In the past I have never minded bad comedians because I felt that the offensive joke was also a statement on the character of the comedian and perhaps those that took offence were too senstive. However, my opinion has since changed over time and I will try to explain why. Some one I know at work caused various colleagues at this place of work and at other places of work to leave because of either comments he made to them or because of the way he addressed them (his tone of voice if you like being either extremely partonizing or very aggresive). At some of the incidents I was present and at other incidents I was not present. When ever anyone left the organizations and quoted this person as the reason for their departure his comments were usually "I thought he/she had a sense of humour" or "they should have had the guts to come and face me." Many of those who left the organisation were disabled. An example of a comment is "and don't bother blaming this on your dyslexia, you're just plain stupid."
A few years ago this person then started making 'jokes' me infront of other people such as "what do you expect, it's because you're Greek". At some point these 'jokes' started becoming more frequent and were no longer made infront of other people and were made with a nasty tone and I frequently told him that his comments or 'jokes' were offensive and racist. His response would be to laugh at me or just walk away smiling. The comments became worse and worse such as 2there are too many Greeks in Stourbridge" to which I said "there are hardly any Greek-Cypriots in Stourbridge and besides I am the only Greek-Cypriot you know." His response was "like I said there are too many Greeks in Stourbridge". Once when I returned from holiday I brought some chocolates back for all the staff. When I offered him a chocolate I was told "he would not accept gifts from Greeks baring gifts." I explained to him where that phrase originated - from 3000 years ago when the Greek army gave the Trojans the wooden horse at the end of the Trojan War to which he replied "and Greeks are even more devious now then ever before" and then started laughing at me. Another example was when I introduced myself to a new member of staff in 2004 Hhe interupted and said to her "don't mind him, he's Greek." He likes Fawlty Towers, as do I and millions of other people, but I do not appreciate him trying to turn me into a 'Manuel' sterotype character. When I have challenged his behaviour he would occasionally say that he was not racist and I ought to meet his sister, brother-in-law or mother if I wanted to hear real racist comments. One colleague once said when she was the focus of his attention "I know why he treats people in that way. He gets perverse pleasure out of it."
I know I have gone on a bit with my personal experience but I will now try to come to the point of what I am trying to explain. Those who have heard his comments and know that I am offended by his comments say that I must be too sensitive and they are only jokes. Others have made their own jokes such as one member saying she does not do the washing up, she has a Greek-Cypriot under the sink who comes out to do the washing up. Therefore, despite the 'jokes' that are said being offensive to the specific people who are the aim of the joke, other people enjoy the joke as it perhaps makes them feel superior, or perhaps they are just happy that they are not the focus. For the record these are not jokes they are offensive comments that are at the expense of minority groups, whether it be racist, sexist, disablist (yes that a new word in the dictionary), homophobic, ageist or some other group. And yet I have laughed myself at Alf Garnet jokes. But then again I was not the focus then. Does that make me a hypocrite? Well I watched Alf Garnet 20 plus years ago. Whether I would find the same jokes funny now that I have experienced race discrimination myself I don't know. Perhaps it is not until we are on the receiving end that we can fully appreciate the full extent of the harm and offense that Bad Comedians cause.
As I have mentioned Fawlty Towers and Alf Garnet here are some Youtube clips. The first one is regarding Manuel and the famous catchphrase is mentioned "I'm sorry. He's from Barcelona."
And now for probably the most famous of the offensive comedians:-
Finally I would like to explain why I have included images of Borat on this weblog entry by asking one question. Is this character who has thousands of fans really just another example of a Bad Comedian whose character is creating a stereotypical view of people from Kazakhstan.
P.S. I have only refered to the person from my past (and present) as 'Him', and not mentioned any the organisations worked at for anonymity.
My Response to Staceyann's repsonse to this blog entry
I agree with what Staceyann is saying. No one is better than someone else just because of their race. There are good and bad people in every nationality and race and you should treat people how you want to be treated. Therefore, I try to treat everyone with respect.
