Michael Gove is not a stupid man. He must have known that his comments would spark the usual outrage. I thought the joke was mildly amusing in a very British black humour way. The type of joke that people might groan at rather than laugh, but find it funny anyway. But what was he thinking? This is twenty-first century Britain where making dark jokes offends people and no one must be offended, ever. Well, unless they are white males in which case, fill your face…
Michael Gove has apologised following an outcry over an ill-judged joke comparing tough interviews on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to going into Harvey Weinstein’s bedroom.
Look, if you are going to make the joke, then at least have the balls to stand by it. Instead of apologising, he should have said something like this:
It was a joke, a little dark humour, nothing more. If that offends you, then maybe you need a humour implant. You do not have the right to not be offended and if your skin is so thin that an off-colour joke upsets you then that is your problem. It was a joke. Get over it.
Instead we got this:
The environment secretary said his “clumsy attempt at humour … wasn’t appropriate. I’m sorry and apologise unreservedly.”
Oh, good grief! When will people realise that appeasement simply doesn’t work? If Gove really thinks this then he should have remained silent on the matter in the first place. Stop apologising to these people. Or stop winding them up in the first place, because if you are going to do the latter, then have the courage to refuse to do the former.
Quite. Either both or neither – preferably, both.
Indeed. It really is time people made a point of offending these people and refusing to apologise for it. Maybe then they will get the message.
Nowadays people even apologise for stating things that are demonstrably facts. Any who gets offended by truth has a problem with reality. Pointing this out would be a lot more constructive than apologising.
None of them seem to have any principles at all.
A better response from Mr Gove might have been “Sod off, you miserable bastards.”
No, perhaps that would be too much to ask.
One could refrain from deliberately winding up these unreal idiots, but the fact remains that inadvertently winding them up seems inevitable.
Therefore the only rational approach is to adopt the attitude of one of my erstwhile work colleagues; “Bollocks to the lot of ’em” proclaimed frequently and stridently.
I enjoyed Michael Gove’s and had a good laugh !