http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090325/ten-david-jason-apologises-for-joke-5f8abb3.html

No, let us apologise to you Mr Jason. For the pathetic, politically correct world we have created in which even the slightest reference to a non-white person, in this case via an innocent joke, can be seen as racist.
**** ridiculous.

The only thing he has to apologise for is a very unfunny joke, IMO.
🙄

Bit of a stupid joke to tell on the radio though.

Shouldn’t it be ma hat ma coat? He even fluffed the punchline.

Are these not like the rubbish jokes of what do you call a man covered in mud – pete (geddit peat / pete see what I did there :roll:) or a man with a womens haircut – Bob? 😳

Don’t worry I made the person who told me them jokes apologise and have since distanced myself from them. So maybe it is fair that it happens in this case.

Racist no, rubbish joke yes!

Oi those jokes are bobist and peteist.

what do you call a man covered in mud – pete (geddit peat / pete see what I did there :roll:)

I’m mortally offended, and if you don’t apologise right now I shall go to the press to complain.

😉

Not so funny without a script is he?

It’s not funny. Not because it’s racist, but just becuase it’s a crap joke.

it’s hardly racist either

Quite right to get flamed for a joke like that IMO – until there is no racism in the country then those that tell these sorts of jokes in public should get flamed.

Disregarding the fact that the ‘joke’ isn’t funny, if you had Pakistani friend would you tell them that ‘joke’, I wouldn’t. It’s not racist but again pretty stupid thing to say on radio.

I agree it is not a funny joke. The only humour is that foreign brown people have funny names. And the pun can only be had by putting the brown person in a menial job and then addressing them in a discourteous manner. You can’t really get the joke out of “Please may I have my hat and my coat, and here’s a pound for your trouble”.

It’s not worth getting anyone’s knickers in a huge twist over, but it isn’t funny, and you don’t have to look hard to see it as mildly offensive, so it probably shouldn’t have been told on the radio. And let’s move on already. 🙂

It’s not racist if you can reverse the situation and the races involved to make an acceptable equivalent. So if it was an english cloakroom assistant in pakistan where a pakistani cloakroom phrase perhaps sounded like a stereotyped english name then it’s just a play on words, a pun perhaps.

If, however, you skipped the pakastani qualification in the opening line and said “what do you call a cloakroom attendant” then the punchline would be racist as it implies assignment of a lowly race specific role.

Not racist, medium funny.

Sorry chaps – its clearly a racist joke. Deserves everything he gets for it. I have heard and told a lot worse for sure but a joke that relies on laughing at a “funny foreign name” and on sterotyping is clearly racist.

The joke is relying on a name being a play on words, I wouldn’t say there is any stereotyping involved. Have I missed something or are all cloak room attendants Pakistani?

1. He isn’t Del Boy
2. It’s a pun based on a common surname and not particularly racist, but…
3. …it’s pretty silly to say it on air
4. It’s so unfunny the headline has the work joke in inverted commas
5. Would I tell it to a Pakistani friend? Maybe, it would depend upon the friend – generalising based on their race might be a tad racist 😉

I’m not sure cloakroom attendants are pakistani typically, although they may have been when David Jason was funny. I’m also trying to find evidence of it actually being a pakistani name, without success. 🙂

Doesnt strike me as any more or less offensive than Paddy Irishman jokes, which I don’t find offensive. Then again I’ve rarely been subject to to any prejudice on account of my nationality, my father on the other hand would probably punch someone in the face over it, despite his advanced years. Crochety oul bastard.

Mahatma is Sanskrit for “Great Soul” (??????? mah?tm?: ??? mah? (great) + ????? or ????? ?tman [soul]); it is similar in usage to the modern Christian term saint. This epithet is commonly applied to prominent people like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jyotirao Phule. Many sources, such as Dutta and Robinson’s Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology, state that Rabindranath Tagore first accorded Gandhi this title. [1] Others state that the title “Mahatma” was first accorded to Gandhi on January 21, 1915 by Nautamlal Bhagavanji Mehta at Kamribai School in Jetpur, India. [2]
The term is also used to refer to adepts, liberated souls, or professionals.

It’s a compliment. Sanskrit is spoken in ‘Greater India’, which includes Pakistan.

Anyways I thought Mahatma Ghandi was Indian.

if it had been a joke about a fat, thin, irish, welsh, veggie, lesbo, queer,so on so on so on, it would have been seen as ok. why?????

if it had been a joke about a fat, thin, irish, welsh, veggie, lesbo, queer,so on so on so on, it would have been seen as ok. why?????

Only if it were about fat people. Fat people are funny.

😉

[speculation]Because those groups aren’t targets of racial abuse very often[/speculation]

I’m not sure jokes about made-up irish names are really any funnier. And I dispute your assertion that we applaud “lesbo” or “queer” jokes. 🙂

is racial abuse worse that any of the others i mentioned?????
edit, why is it deemed worse on such a small scale, i.e a joke.

…stop press…….stop press…….stop press…….stop press….

David Jason has just received a telephone call from 1972, it would like its joke back.

Oh and ton you forgot gingers.

miket, what about the carrot-tops?

if it had been a joke about a fat, thin, irish, welsh, veggie, lesbo, queer

that would be a joke about you then ton?

miket, what about the carrot-tops?

Only a ginger can call another ginger ginger.

It’s quite hard to think of a funny joke about fat people that operates at such a basic level. Larger people usually provide either purely visual comedy, or rather more developed material. 🙂

I’m not sure jokes about made-up irish names are really any funnier.

As someone with a made-up irish name, I’m not offended by them.

It’s quite hard to think of a funny joke about fat people that operates at such a basic level. Larger people usually provide either purely visual comedy, or rather more developed material.

*racks brain*

i just do not understand why someone would get offended by a joke.
call me a fat stupid paddy veggie if you want, i take no offence… 😀

The thing with all of this, why do people take it so seriously? He was only joking!!!

Sorry chaps – its clearly a racist joke

Sorry TJ. Not in anyway is this clearly a racist joke. It is merely a play on words. I see no reason to see that anyone has been represented stereotypically or that anyone has been ridiculed because of their ethnicity. The (almost) joke works because the name sounds like something else, not because the name is foreign. It could be argued that Mahatma Ghandi was Indian rather than Pakistani ( I could be wrong ), in that regard it could be construed as being stereotypical ie all brown skinned people are Pakistani, but I’m sure it’s down to geographical/history ignorance on DJ’s part, not racism. No one moaning on here has picked that up anyhow.

If Mahatma Ghandi were white, caucasian the joke could still be told (if modified) and would not make anyone accuse the teller of racism.

What do you say to someone called Jason who works in Blockbuster?

Da vid, Jason.

The only humour is that foreign brown people have funny names

No, it’s not laughing at the name, it’s trying to get a laugh from the fact that someone’s name (brown or otherwise) sounds like ‘me hat, me’. Nothing racist in there at all as far as I can see.

If a Pakistani tells the Pete/peat joke is he being racist? Of course he bloody well isn’t.

It’s just bloody wordplay.

In a cruel twist of fate today, an 8 year old boy who weighs 14 stone had his dinner money stolen by school bullies.

They bought themselves a bike, an Xbox 360, 4 KFC family buckets and a weekend in Disneyland Paris.

😯