http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20925557-2,00.html
HOLLYWOOD director Oliver Stone has shocked a celebrity crowd with an off-colour joke about the murders of five suspected sex workers in eastern England, as it was reported women’s clothing had been found near where some of the bodies had been dumped.
Police have so far found the bodies of five women—three prostitutes and two others believed to be those of missing sex workers—in woodland around the quiet eastern port town of Ipswich in the past 11 days.
In the latest development, Britain’s Sky News has reported that women’s clothing has been found in the river Orwell, 4.8km downstream from where the first two bodies were dumped. A handbag had also been discovered in Ipswich, it has said, although police have not confirmed the finds.
The discovery of so many victims in so few days has raised fears another “Ripper” targeting prostitutes is on the loose.
That climate led Stone to quip to the British Comedy Awards audience in London: “It’s great to be back in England. I feel like Jack The Ripper days are back. Nothing ever changes here.”
The stunned crowd responded with jeers, gasps and boos, with one audience member quoted as saying the remark was in “unbelievably bad taste”.
That reminds me of the time, at one of the more important shows we ever played (opening for someone pretty big), that our lead singer told the crowd “Yeah, so we’re from New Brunswick. Yeah. There’s been a lot of rapes there lately.”
Has there been a thread yet about this?
I didn’t think that was all that offensive—about on the level of someone imitating a Jewish guy by going “Oy gevalt! Vadda you nuts?”
Worse than bad taste, it wasn’t funny. Booooo.
Yeah, it definitely wasn’t funny.
It’s no more awful than any other moment of Rosie O’Donnell.
not on a Kramer/Gibson level, but anyone under the age of 65 trying that ching chong shit is an asshole
Oh come on. Rosie’s ignorance is 100x worse than Stone’s comment which is only bad in a “too soon” kinda way and even then is hardly anything to get worked up about.
anyone under the age of 65 trying that ching chong shit is an asshole
I mean “I feel like Jack The Ripper days are back” is basically what the media is saying anyway isn’t it?
i don’t know what that’s referring to—did shaq say some tomfool shit re: asians?
xpost
Being crazy has been part of Stone’s public image for a long time, he’s like the least surprising source for something like this.
Rosie O’Donnell was imitating what a newscast in Chinese sounds like to her, not making fun of Chinese people. It’s a really really lame joke and mildly offensive, but I don’t think it’s worth much thought, and I don’t think it’d be getting attention if not for the Michael Richards thing.
i don’t know what that’s referring to—did shaq say some tomfool shit re: asians?
Some Yao Ming shit-talking.
Detailed here. Yao’s response cracks me up.
She was “imitating what a newscast in Chinese sounds like to her” by using a voice that has traditionally been used to make fun of Chinese people. What’s so hard to understand about that?
I understand it, and it’s mildly offensive. Like I said, it’s about the equivalent of “Oy vey” schtick, and it’s the kind of thing that, unfortunately, is on T.V. all the time.
Another appearance of the legendary anonymous “one member of the crowd” eh? Too bad they didn’t have anything more tabloidy to say.
And I’m not sure about those gaffes, but in general the public is VERY easily offended these days. It’s political correctness gone you-know-what.
Ha, you know I think there’s actually this weird crossover point where something becomes offensive just by virtue of being totally tired, and bad “ching-chong” imitations of Chinese fall pretty much directly into that category. I mean, no matter how innocently and non-pejoratively you mean it, yeah, it (a) makes you come off like a xenophobic old man, plus (b) everyone else has agreed that there is nothing amusing about the Chinese language, as it’s just the way about a billion people speak, and so maybe we should quit annoying them by going “ching chong” all the time. I kind of like this process, cause it’s basically a matter of etiquette — everyone deciding to quit bugging people with the same moronic joke. (Same goes, for the most part, about fake Spanish where everything-o just-o ends-o in-o O-o.) Cf if Rosie had had the knowledge / improvisatory skills to do any kind of realistic fake-Chinese, the joke would have sailed along nicely.
makes you come off like a xenophobic old man
That’s funny because I’ve only ever heard young people do it, and always in a spiteful, mocking way. I think I probably stopped doing it around the age of 8 but if I had known it was only mildly offensive I could have been ching chang chonging it up all of these years.
chang chang chang went the trolley
ching ching ching went the bell
I dunno about Stone’s comment being the least funny thing to have occurred at the British Comedy Awards in any case.
Cf if Rosie had had the knowledge / improvisatory skills to do any kind of realistic fake-Chinese, the joke would have sailed along nicely.
Yes, then it wouldn’t be any worse than doing playfully mocking British accents or whatever (which I do all the time of course).