The Wright Stuff mongs out
HAVING asked viewers “Amanda Knox: would ya?” the Wright Stuff’s producers put their thinking caps on and wondered if they could produce another survey to demean a soft target. The show on Channel Five (prop R. Desmond) featured nodding gossips chatting about Rupert Murdoch referring to David Cameron’s dead son as “retarded” at the Leveson inquiry. Ivan Cameron had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He died in 2009 age 6.
A voiceover duly asked viewers:
“According to one survey, what’s the most offensive term to describe someone with learning difficulties? a. Mong b. Retard C. Spaz.”
Over on Channel 4, a few of you might have caught Derek, the latest Ricky Gervais show in which the comic pretends to be man suffering from soem sort of mental affliction. This is Gervais who called Susan Boyle a mong. Gervais is in tune with his inner mentally ill patient in much the same as the Black & White Minstrels harnessed the soul of the black man’s burden.
We tell you this because Gervais went on twitter to tell us that “mong” was on word that it was now ok to use. His twitter followers would be his little Mongsters. Gervais was then shocked to hear that mong was a derogatory term for people with Down’s syndrome. This is the same sensitive Gervais who says, “I’ve always been conscious of animals being in pain.” He can empathise with the beasts of burden but not the disabled? But, then, Gervais knows that making fun of dumb animals isn’t funny. The mocking of those funny nig-nogs and massive-nosed Jews in the 1930s was funny to the people who liked to hurt. We laugh at mongs the same way you laugh at Derek – because we’re cruel and like picking on people unlikely to punch us in the face.
And then we grow out of it; we learn that it hurts others; we leave the playground. To be funny, we aim at things higher than us, we mock the powerful.
Back to Matthew Wright’s Stuff which tells us that “retard” is the most offensive disability-related word.
Thanks, Matt, for the public service announcement. Always good to be reminded how to hurt people lower down the scale then you.
Posted: 11th, May 2012 | In: TV & Radio Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
