Hold David Walliams to the same standard as MPs?

[anonymous-user]

If we expect our political figures to fall on their sword for the disgusting comments some of them make then David Walliams should resign from Britain’s Got Talent and ITV etc shouldn’t hire him again. His comments about members of the show are a disgrace. Or do we do like ITV brush it under the carpet rather than have it as headline news if it was an MP. ITV have a bad track record with poor behaviour against contestants

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/...

[vxr8mate]

If you don't like him or what he says then choose not to watch the show, that's what I do.

[scenario8]

I’m afraid I’m unmoved that someone, albeit someone a bit famous, in what they (probably unwisely) considered to be a private conversation, used choice language talking about other people behind those persons’ backs. Really I am.

<scurries off to find out if the next series of Britain’s Got Talent is imminent. Nope, not for a few more months yet. I wonder quite how and why this sensation has made the Guardian this morning?>

If we want to talk about the odd way in which bad behaviour is treated in differing ways across public life can I suggest a discussion about Boy George’s continued celebrity?

Boris Becker’s continued employment by the BBC was an odd one too.

Going back to MPs and whatnot I’ll add I worked in the Palace of Westminster for a while after university and what shocked me most about the colourful language in The Thick Of It was how much it had been toned down.

[SteveStrange]

cc3 said:

If we expect our political figures to fall on their sword for the disgusting comments some of them make then David Walliams should resign from Britain’s Got Talent and ITV etc shouldn’t hire him again. His comments about members of the show are a disgrace. Or do we do like ITV brush it under the carpet rather than have it as headline news if it was an MP. ITV have a bad track record with poor behaviour against contestants

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/...

His description could fit most people who go on these BGT/X Factor type shows. We all think it.

[Electro1980]

cc3 said:

If we expect our political figures to fall on their sword for the disgusting comments some of them make then David Walliams should resign from Britain’s Got Talent and ITV etc shouldn’t hire him again. His comments about members of the show are a disgrace. Or do we do like ITV brush it under the carpet rather than have it as headline news if it was an MP. ITV have a bad track record with poor behaviour against contestants

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/...

He’s not an MP though.

[anonymous-user]

But ITV have a duty of care to all participants. Remember Jeremy Kyle and what happened there

Seems ITV just try to brush off bad behaviour if it’s one of their shows but if it’s their media side they will hound an individual until they fall on their sword. It’s double standards. So really they hound the MP in a similar position just because they are biased ?

[NDA]

I don't watch the show, but I've just read the comments.

I suspect he was right. It's the sort of thing most normal people might say in private.

[Muzzer79]

cc3 said:

But ITV have a duty of care to all participants. Remember Jeremy Kyle and what happened there

Seems ITV just try to brush off bad behaviour if it’s one of their shows but if it’s their media side they will hound an individual until they fall on their sword. It’s double standards. So really they hound the MP in a similar position just because they are biased ?

I don't agree with the pedestal that MPs are placed on, with any comment or action they or their families make scrutinised, usually for political gain.

However, you must see the difference between a publicly elected official and a celebrity on a talent show?

In addition; Walliams' comments were made in private, in breaks between contestants. It's not like he posted it on Twitter.

[Richard-390a0]

Personally I think it's out of order for hounding someone for something they said supposedly in private. He's obviously rubbed someone up the wrong way that they've decided to bring it to the public attention now two years later.

[sociopath]

Was he racist, homophobic, mysogynistic or abusive about anythint important or did he just state he thought someone was a c**t?

If its just the latter then, so what?

ETA ok read what he said, non story. I call people c**ts all the time, and I'm sure people say the same about me. Although it's unlikely I ever think people want to fk me these days, I wasn't exactly Casanova in my 20s, so no chance on my 60s

Edited by sociopath on Thursday 10th November 14:33

[SteveStrange]

sociopath said:

I call people c**ts all the time, and I'm sure people say the same about me.

Username checks out.

[anonymous-user]

So politicians are the only members of public life that we hold to a higher standard ? It’s ok then for everyone else to abuse others we just call it banter and what we probably think ourselves?. I thought we now lived in an age where we care about others mental health and the impact our words and actions might have on others? ITV clearly have double standards so they just reflect general life ?

Why would anyone want to be a politician where your every word is scrutinised and you are constantly abused online but that’s ok ?

[NDA]

cc3 said:

So politicians are the only members of public life that we hold to a higher standard ? It’s ok then for everyone else to abuse others we just call it banter and what we probably think ourselves?. I thought we now lived in an age where we care about others mental health and the impact our words and actions might have on others? ITV clearly have double standards so they just reflect general life ?

Why would anyone want to be a politician where your every word is scrutinised and you are constantly abused online but that’s ok ?

If you want to call someone a in private, you should be allowed to do so. Walliams might have been correct, I suspect he was.

You should also be able to say that you find someone a pathetic little snowflake, in private, if you wish.

[smn159]

Is this some sort of cryptic defence of Gavin Williamson?

[ZedLeg]

Walliams has been credibly accused of worse than this before and nothing stuck. I'm sure that nothing will come of this.

[scenario8]

I’m on a day off and it isn’t quite time to collect the kids so I’ll bite.

To be clear. An act exchanges bantz with the Britain’s Got Talent panel (that appears to be at least partially directed in some way towards/against David Walliams). Act then leaves the scene. In what the panel consider to be a private conversation David Walliams goes on to use a not particularly pleasant word to describe the act.

Two and a half years ago.

What, specifically, would you like to see happen here?

[gregs656]

This is a weird thread. What does any of this have to do with MPs? The OP seems to be trying to work an angle in that doesn't exist.

[TTwiggy]

smn159 said:

Is this some sort of cryptic defence of Gavin Williamson?

Whatever makes you think that? I'm mean, it's not as if the thread was started by the resident Tory Party beta-testing AI... oh, hang on...

[anonymous-user]

NDA said:

cc3 said:

So politicians are the only members of public life that we hold to a higher standard ? It’s ok then for everyone else to abuse others we just call it banter and what we probably think ourselves?. I thought we now lived in an age where we care about others mental health and the impact our words and actions might have on others? ITV clearly have double standards so they just reflect general life ?

Why would anyone want to be a politician where your every word is scrutinised and you are constantly abused online but that’s ok ?

If you want to call someone a in private, you should be allowed to do so. Walliams might have been correct, I suspect he was.

You should also be able to say that you find someone a pathetic little snowflake, in private, if you wish.

It wasn’t private his lawyers tried to argue that but seems pretty public to me

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/...

[voyds9]

Someone I don't care about said something about someone I don't know on a show I don't watch

But I will comment on it.