Mastodawn

"In the Seventies, when my family first moved to this country, we were the target of those comedians. I don’t see a lot of difference between the racist and hostile jokes directed at my family by comedians in the Seventies, and the targeting of the trans community now. If you come from any sort of minority, marginalised background, we’ve all got to have each others’ backs. Prejudice is a contagion.”
Nish Kumar

#Comedy #NishKumar
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/nish-kumar-interview-ricky-gervais-jimmy-carr-b2987362.html

Nish Kumar: ‘The safety of minority groups is more important than whether or not Ricky Gervais likes me’

Ahead of a new standup tour, the peppery comedian speaks to Louis Chilton about anger, punching down, and the state of British comedy – and he doesn’t hold back

The Independent

Paul Cantrell 2d ago

@junesim63 @Unlikelylass

“There’s this idea that comedy is always about punching up. It’s not. Comedy’s sometimes about punching down. It’s a more complicated artform than just one type of engagement with power. There’s always been this half of comedy that is bullied people taking agency of their narrative, and the other half has always been comedy for bullies. And this latest bout of transphobia is just the latest marginalised community to fall into the crosshairs of bullies.”

solo “claire” esta bien 2d ago

@inthehands
“Sometimes,” he says, “we need to be careful about assuming that things are happening for the first time.”

Fardels Bear 2d ago

The good opinion of Ricky Gervais is something that all decent people should fend off with a 10 ft barge pole.

FandaSin 2d ago

@riggbeck @junesim63

As he likes to say about others, Gervais is a cunt.
(And yes, I've seen some of his stuff and I find it funny...until it wasn't anymore)

Jules she/her 2d ago

@FandaSin @riggbeck @junesim63 I wish Ricky Gervais wasn't still so celebrated in vegan circles. Yes he's famous and vegan, so are lots of other comedians without being cunts. Diane Morgan for one.

Token Sane Person 2d ago

@junesim63 "Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it’s not satire, it’s bullying."

As #TerryPratchett didn't say. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/08/23/satire-power/

Quote Origin: Satire Is Meant To Ridicule Power – Quote Investigator®

@junesim63 it's not correct to call people minorities anymore

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c981g43vmmro

@shemjm @junesim63

"Using the right terms can be important, we don't want to insult and offend people but those terms in my view are only a means to an end," said Darren.

"The work to understand what language might be useful is certainly not as hard as the work that’s involved in addressing racism."

(but I suspect your takeaway from this article, if you read it at all, was just ‘white people are outnumbered’)

@quietewe @junesim63 I just want to ensure that groups that are actually a minority on the global scale get the support they need.

Hungarians for example are a unique group but there are very few of them in the world.

Do they get protections in the UK? Are they included in DEI schemes?

Robin Adams 2d ago

@shemjm @quietewe @junesim63 Yes - discrimination on the grounds of national origin is illegal under the Equality Act 2010.

@robinadams but can they apply for roles that are advertised for minority groups?

Robin Adams 2d ago

@shemjm I'm pretty sure you're just trolling but: it's illegal in the UK to advertise a job as being for minority groups only.

@robinadams www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/05/spy-agencies-repeat-internship-mi5-mi6/

This is a recent case and in the past the police force did similar.

Just wondering if Hungarians would be included in that.

Robin Adams 2d ago

@shemjm OK, I'm surprised, because the bit of training I had about discrimination in recruiting in the UK led me to believe this would not be legal.

Did a bit of research and the police's scheme was found to be not lawful:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/positive-action-in-the-workplace-guidance-for-employers/positive-action-in-the-workplace#what-is-positive-action

You can do things like offer a training scheme for management for women for a limited time if your management is very disproportionately male. Looks like the intelligence services are hoping that internships fall under that.

I would have expected that to be illegal since it is an employment, but IANAL.

The advertisement does say "Other ethnic minority group". I don't know how it would go with the services or in court if somebody tried to argue that being a Magyar, say, was an ethnic minority group.

@robinadams well that is good news that the police scheme was found to be unlawful.

vksxypants 2d ago

@shemjm @quietewe @junesim63 Completely meaningless definition. Not a single country or "group" in the world has a population >50%, they're all "global minorities".

If Ricky Gervais didn't like me I'd wear it as a badge of honour . He is the least humourous man on earth.

Sweet Home Alaberta 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇲🇽2d ago

@junesim63
In Canada there was a boom in racist joke books in the 1970's that came right after the words "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" were incorporated into our Human Rights legislation. The neonazis always fight back.

The arriving departure 2d ago

@junesim63 Humour is about laughing at yourself, not about laughing at others.