The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102603 Message #2085950
Posted By: Steve Shaw
24-Jun-07 - 07:33 PM
Thread Name: Britain's greatest comedian dead-Bernard Manning
Subject: RE: Britain's greatest comedian dead-Bernard Manning
You are living in a different Britain to me, Blindlemonsteve, mate. I suppose you don't live or work in Oldham or Burnley or any one of countless other inner-city areas where separation and suspicion are the order of the day (neither do I now, but I did once. Bury, Bolton, Tipton, Walthamstow, Poplar, Lewisham, Bethnal Green...) I see that you are propagating the latest flavour-of-the-day idea, that Bernard was equally abusive to everyone and therefore he was OK. This notion seems to have gained much currency in the last day or two. And he was a bit Jewish too and "probably" has black friends etc. etc. ad nauseam. The excuses for his obnoxiousness are rife. I submit that he could have been even fairer had he refrained from offending anyone instead of spreading his abuse so "neutrally." The truth is that he found he could make a very tidy living thank you very much by indulging in lazy abuse of minority groups. It's far harder to make people laugh in a positive and life-affirming way and he just wasn't up to it. He was, therefore, a third-rate comedian and a first-rate racist bigot. When I get up there to the pearly gates St Peter may have a few searching questions for me and I may struggle, but I'll be asking him a few toughies too. If Mr Manning's in there (Maggie Thatcher too), I ain't going in. I'd rather have Beelzebub prodding my gonads with red-hot irons for all eternity than spend even five minutes in the company of either of those two rotters!