Billy Connolly's sick Joke at Ken Bigley

[Korny]

"...During his performance, Connolly was reported to have told the audience: "Perhaps I shouldn't be saying this ... aren't you the same as me, don't you wish they would just get on with it ?..."

Full Story Here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=320535&in_page_id=1773)

I don't know if you Bill Connolly across the ocean but he's a very familiar and loved comedian over here in the UK.

I just lost a lot of respect for this man, a lot.

[Tweek]

nice one, billy.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[jeo4]

Way to go. Maybe he should change his nickname to the pale blue Scottish prick.

[Mentiroso]

Yeah, I remember his stand up show on HBO in the late 80's and it was funny as hell. I wont be catching any more of them though. What a prick.

[The Heart Collector]

The real problem here is that the joke just wasn't funny.

[BadCoverVersion]

The 'joke' is unfortunate, ill-timed...and not even remotely funny.

I still rate the man as one of Britain's greatest comedian's...but the tragic purple beard dye must have killed a few brain cells.

[Ted Pikul]

Connolly is a complete arse.

His entire act consists of him saying stuff like "jobbies" & expecting the audience to fall about laughing at such puerile shenanigans. :rolleyes:

[Psychocandy]

Originally posted by Ted Pikul
His entire act consists of him saying stuff like "jobbies" & expecting the audience to fall about laughing at such puerile shenanigans. :rolleyes:

No it doesn't.

The joke is in bad taste though. I don't mind distasteful jokes providing they are funny. This was neither in good taste nor funny.

[Reigh Kaufman]

He's still one of the funniest men alive - but I cannot defend this remark. Having seen the video of Eugene Armstrong on Northeast Intelligence - clicking the video link and expecting to see a news story, incidentally - I have been a changed man in regards to my political apathy. Anyone who has seen the video of the death of Armstrong would never make a 'joke' about beheading hostages.

[Ted Pikul]

Originally posted by Psychocandy
No it doesn't.



You're right I forgot he also says "bum" a lot too.;)

[James Logan]

How is that even a joke? I mean, seriously. Bad taste or not...what's the joke, where's the punchline, what's supposed to be (even remotely) funny? I don't get it.

[SykkBoy]

yeah, we need to get back to jokes about Christopher Reeve being in a wheelchair and Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman getting killed...we need more exploding NASA astronaut jokes too....

[p1phillips]

He hasn't just lost his sense of humour.

I think he lost all sense of reason as well when he took part in Timeline.

[Donnie_Darko]

Originally posted by SykkBoy
yeah, we need to get back to jokes about Christopher Reeve being in a wheelchair and Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman getting killed...we need more exploding NASA astronaut jokes too....

I agree.

But, just heard that the DID get on with it. Saw on the news that Bigley was executed (not murdered, since it's an act of war).

[darchangel]

oh yeah...i just heard the one about where a few years ago the planes crashed into these towers and people jumped out of 52nd story windows and infants and children were killed!


don't you guys think that's freaking hysterical ??? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


billy connolly should be repeatedly raped with a sharp stick in front of Ken Bigley's family.


people dying isn't fucking funny, douchebag! :mad:



Rockin' Like Dokken

~darchangel~

[Mentiroso]

Well it looks like he got his wish. CNN reported that the family of Mr. Bigley has evidence (possible video) of him being beheaded. Way to go Billy, you fucking prick.

[Tweek]

Well it looks like he got his wish. CNN reported that the family of Mr. Bigley has evidence (possible video) of him being beheaded. Way to go Billy, you fucking prick Oh my gosh.
That's fuckin' horrible

[Twisted Sister]

There is something seriously wrong with that man. What a pig.

[one_crow_sorrow]

Originally posted by darchangel
oh yeah...i just heard the one about where a few years ago the planes crashed into these towers and people jumped out of 52nd story windows and infants and children were killed!

Like Bush hasn't killed his share of children...

[JCR]

Originally posted by Korny
"...During his performance, Connolly was reported to have told the audience: "Perhaps I shouldn't be saying this ... aren't you the same as me, don't you wish they would just get on with it ?..."

Is there anything to indicate he meant it as a joke? They kill the first 2 hostages pretty much straight away, then keep the poor sod bigley in a cage for a month, for publicity/morale weakening purposes which the media hands em on a plate. Then they kill him anyway, which they were always going to. A remark in poor taste to be sure, but he may have had a point.

And connolly's got form- he was telling princess margaret jokes 2 days after she died. And I could name loads of examples of stand ups saying worse things than that. You pay yer money you take yer choice. If you don't like it don't listen to him.

[Tweek]

joke or not, you don't say shit like that.

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by Tweek
joke or not, you don't say shit like that.

where should we draw the line on a tasteless joke?
should we wait a year before making jokes? 5 years? 10 years?

I'm not denying the joke was in poor taste, but I don't remember this much furor over OJ Simpson jokes (hey, maybe Jay Leno can have the dancing headless hostages on his show). I guess because no one gave a fuck about Nicole and Ron, it was ok to make fun, but since this was done by "damn dirty arabs" it's not funny...

this whole post isn't just directed at you...

I just want to see what people, in general, think the timeline should be for jokes in poor taste and why Dancing Itos or Dancing Unibombers are less tasteless than what Billy Connelly said...

[Gregorious8]

Originally posted by one_crow_sorrow
Like Bush hasn't killed his share of children...

And this has what to do with what? Comparing Bush to terrorists?

[Tweek]

I'm not denying the joke was in poor taste, but I don't remember this much furor over OJ Simpson jokes (hey, maybe Jay Leno can have the dancing headless hostages on his show).
I was around 12 or younger (I can't remember the exact year it happened) when the oj simpson trial was going on.
I never even watched leno around that so i have no idea of the reactions.

But wait... he had dancing nicole and ron's?
or dancing ojs?
that's REALLY unfunny and tactless...

That's where the simpsons spoof came from!


EDIT: I looked up when it started. 1994.
I was 10

[Korny]

Originally posted by JCR
Is there anything to indicate he meant it as a joke? They kill the first 2 hostages pretty much straight away, then keep the poor sod bigley in a cage for a month, for publicity/morale weakening purposes which the media hands em on a plate. Then they kill him anyway, which they were always going to. A remark in poor taste to be sure, but he may have had a point.


i see your point but IMO no matter how you look at his comment, joke or no joke, there is NEVER any justification to wish death (especially a beheading that this poor soul HAS suffered) upon anyone.

[Cronos]

Originally posted by JCR
Is there anything to indicate he meant it as a joke? They kill the first 2 hostages pretty much straight away, then keep the poor sod bigley in a cage for a month, for publicity/morale weakening purposes which the media hands em on a plate. Then they kill him anyway, which they were always going to. A remark in poor taste to be sure, but he may have had a point.

i kinda agree with this, i dont think he should have said it as part of a comedy show but it was obvious to me at least that they wouldnt release him and keeping him alive after the execution of the other 2 hostages put a lot of false hope into his family and friends

[Shockwave]

Like Bush hasn't killed his share of children...

..u get the prize for the "random statement in a thread" award.


I agree, his joke was totaly out of line, i dont even get if it wasn supposed to be funny or not, or if he was just making a comment...

[one_crow_sorrow]

Originally posted by Shockwave
..u get the prize for the "random statement in a thread" award.

Heh...yeah I guess it does seem pretty random. All I meant was everyone makes such a big fuss over the people who died on 9/11, but it's just basically ignored that there are innocent people dying at the hands of Americans as well. I am in no way saying that I think it's right to fly airplanes into towers or kill innocent people (and no, Gregorious, I am not trying to call Bush a terrorist) but not everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist either.

Now, read this post or ignore it, but don't bother replying because I'm done with it. The thread isn't a political discussion and I'm not going to treat it like one.

[paul calf]

billy is not the first comic to make an ill timed bad taste joke that has completly missed it's mark and i dare say he won't be the last,but that does not make him any less the greatest stand up comic ever produced in britain,so cut the guy some slack he dropped a bollock and will probably regret it for a long time.

oh and everyone comdeming him here how many of you have told the odd sick joke, i know i have,not all of them hitting the mark but sick all the same so before getting all high and mighty have a think about that.

[Tweek]

the only "Sick" jokes i ever told were sex related. nothing involving tragedies and people dying.

[The Heart Collector]

I make fun of the dead and dying all the time.




































Incidentally, I have no friends.

[Shockwave]

Incidentally, I have no friends.

Well, collecting hearts will do that...

;)

[Scully1888]

Okay, I'm sticking my neck on the line here...


At the end of the day, I agreed with Billy.

Like it or not, he said what some of us (not all of us) were thinking. It's pretty obvious that he was going to be executed. These sorts of terrorists are hardly known to release hostages after their demands are met (which, after all, they weren't).

The real pricks here are the terrorists. Tony Blair isn't even a prick in this instance (even though I usually think he's a prick), because even if he'd released the Iraqi hostages (as the terrorists had demanded), it's pretty certain that they would have executed Bigley anyway.

At the end of the day, in my opinion, Bigley was being used as a tool by the terrorists to weaken the relationship between the UK and the US.

After all, the Iraqi prisoners they wanted released were being held in the US, and the American prisoners being held alongside Bigley were killed pretty quickly.

The terrorists were clearly trying to get Tony Blair to demand that Bush free the Iraqi prisoners, and in the process create conflict between the UK and the US.

However, it soom became clear that this wasn't going to happen (because, after all, we shouldn't negotiate with terrorists in my opinion), and so it was inevitable that Bigley was going to die.

So maybe Billy Connolly didn't say it at the best of occasions (during a stand-up comedy show), but I ageed with him... it was inevitable, so get it over with and spare his family the agony of their long-drawn weeks of worrying and suffering, not knowing what was happening.

[paul calf]

Originally posted by Tweek
the only "Sick" jokes i ever told were sex related. nothing involving tragedies and people dying.

you ever told a joke about micheal jackson and kid's or laughed at one? most people have is that any worse than billy's joke?

[Tweek]

you ever told a joke about micheal jackson and kid's or laughed at one? most people have is that any worse than billy's joke?

I would not laugh at a joke about michael jackson's (ehm, alleged?) victims.

i have laughed at jokes about michael jackson's seeming lapse of sanity.

[notchreturns]

Strip away the obvious hilarity of Michael Jackson and he truly is one fucked-up individual. It's sad, actually, but still, damn hilarious!

[KillerKlown]

Originally posted by Scully1888
Okay, I'm sticking my neck on the line here...

At the end of the day, I agreed with Billy.


Well, my neck is out there with yours as I agreed with him as well. You just can't negotiate with terrorists, no matter what and it was clear from that start that the inevitable was going to happen.

I am truly sorry for Bigley's family for what happened and nobody deserves that fate, but he knew the risks before he went to work there, but decided the financial gains were greater.

[Ted Pikul]

Anyone notice that virtually everyone sticking up for Connolly on this thread is Scottish.

Strange that.

[Shockwave]

At the end of the day, I agreed with Billy.

Im not saying hes wrong, but its a thought he should have kept to himself, much less in the way he used it to gain attention.

As is, it really makes him out to be somwhat of a bastard.

[Reigh Kaufman]

Originally posted by Ted Pikul
Anyone notice that virtually everyone sticking up for Connolly on this thread is Scottish.

Strange that.

You have a bogey hanging from your nose.

:)

Not to distance myself too much from my original post - and I'm Scottish and said his comment was 'indefensible' - the more that I hear of the alleged remark, the more I am' starting to believe he was talking about the inevitability of Ken's death and that he wished the terrorists would stop prolonging his torture. I wasn't there, though some people are claiming that Billy attacked the heckler for interrupting his show whilst he was explaining what he meant by his comment - and that now it has been taken out of context, the remark seems outrageously poor form. The tabloids have nothing better to yap about this week, I'm thinking.

[KillerKlown]

Originally posted by Ted Pikul
Anyone notice that virtually everyone sticking up for Connolly on this thread is Scottish.

Strange that.



Not really. If it had been an English or American comedian who had made the comment I would have still agreed with it, regardless of their nationality.

You think the only reason I would stick up for him other than the fact that I agreed with him, is that he is Scottish?

Think again.

[Ted Pikul]

Just an observation is all.

Although sticking up for people who say monumentally stupid things could help explain why Dubya is ahead in the US Presidential race ;)

[JCR]

You know I'm shocked this has caused that much fuss; I've seen roy chubby brown play tell racist and sexist jokes to a 1500 sellout in dundee (that's more than 10% of the population paying £20 ($30) to see him and he's more popular in england than scotland)... I've heard the widely admired here bill hicks go on after more than a bottle of JD and scream at his paying audience hat they were 'drunk cunts'... I've heard the dead genius peter cook tell jokes about wife beating, shortly after he was (probably truthfully) accused of wife beating...and as for Jim Davidson I would not wish to repeat his 'hello chalky' routine here, even if it wouldn't get me kicked off these boards, which it would.

Stand up tends to be a nasty business and I don't agree with moaning about connolly when he is NOWHERE near being the worst in the business for that kinda thing. And that's not cos I'm scottish, it's just a fact.

[Scully1888]

Originally posted by Ted Pikul
Anyone notice that virtually everyone sticking up for Connolly on this thread is Scottish.

Strange that. Are you suggesting that Scotland is behind Billy Connolly, no matter what he does?

Check out some of these headlines from Scotland's top-selling papers then:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/page.cfm?objectid=14728058&method=full&siteid=89488

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/page.cfm?objectid=14722268&method=full&siteid=89488

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/710601771.html?did=710601771&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Oct+10%2C+2004&author=Peter+Ross&desc=CONNOLLY%27S+FLAWED+GENIUS%3B+Whether+you+thi nk+Connolly%27s+joke+about+Ken+Bigley+was+on+comed y%27s+cutting+edge+or+an+appalling+lapse+of+taste% 2C+it+was+part+of+his+act+-+an+act+that+has+been+pushing+at+the+boundaries+of +humour+and+language+for+three+decades

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/710601761.html?did=710601761&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Oct+10%2C+2004&author=Stewart&desc=SINS+OF+HUMOUR%3B+Billy+Connolly+sparked+outr age+when+he+joked+about+Ken+Bigley%2C+the+hostage+ since+murdered+in+Iraq%2C+during+his+stand-up+act.+But+couldn%27t+it+be+argued+that+a+real+co median+has+to+take+risks+to+be+a+radical+critic+of +society%2C+a+wise+man+as+well+as+a+wise+guy%3F

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/708687451.html?did=708687451&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Oct+7%2C+2004&author=Jennifer+Cunningham&desc=So%2C+you+think+you%27re+funny%3F%3B+Billy+Co nnolly+may+have+gone+too+far+this+week+with+a+joke +about+Kenneth+Bigley%2C+but+what+are+the+boundari es+of+good+taste+for+comedians%3F+By+Jennifer+Cunn ingham

So it seems quite clear that most of Scotland is upset at Billy's remark.

In terms of the Scottish population, myself and KillerKlown are in the vast minority in this case.

And like he says, had he been English or American, we'd still back him.

What really annoys me is people saying, after Bigley was eventually killed, "are you happy now Billy, you got what you want?"

That's just a ridiculous attempt at a guilt trip. As if the terrorists were reading the paper and said "a Scottish comedian's said we should get on with it. Let's do it then".

[paul calf]

Originally posted by Ted Pikul
Anyone notice that virtually everyone sticking up for Connolly on this thread is Scottish.

Strange that.

i don't think people are acctually sticking up for billy as such,
but what i am sticking up for is the right to tell jokes about anything, humour is there for a reason to make people forget about the shit that goes on in the world and to brighten up our lives,so if someone tells me a joke that may be sexist,racist,about the disabled or just downright sick i will probably laugh if it's funny and pass it on to people who have not heard it.
billy's crime was not to tell a sick joke but to tell an unfunny one,so come on billy get your material up to scratch.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by JCR
You know I'm shocked this has caused that much fuss; I've seen roy chubby brown play tell racist and sexist jokes to a 1500 sellout in dundee (that's more than 10% of the population paying £20 ($30) to see him and he's more popular in england than scotland)... I've heard the widely admired here bill hicks go on after more than a bottle of JD and scream at his paying audience hat they were 'drunk cunts'... I've heard the dead genius peter cook tell jokes about wife beating, shortly after he was (probably truthfully) accused of wife beating...and as for Jim Davidson I would not wish to repeat his 'hello chalky' routine here, even if it wouldn't get me kicked off these boards, which it would.

Stand up tends to be a nasty business and I don't agree with moaning about connolly when he is NOWHERE near being the worst in the business for that kinda thing. And that's not cos I'm scottish, it's just a fact. [/B]

Great post.

The real crime is clearly the fact that Jim 'Nick Nick' cunting Davidson is still boning the maggot-riddled corpse that is light entertainment.

I've a corking idea for a Saturday Night vehicle a la House Party and Big Break. Shoehorn the smug, unfunny tory fuckwit into a tank with Virgo, Jono Coleman, Winner, Ken Morley, Bushell, Lowri Turner, Dr. Raj Persaud, Feltz, Mayo, Biggins, Akabusi, Linda Barker, Jean Michelle Jarre, Strachen, Russell Grant, Lisa Riley, Joe Pasquale and BURN the fucking lot of 'em...and then I might just tune in.