Comedian Jokes About Autistic Boy Sexually Assaulting Mom

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After comedian Frankie Boyle told two cruel jokes about her autistic son Harvey, model and reality TV star Katie Price is considering legal action. The first joke is about a custody battle in which neither side wanted the eight-year-old boy. The second involves Harvey sexually assaulting his mother. Boyle apparently has learned nothing from the controversy caused when the mother of child with Down's syndrome objected to his jokes.

Click here to watch Boyle tell the jokes.

Free Speech, get use to it. He is obviously a shock comedian who does not have the ability to get laughs without making fun of people or the disabled I feel sorry for him. Not everyone is going to say something you want to hear so be an adult and get over it. Only nazis and taliban force people to say what they want them to say being overly politically correct is a form of facism. You should not forcibly correct someone's thoughts or the way they speak.

Last edited by Todesking on 10 Dec 2010, 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't believe Vector was trying to forcibly do anything. He appears to be bringing attention to something on a forum where it is perfectly legitimate to do so. Why the sudden attack?

I don't know the context of the jokes so I didn't understand the jokes.

But as long as he makes fun of all stereotypes in equal extent, I don't have a problem with it. I've seen alot of news articles with someone autistic being victimized that had nothing to do with the person being autistic, I just think it is important not to get dogmatic on the subject of autism -
a more positive image on autism absolutely, but don't put it on a pedestal. It just enables tunnelvision and that is the last thing you want.

Ridiculing the powers that be (in which form it might be) is necessary for preventing oppressed voices to cause havoc.

Cheerfully,
Wallourdes

I don't care that it's a joke about autism; it's the fact that it's about a specific kid. That's not fair. I don't have a problem with 'bad taste' jokes about groups (as long as they don't offend/target anyone present and have no ulterior motive) but picking on one person who is far too young to respond is just pathetic.

The first joke wasn't too bad; it's the sort of thing you could joke about anyone and was actually (relatively) funny if old.

(1st 'joke'; “Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey. Eventually one will lose and will have to keep him.”)

but the second one was just disgusting and I can't see any humour in it; it's just vicious comments about a child as a weak attempt to engage with the audience. (I'm not going to repeat the 2nd one).

I didn't think Frankie Boyle was too bad on Mock the Week, QI etc. but my opinion of him has gone out the window after hearing this.

Last edited by Lene on 10 Dec 2010, 12:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I am a big fan of free speech, and glad to live in the US, where legal action would not be possible in a case like this. And I wouldn't have tracked it down on YouTube if I didn't think people should be able to see what he said and decide if they think it's offensive or funny or?

But I also think spreading the idea that autistic children are so unlovable that no one wants them or the myth they they are prone to sexual assault is evil.

Frankie's new show is crap IMO, but I did like the parts where he joked about religion being "a bunch of stuff autistic people wrote down thousands of years ago" and how it was "made up by people with mental disorders who live their lives by what bushes told them" (paraphrased)

Anyways, as for the jokes mentioned in the OP, they're jokes. People need to stop being so easily offended by stuff that's not even meant to be taken seriously.

I doubt Frankie Boyle cares either way, he gets this s**t every day from what I read.

Go to his comic shows and heckle him then. Debate him if you find offence in what he said.



Its a vocal minority that causes great books taken out of schools, causes needless censorship of tv shows, and changes national holidays and traditions long held by our citzens inorder not to offend people new to our culture. Its a scarry thing what a few people can do when they feel offended by what someone says and the majority of the people have no problem hearing.

There have also been very scary examples in the not-so-distant past of what the majority of people will accept when minorities are not able to speak out.

Aha, before I even clicked on this post I knew it was going to be Frankie Boyle

Free speech until somebody puts one in the back of his head. A comedian can go too far and thats when it happens.

Same!

If you don't offend people, you're a s**t comedian. Frankie Boyle FTW.

I don't know about that. Tim Hawkins, Brian Regan, Jeff Foxworthy, and many more don't offend people and are still hilarious.

Yes, but the key is to offend the right people about the right things. And the right people are the ones who have the power, not the ones who don't. Humor is either a tool of conformity or a weapon against illogical behavior. It can shatter bigotry and stereotypes or reinforce them. I'm all for making fun of people who have done something bad or stupid. Humor that makes fun of what someone is can be funny, but it's tribalism and it makes the world worse.


I have no opinion on Boyle-- you certainly can't judge a comedian on the basis of one joke.

Muslim extremists kill people who offend them for something as simple as drawling a funny depiction of the prophet, he is lucky autistic people are a gentle people.

I'd disagree and say that a good comedian should also challenge taboos, which inevitably will end up offending a variety of different people who seem unable to take a joke.