SOMETIMES YOU HEAR THE BULLET

[Updated][April 10th, 9.50 - French Time ] Controversial Scottish comedian and TV personality Frankie Boyle has had a confrontation with the mother of a Down’s syndrome child during a show of his I Would Happily Punch Every One of You In the Face stand-up tour.

The former Mock The Week panelist made fun of the voices, haircuts and clothes of people with Down’s syndrome. Then Boyle spotted Sharon Smith and her husband looking uncomfortable in the audience and asked why they were talking during his show. When they told him about their five-year daughter, who has Down's, the comedian tried to laugh off his remarks, asking: « But it's all true, isn't it? Everything I have said is true, isn't it? » (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a213391/boyle-blasted-for-downs-syndrome-gags.html).

After the incident, Sharon Smith wrote a calm, balanced and moving post on her blog about it (http://k3tten.blogspot.com/2010/04/punching-me-in-face-would-have-been.html), which received a lot of support on social networking sites such as Twitter - with celebrities like comic actor Mathew Horne backing her. And The Down's Syndrome Association has issued a statement regarding Frankie Boyle's gig (http://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/news-and-media/dsa-news/711-response-from-the-downs-syndrome-association--frankie-boyle.html).

We will not discuss of Boyle's comic merits, we'll just humbly recall that to be born with a disability is not a laughing matter. Especially in these hard times that we share which can easily make a health issue worse, whatever its degree is.

Update (7.21 - French Time): Interesting reaction from 18-year old college student and blogger Jayne Burnett, who has Down's syndrome and is a self-advocate with ENABLE Scotland (http://www.enable.org.uk/campaigns.php?sid=37&ssid=0&id=44).

http://blogs.sundaymail.co.uk/jayneburnett/2010/04/frankie-boyle-needs-to-watch-w.html

See:

http://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/
http://k3tten.blogspot.com/
http://www.enable.org.uk/index.php
http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/04/09/10805/did_frankie_go_too_far_this_time%3F

En Français: http://thierryattard.blogspot.com/2010/04/parfois-on-entend-le-bruit-de-la-balle.html