Obsolete

I take it you've seen the glorious front-page treatment The Sun gave him today.

:o)

Indeed. One of their better pieces, even if they included some of his tamer jokes as supposedly his "favourites". Their Glenda in a veil, as Private Eye called her, and the Sun's token Muslim, Anila Baig, also spoke of her distaste of him, which was an attempt at balance which doesn't occur very often.

Ho, ho, ho, ho, hoooooooOOOOOoooo.

How witty. How barbed. How insightful- from two Wally Herberts who never saw his live act.

True prejudice at its worst.

Well done, chaps.

*heartily pats you both on the back*

Oh, of course. Apart from Manning himself admitting that he was a racist, the fact that I found some of his non-racist gags fairly amusing, and that this was more an attack on those protesting against Rushdie than against Manning himself, but yes, this is prejudice at the worst.

My Dear Boy

Bernard was bullied into admitting he was a racist by Caroline Aherne in much the same way The Sex Pistols were set up by Bill Grundy.

Aside from that, racism serves several important purposes, two of which I shall relay here:

1. To facilitate low IQ white people to have the sense that they are elevating themselves in some way.

and...

2. Racism can be a good thing in another sense in that it allows a person with a preset idea about a group of people have the joy of discovering on a one to one basis they were wrong. Or did I watch too many Tony Curtis/Sidney Poitier movies? Joking apart, I think this is quite a powerful human experience we are denying to ourselves here if we seek to oppress it.

What I do know, as someone who did have the pleasure of being an audience member, is race played a small (but essential for it would have been conspicuous by its absence) part of dear old departed Bernard's act. And anyway, who fucking cares if he was racist.

My big fear now is what happens next? Are the PC Brigade going to force us to laugh along with Lenny Henry, Ainsley Harriot and Ian Wright?

The big mystery is where is the Black British comedy talent? Where is the Black British Richard Pryor? It just hasn't happened, and it is with regret -observing the state of the patronised play at the moment- I have to tell you it isn’t going to.

Old Bean, you clearly have a gift with words. Maybe it comes too easy to you.Good luck fulfiling your career as a journo. But like good comedy good journalism is based in truth, and for that, like any great art, you are going to have to sweat a bit.

Best Wishes - and good luck reading The Satanic Verses.

The Prince

I agree when you say that there hasn't been a breakthrough black British comedy act on the subversive scale of Richard Pryor, but there have been plenty of British Asian comedians who have made it, or who are at least humourous: the team behind Goodness Gracious Me, Hardeep Singh Koli, etc.

I'm not denying that racism and prejudice can be a cornerstone in good comedy - we only have to look to Borat and Mel Brooks to see that, it's more that the kind of racist gags that Manning himself relied on were more on the simply offensive and not particularly amusing scale than anything those two have offered.

Thanks for the regards and comments - I appreciate any feedback. :)

Hey, thanks for responding kindly to my badly written little piece. I came over all Robin Williamsy in Good Will Hunting all of a sudden. For a failed photographer, I shouldn't really be passing on un-asked-for 'advice' to people. Like most things, at least anything beguiling to a human being, there was a duality to Bernard Manning. A paradox between his on-stage persona and his real life self. Hey, I slipped into lecturing mode again. I don't know why I felt obliged to write. Perhaps I just wanted to let people know Bernard's performances weren't like some highly charged KKK meeting, that's all.

Anyway, I will shut up. Good luck with whatever you decide to do with your gift.

May Bernard's memory live on in Bernard Righton:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=svLyyzBC_qI

The Prince