I'm Spazticus

[justin44]

If you've not watched it you won't understand, is it wrong or not? If a disabled person maes fun of themselves is it wrong to laugh?

Maybe I'm politically incorrect but it's funny as hell.

Anyone else watching it?

[MerlinShepherd]

Here's Ian Dury and the Blockheads with Wilko Johnson!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6isXNVdguI8

[kevkojak]

I don't mind the fact that it's in poor taste - if it's funny I'll laugh.

Sadly I don't think I really 'get' this. Most of the sketches seem halfway there but lacking a punchline or a real laugh out loud moment - for example the one on the current advert where a guy orders a minicab and a midget turns up in a kids ride-on toy. The actor seems uncomfortable and fails miserably on any sort of comic timing - he tells the chap to walk behind him and that's that... end of sketch.

If they can get some decent writers they might have a chance of this taking off, but as it stands it really isn't very good.

[Corporalsparrow]

It's never funny to laugh at other people's misfortune. The fact that the comedians themselves are disabled doesn't give them the right to assume that all disabled people have skins as thick as theirs. So no, in my view, it isn't funny.

[Christian]

I think we went round this one during the last series. If somethings funny it's funny....but this isn't. Total and utter rubbish.

[Bravo73]

It's never funny to laugh at other people's misfortune. The fact that the comedians themselves are disabled doesn't give them the right to assume that all disabled people have skins as thick as theirs. So no,

Erm, have you actually watched it?

By and large, none of the sketches involve laughing at the comedians themselves. It's the members of 'the Great British Public' who they are taking the p1ss out of.

[Cirrus]

It's never funny to laugh at other people's misfortune. The fact that the comedians themselves are disabled doesn't give them the right to assume that all disabled people have skins as thick as theirs. So no, in my view, it isn't funny.

You could just as easily say that because Jim Davidson pokes fun at his mother in law in a way you don't recognise as applying to your mother in law then he hasn't the right to do so, or that Chris Rock can't do his "nigger at an ATM" routine unless every other African American signs off on it...

Humour is personal, and so are boundaries... I have seen Jimmy Carr reduce an audience to tears with essentially the same joke that nearly got Frankie Boyle lynched just because it wasn't really "his" audience.

[wildheart]

I have watched it and been asked to take part. I probably would if I thought it was funny and not making disabled people the butt of the joke.
I recently booked Francesca Martinez for an event she was superb, taking the piss out of herself and others, very risky but she makes it work.

As others have said it depends on the timing and who is telling the gag and spirit in which it is delivered.

Ian Dury was a pioneer who I met and talked to, but he was a bully and intimidated people around him. A great musician, but a bit ahead of his time as to Equality and Diversity, his upbringing had made him angry and of course that came out in some of his lyrics.

A lot of spazticus is filmed in and around Chelmsford by the way

[mav66]

I saw a little bit of this one evening. For me, the most awkward/shocking moment was the sight of Frankie Cocozza's hair. What is going on there?