These Strange Days

I am not in the business of gloating over anyone's death and I will not make an exception for Bernard Manning. I will, however, assert that he is no great loss to contemporary comedy. But that is merely my humble opinion. I will also admit to deriving some amusement from the praise being lavished upon him in the media by people who claimed to despise him. Everybody loves you when you're dead. It could even be asserted that it is an excellent career move. Even more amusing are those who try to justify his racism by emphasising his Jewish ancestry. I don't buy that. Was Merle Oberon any less racist when she forced her mother to pretend to be the maid because she was ashamed of her Indian heritage? Absolutely not. If anything it makes her racism even more reprehensible.

On a Blog Near You

Just a few salient points:

1) Jade Goody is badly educated in comparison to Ms. Shetty but have you stopped to wonder why? She spent most of her childhood looking after her mentally-ill, drug-addicted mother. How did the Upper-Caste Ms. Shetty cope with that - oh, that's right - she didn't have to.
2) Ms. Goody is of West Indian descent - she has West Indian features - much of the media's mockery is a result of this. Ironically, Ms. Shetty conforms to Western ideals of beauty more than Ms. Goody.
3) Could someone please tell me how people arrive at the conclusion that Ms. Shetty is intellectual. She failed to watch a single episode of Big Brother before agreeing to appear on the show and seems ignorant of the origins of its title. Germaine Greer observed that there was bullying on Big Brother when she walked out of the programme two years ago. My response was 'Well, duh'. The programme's title is derived from a novel that depicts a totalitarian state governed by a capricious, malevolent dictator known as 'Big Brother'. Bullying? In that kind of environment? Who'd have thought it?

4) Finally, how, for the love of cake, does this sully the reputation of Britain? There are 60 million people in this country and less than 8 million watch Big Brother. As the Americans would say: 'Do the math'.

Oh Brother!

In response to this:

Like many others I cannot help contrasting the reaction of this columnist to Ms. Parr's ill judged use of the 'N' word with the reaction to the behaviour of Jade Goody et al in Celebrity Big Brother. Ms. Parr is of a higher social standing and is better educated than the three women who were vilified for their actions in CBB and yet the former is judged less harshly than the latter. Is it just me or does anyone else find this ever so slightly illogical? Class-based discrimination is alive and well and living within the pages of that bastion of socialism (Oh, the irony) known as The Guardian.