Bernard Manning Bites the Dust

[AdamM]

but people who do hold racist views and have a tendancy to act violently on those views come out of Manning / Brown gigs feeling their views have been validated by the loud confident man on stage and the laughter of the hundreds of people in the audience.

It's not ludicrous to think it might make them less likely to supress their violent behaviour as a result.

I agree it's not going to turn a socialist into a swastika wearer, but then a liberal minded socialist isn't very likely to be their in the first place.

[fearisthekey]

but people who do hold racist views and have a tendancy to act violently on those views come out of Manning / Brown gigs feeling their views have been validated by the loud confident man on stage and the laughter of the hundreds of people in the audience.

It's not ludicrous to think it might make them less likely to supress their violent behaviour as a result.

I agree it's not going to turn a socialist into a swastika wearer, but then a liberal minded socialist isn't very likely to be their in the first place.

It's only a matter of time before a lot of discussions move to Nazi analogies, but you make a fair point. I've always been interested in Nazi Germany as a social phenomenon (basically how do you get your entire country just about to act like a bunch of ****s?). Part of it is national identity, if the machinery is in place it's possible to get any population to behave like that. But social scientists place HUGE emphasis on the actual speeches of Hitler themselves, the power he had to just blind people, with waving fist and powerful rhetoric.
For Bernard Manning, I think some of the crowd he normally attracted were probably already of racist/sexist mind, and since he was a comic they knew he was there to add shock to draw people in and spice up his act, it's not like he's a politician.
If people are not racist/sexist, go along to enjoy his act, and come out as wife/pakistani beaters, they had a big problem to begin with.
As for the rest of it, when it can be done without racism, comedy that brings national issues to the common man has to be a good thing anyway.
He was a foulmouthed racist sexist lout at times, but I liked his comedy. Life's too short and funny comics too thin on the ground. Also, I have a gate in my head that scrutinizes the logic of what people say before I adopt their opinions, so I can listen without fear.

[booder]

The whole point of being a comedian is to make people laugh,and that is what Manning was good at.He was an equal oppotunities comedian ,he would tell a joke about ANY subject ..all that mattered was that it was funny.
People accused him of being prejudiced.These same people who were accusing him had never seen him perform , therefore they were the ones who were in fact prejudiced because they pre-judged him.
If he was such a racist why did he give his services free to aid fundraising for high profile Black and Asian sportsmen ? , and let us not forget that in fact he was a descendant of Jewish immigrants.
40 years ago he opened his Embassy Club......40 years !!!  Do you really think somebody with such racist ideals would have survived this long ?

I have attended several of his performances with friends of different races,and , even though on occasions they have been the brunt of his jokes , not once have any of them accused him of being racist.
I think Frank Carson sums it up best........" ‘The only people that misunderstood him were those people who didn’t have a sense of humour. "

R.I.P Bernard.     The funniest guy i ever had the pleasure to see.

[Colchester Kev]

Guys I have had to remove a couple of posts .... lets keep it civil please.

[kinboshi]

The problem with racist comedians and other public figures with racist attitudes who have a public voice is that it normalises and reinforces people's prejudices that can then be 'acted out' as discriminatory acts. 

[AdamM]

exactly

[johnbhoy76]

The whole point of being a comedian is to make people laugh,and that is what Manning was good at.He was an equal oppotunities comedian ,he would tell a joke about ANY subject ..all that mattered was that it was funny.
R.I.P Bernard.     The funniest guy i ever had the pleasure to see.

The funniest guy you've ever seen?

I've had funnier hangovers!

Also he did not do jokes about ANY topic. He was on record as saying he did not do "sick" jokes.

Jerry Sadowitz is a comedian who will do jokes about ANY topic

It's the same old drivel everytime from Manning apologists

"Oh he had a go at everyone" - Aye maybe he did now and again but 90% of the time it was just Asians he was havig a go at.

"Oh but he had lots of Asian friends" - Really?? Why have we never seen any of these "friends" interviewed in the numerous documentaries about Manning over the years. Why do they never come forward to say what a Great laugh Bernard was?

[Claw75]

I think he was known to have the odd pop at women too!

[The Baron]

Manning was aked on national TV if he was racist. Completely straight faced he simply said yes.

If that is me not getting it then I'm happy not getting it.

The guy got pwned by Mrs Merton - now that's funny.

[Pokerron]

He's about as funny as a dose of the clap.   

[AndrewT]

[dealerFROMhell]

It's quite an interesting subject.

The government has, in recent months through the mouthpiece of Tessa Jowell, and as a subsequence of a national poll on immigration which shows widespread discontent, done a complete u-turn on it's immigration policy. Now having discovered this, it would be safe to assume that the majority of people living in Britain harbour the view that immigration is becoming a problem, and is a major social issue. Some would say the one issue that's most imperative in the next general election, and certain to feature highly on party manifestos.

Comedy, since it's inception, has ridiculed, satired and downright mocked every conceivable social issue. Major or minor, consequential or not. This instance is no different. Every comedian has a right (and the most succesfull ones have an obligation) to appeal to the public interest through their material.

When Chubby Brown makes fun of asylum seekers, he is doing so safe in the knolwedge that a significant part of the British population feels disillusioned and somewhat let down by our governments economical, civic and social policy regarding people who wish to re-locate to the UK.

It's complete rubbish to say that Manning encouraged people to beat up "Pakis". It's draconian, liberal thinking that gets laughed out of court everytime someone claims diminished responsibility. Adulthood comes hand-in-hand with being accountable for your own actions, and if someone thinks that's acceptable behaviour, then they did not need a reason to do it in the first place.

Ineloquent rags like The Sun (through the columnist Jon Gaunt) have a much greater influence on public opinion than Bernard Manning has or ever did have, and I think it's safe to say that it's not the most left wing of publications. What are you going to do, ban the centuries old tradition of free speech?

[ifm]

Good post.
I think the answer to your final question is dependant on who you would like an answer from, a few in this thread would obviously serve a death sentence upon anyone who would dare to try free speech.
The more normal of us think it's a good thing to a point, there are laws in this country that stop incitement to violence, odd how Manning or Brown never have been convicted.

[dealerFROMhell]

They haven't been (or in Mannings case weren't) convicted because they aren't/weren't breaking any laws, and are both hugely popular comedians.

It's almost fruitless to debate Bernard Manning. There is no middle gorund. Those who like him hold him in very high regard, but those who dont like him seemingly think he is the anti-christ.

[phatomch]

before Dealer's statement a couple of posts ago the smartest thing to come out of him was flushy.