations, like Princess Diana."
Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, but does this mean Mr Prescott actually tried to eat Diana?
he's got a lot of mileage from it though, his family must be fed up of him bringing it up at the dinner table (BOOM TISH)
Wait, Stephen Hawking isn't funny anymore? This country has gone to the dogs. And I don't mean GIRLS ALOUD!!!! LOLZ!!!!! (Now that's funny!)
Oh dear. It looks like our reaction to Joel's post about why we shouldn't make jokes about Prescott has led to... us making jokes about Prescott.
Shut up Wateracre. You teacher's pet. I've bet you've got glasses or something. Or Bulimia. Or Something.
I have a university friend who genuinely thought that Jeremy Beadle had one normal hand and one massive one. After I calmly explained that this would mean he had a roughly A4-sized hand, I beat her to within an inch of her life. She thanked me for it eventually. Although I think she actually pretends to understand the situation, and now secretly harbours the notion that his manky hand is normal sized and the rest of him is giant.
J Warry, Tooting
Joel's post was a thinly-disguised goading to make us post prescott jokes. He's as bad as someone republishing the Danish Mohammed cartoons just to see what all the fuss was about. (although for the sake of comedy, if not decency, the jokes are a bit lame.)
I'm rising above "humphrey"'s taunting. I bet he is a small, small man, probably about 5'2".
Anyway, who's called "humphrey" in this day and age?
Regards Prescott, if it wasn't so damn tragic that that bloated sack of shit is attempting to garner sympathy for being a greedy, delusional, Billy Bunter, pie-noshing piss-bucket, and plug his forthcoming biography by claiming to be ill, and not just ill, but ill with a disease normally associated with young beautiful people, it would be funny.
If he'd said he suffered from big-fat-twat syndrome he wouldn’t have heard a single word of dissent.
I'm looking forward to the earnest BBC 4 doc, in the Stephen Fry/Bipolar style. It'll be the funniest thing I've ever seen - well apart from May To December of course. I may well not eat before I watch it, in case my violent guffawing and rocking back and forth in my chair forces me to vomit all over myself in some weird homage to great blubber bag that is JP.
On the other hand, maybe it’s all true and this is all incredibly cynical of us all. It’s a hard one to call.
J Warry, Tooting
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