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

NOW, SERIOUSLY...

Normally this is not strictly speaking in my usual professional field of interest (although this blog covers television) and I try not to react on "emotion mode". But I read on the always excellent Digital Spy website that Cerrie Burnell, a disabled presenter of the CBeebies channel (the BBC channel for children) is victim of a campaign because some parents have suggested that the young woman - born without the lower right arm - may [God, how can I even be obliged to write what follows...] "scare children" (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a147553/disabled-bbc-presenter-scaring-children.html).

What scares me, for my part, is that some people can think that sort of things. Fortunately, the boss of CBeebies, Michael Carrington, and the Beeb, have expressed their support to Miss Burnell (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a147613/bbc-defends-disabled-presenter.html). May I remind that when I was younger, the BBC was the home of Vision On, a funny, clever and bold program for deaf children (and the others too, it was one of my favourite shows...)

Like the Beeb, and many others, your humble French servant would like to express his support to Cerrie Burnell.