Carol, please accept that many people, smokers and smokers alike, simply do not find your song funny and your continual attempts to browbeat them into this by accusations of being 'ironically impaired' etc frankly, insulting

Satire is very difficult to achieve but I would suggest before you try to attempt it again you should listen to Tom Lehrer who really was funny and not, as Crow Sister points out, merely indulging in "ordinary bitching at people doing something that pisses you off"

You are correct of course in pointing out that discrimination against smokers is not comparable to discrimination against people of other races however, just to play with the point that McGrath is making......

Some years ago there was a sitcom on UK TV 'Til Death us do Part (badly translated to America I believe) which took a sustained interest in race themes.

The main "star" of the show in the person of the patriarch "Alf," made black people the target of his rantings and it is for the extreme views expressed by Alf on issues of race that the programme is most remembered (and denounced).

Although Alf's creator argued at the time of the original broadcasts (and since) that his intention was to expose racist bigotry through the exaggerated utterances of Alf, the intention back-fired; the effects were by no means always what the author intended as some viewers identified heavily with the xenophobic ravings of Alf - as indeed some of the "anti-smoking fascists" identified by Crow Sister will no doubt fall off their stools with laughter at your jaunty little ditty.

In this case, John Speight, the author certainly DID not share any of the racist views rxpressed by Alf whereas you have made it very plain that you did indeed regard (some) smokers 'fit my definition of scum'

You may also have noticed even from some threads on mudcat (although fortunately some of the worst have been deleted) that there remains (despite being legal, like smoking) people with strong negative feelings about the practice of homosexuality who would no doubt find 'gentle' songs wishing them all a painful death from AIDs related diseases also very funny - it doesn't meant that they are 'satirical' however much the author may think they are being.


Michael Siegel the doctor who was active in the campaign to ban smoking in the workplace and other enclosed spaces but opposes for many valid reasons the extension of this ban into the open air has stated……..

"the purpose of smoking bans is to protect people from secondhand smoke, not to express intolerance for a large segment of the population."


Now please get some perspective on this, many people who are not the humourless, incapable of understanding 'satire' or militant irony lesser mortals you accuse them of being, simply do not find a song you have written funny.
They are NOT 'trashing' YOU!