[arista]

[BBC Text
"Ab drab Britain", declares the headline in the Sun,
which leads on quotes from comedy
star Jennifer Saunders saying she would not get away
with making her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous
in "today's woke era". "It's not a crime to have an opinion,"
says the 62-year-old.]

[Tom4784]

Why is it that everyone that bangs on about things being 'woke' universally fail to understand what freedom of speech is? It's essentially a bunch of people who can't handle criticism and it's pathetic.

No one would stop her from doing Ab Fab in today's world, it's just fragile bull**** to make out that she wouldn't be able to. We live in a world where shows like South Park and Family Guy are still thriving. It's not so much that there's no room for edgier humour, it's just these comics need to grow a ****ing backbone and learn that criticism isn't going to kill them.

I'm so tired of fragile people that can't take a negative opinion without crying about how the world is woke.

[Shaun]

Hard to really glean what she's even said from such a tiny extract on the cover of that gutter trash.

[Ammi]

….she basically says…(…in the gospel according to the Sun…)…that she’s against small mindedness and bigotry….aren’t we all…?….the only mention of ‘woke’ seems to be from the editor of the Sun….she mentioned some unpleasant sexism that Dawn French experienced early in her career back in the day when it was so funny to be sexist and cause people to feel uncomfortable… and an awful incident that she experienced while filming in Morocco when she was spat at because she had no protection as such….she says that it was easier to get things on air back in the day…(…but obviously that there was less choice/channels etc and not the streaming services that there are today would be the main reason, I would say…)…TV series in general have expanded so much beyond what would have been allowed to be aired back in the day….


…anyways, I would imagine that the use of a descriptive of ‘woke’ would definitely be considered small mindedness in the way that it’s pigeon holed in as a selected word for some with no expanse of thought because thought has been replaced with outrage…WOKE, WOKE, WOKE….

[Oliver_W]

I'm not a fan of the word "woke" (which she didn't even use) but she's not wrong in that something new being made probably wouldn't be able to be as "out there" as some older stuff.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I'm not a fan of the word "woke" (which she didn't even use) but she's not wrong in that something new being made probably wouldn't be able to be as "out there" as some older stuff.

….I think that wouldn’t be a ‘completely correct’ thing, though…for sure, some things may be thought out in a different way…but TV in general is still groundbreaking and progressive with things that would never have been ‘covered back in the day’….but yeah, I agree with ‘woke’ it’s such a silly made up word to attempt to create outrage and ‘small mindedness and bigotry’, the two things that Jennifer mentioned she disliked…would be considered very ‘woke’ anyway, the irony of the Sun twisting itself into all kinds of Twister positions to get another opportunity to use the expression ‘woke’….

[Ammi]

…I like the rhyme, though…woke folk….woke folk, the Sun says you can croak cos it’s a joke…poke, poke…

[Ammi]

…I just thought, Oliver…or Oliver W….the W stands for Woke, your surname…?…Oliver Woke is very nice folk….…

[Toy Soldier]

Nah there’s still plenty of variety out there, it’s just not on prime time mainstream broadcast telly. But that has more to do with the ever increasing number of content platforms than the content itself. Broadcast telly is dying so they’re hyper-sensitive to complaints and criticism, and desperate to “please everyone” (in the process not really catering to ANYONE).

She’s from an era where whole families were sat round one screen and had 4 or 5 channels to choose from in the evening. Those days are long gone. My house has 3x as many screens as people

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Ammi

…I just thought, Oliver…or Oliver W….the W stands for Woke, your surname…?…Oliver Woke is very nice folk….…

In a shocking twist it actually stands for Windsor…

[Nicky91]

wish Jen was more like Joanna somehow




just a cry for attention, with this bunch of nonsense moans from Miss Saunders

next

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Ammi

…I just thought, Oliver…or Oliver W….the W stands for Woke, your surname…?…Oliver Woke is very nice folk….…

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

In a shocking twist it actually stands for Windsor…

Haha! It's not Windsor but it still makes me sound much posher than I actually am...

[bitontheslide]

im not even going to go to what the W could stand for

Comedia/ens have always been able to do scripts as they want, nothing has changed. If audience tastes change, which happens regularly, then they can keep up or be like Jim Davidson et al. It's their choice

[LeatherTrumpet]

so glad rubbish like that would not be made today

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

so glad rubbish like that would not be made today

[arista]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I'm not a fan of the word "woke" (which she didn't even use) but she's not wrong in that something new being made probably wouldn't be able to be as "out there" as some older stuff.

Yes its a New Word
that even scares the Labour Leader
he avoided it, on LBC Live

[Ammi]

…it’s a word that’s used to get a reaction, I’m sure that he didn’t give one which is perfectly fine…

[Saph]

ab fab wasnt even offensive so idk why she thinks it would get cancelled.. its still hugely popular today

[arista]

Originally Posted by Saph

ab fab wasnt even offensive so idk why she thinks it would get cancelled.. its still hugely popular today

She has a Point
Like Little Britain is no longer on TV

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Saph

ab fab wasnt even offensive so idk why she thinks it would get cancelled.. its still hugely popular today

…she doesn’t really say as such that she thinks that it would be offensive…what she’s more saying is that she’d maybe overthink it when she was writing it now and talk herself out of things in uncertainty…but yeah, exactly what you say, Saph and what Jennifer is also saying….there are certain comedy programmes made at a time that were contra to the sexist/racist/bigoted type humour that tended to rule ‘humour’ and which she never considered humour herself, it’s not something she ever incorporated into any of her shows….she specifically talks about sexism and the sexist stuff that she and Dawn experienced in their early days which at the time had been deemed as ‘acceptable’ and a commonplace thing…and it’s interesting that she says that she was constantly under pressure to introduce males into Ab Fab but enjoyed both writing about and working with females so she resisted…because more male roles didn’t fit with what her comedy was about…

…she isn’t criticising ‘woke’ or even labelling it that…that’s the narrative being injected around her interview or whatever it was by the Sun…/…if she was speaking elsewhere in some capacity…

…she would be described as ‘woke’ herself in that she’s opposed to bigotry…who wouldn’t be…?….and small mindedness…and it would be very small minded to consider bigotry as something we wouldn’t all oppose….

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by arista

She has a Point
Like Little Britain is no longer on TV

…I honestly don’t know what is and isn’t on TV but in the article what is mentioned seems more to be specific episodes of series that may now have a warning at the beginning that some might be deemed offensive…the episodes are still being shown but with that warning…that seems like a fair compromise to me…

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by arista

She has a Point
Like Little Britain is no longer on TV

…yeah she has huge points that she’s opposed to bigotry and wouldn’t use it in her humour…

[DouglasS]

Originally Posted by Ammi

…yeah she has huge points that she’s opposed to bigotry and wouldn’t use it in her humour…

Stereotypes / insults can be funny though, it’s not real life I don’t understand why people take it so serious

Is this offensive? I saw this episode yesterday and found it hilarious

Youtube video

Pretty much all of the top comments in the video are from Asian people themselves saying they find it hilarious, it seems people like to get offended on behalf of other communities when the majority of that community finds the joke funny?

[Ammi]

…no one is getting offended, it’s the misleading article that is inferring that Jennifer is saying something she isn’t….it’s creating it’s own narrative around what’s been said and trying to carry on that ‘outrage’ thing that seems in vogue atm with media….

[Ammi]

…’Jennifer Saunders Against Woke Folk’ is a ‘fake headline’…Jennifer Saunders opposed to bigotry and small mindedness would be a true one …(…according to what it’s being said that she has said…)….but that doesn’t and wouldn’t create the outrage and divisiveness intended…