Context, Lox. As you've said yourself, its all about context and the context of this discussion is whether TT is i) racist; ii) a satirist, and possibly iii) a comedian... and therefore Smokey's comments need to be understood in the context of the thread. Now I don't think you or Smokey or most of the folks on this thread are racists - your postings on plenty of threads demonstrate you're not - but what I can't understand is the lengths you'll go to to defend this man. TT really doesn't need or deserve your support. My thoughts at best he's a tasteless idiot who doesn't give a shit who he offends in the noble pursuit of bare-knuckle comedy. At worst he has a seriously dodgy agenda. Personally I think a lot of these so-called clever, "boundary pushing" comics we are inundated with are simply Bernard Manning with a better education and an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. What their doing isn't satire, it's just bullying dressed up as humour.

Satire is stuff like Brass Eye. It's far cleverer than this dreary old attention seeking stuff.