C4's "Shocking Comedy" series of programmes Page 2

What I, and many other people that I've spoken to, have experienced is that when RCB starts talking about race, the response he gets is cheers and applause rather than laughter. The guy on the documentary described it as being like a rally and he was absolutely right.

Now I'm no prude and if somebody wants to tell jokes about race then I don't have a problem with it depending on how it's done. What I do have a problem with is somebody stirring up problems due to their ignorance.

The documentary blatantly did make RCB look bad. Comments like, 'they come over here dressed up as pillar boxes, they should f*** off home' hardly portray him in a good light.

As said, it was made to look bad. There are many jokes per DVD that get laughs rather than cheers.

Was it really made to look bad though?

The documentary spoke about how successful he is and how his videos used to sell 250,000 copies a year.
It showed him being a devoted husband and father.
It told about how he received support from fellow comics when he became ill.
The filmmaker also told Chubby how funny he thought he was.

The only issue the film had was with his racism and, as i've said, I've met many many people who have felt uncomfortable in one of his shows because of the rally atmosphere.

The documentary certainly wasn't a hatchet job and gave an accurate portrayal of him.

But it only gave the opinion, regarding the supposed racism, of the guy who made it. It didn't give him a real chance to try and counter those views and opinions, nor did it really attempt to examine why those kinds of comments and jokes are being made, or found funny. Whether that goes outside of the remit of the docu topic or not doesn't matter; only one side of the argument was presented to the audience, and so the film was biased against him.

And any Chubby fan knows that the prime target of his comedy is his fictional wife (as in, a wife he has made up, he loves his real wife). On top of that, jokes about sex usually comes before race to, as he is afterall a blue comedian. The documentry made him sound like his sole topic for comedy was race and it wasn't.

It didn't even mention any of Chubby's songs.

I think he should play the Appollo theatre in Harlem to confound his critics. Then I would respect him.

But it did show him performing his sex jokes and they talked at length about his ridiculous image of being an old, ill man who apparently is a love machine. As I said, they did mention a lot of very positive things about him and his career.

It actually showed him recording a christmas single so I'm not sure how you think it didn't mention his songs.

I also disagree that he didn't have a real chance to counter the accusations of racism. They asked him about the subject frequently and if all he wants to say is that he is not a politician then that is fair enough. He certainly had the opportunity to say more though.

I honestly don't think that the documentary could have handled the subject any differently. It's not like it was a complete hatchet job like the one done about Bernard Manning several years ago and they are always going to mention a subject like race because it is so high profile.

Basically I think that the way it portrayed Chubby was exactly the image that I, and the meny people that I've talked to about him, would agree with. I can't really fault it for that.

Quote: Nick @ May 15, 2007, 11:27 AM

I also disagree that he didn't have a real chance to counter the accusations of racism. They asked him about the subject frequently and if all he wants to say is that he is not a politician then that is fair enough. He certainly had the opportunity to say more though.

View original

They only asked him in generality, from what I remember. They didn't give him any specific examples of what they felt was racist, for him to argue on. For that reason, they didn't give him a chance. If someone tells you that 'something' is x, when you don't think that it is, and they don't give you a specific example of that 'something', then how are you meant to make any comment etc regarding it?

Quote: Nick @ May 15, 2007, 11:27 AM

But it did show him performing his sex jokes and they talked at length about his ridiculous image of being an old, ill man who apparently is a love machine. As I said, they did mention a lot of very positive things about him and his career.

View original

But the emphasis was always on race, as if it was 90% of his act, which it isn't. Plus, they portrayed him as sexist in the sex jokes they did show, it is not always the case.

It actually showed him recording a christmas single so I'm not sure how you think it didn't mention his songs.

One song, a Christmas song, which made him look like he was chasing money. On average, he performs three songs on the acts that get filmed for DVD. Most of which are usually targets for sex and people he hates, very few about race.

I also disagree that he didn't have a real chance to counter the accusations of racism. They asked him about the subject frequently and if all he wants to say is that he is not a politician then that is fair enough. He certainly had the opportunity to say more though.

They showed him struggling to justify his act. The part were he was in the gym didn't exactly make him sound like a very nice guy either. I've heard him on radio interviews do a much better job at justifying his act, this documentry never showed that.

Basically I think that the way it portrayed Chubby was exactly the image that I, and the meny people that I've talked to about him, would agree with. I can't really fault it for that.

Doesn't that say something? It appears to me that the makers went into this project with the same idea and wanted to make themselves appear right. Instead of changing opinions of Brown, which i have seen done (like i said, i've met him and he is a very nice guy, i was in a mixed-race crowd at the time who all seemed satisfied with Chubby as a person), they wanted to justify their own opinions. It may not be the case, but that is how i see it.

But you see, I think that because you are obviously such a big fan that has given you an opinion on the documentary that just isn't accurate. For example, it showed Chubby in an Indian restaurant getting on great with the staff there. It also showed him making the unfortunate comments in the gym. So good and bad.

If they'd wanted to portray him as a monster then they'd have cut out all of the scenes where he happily and charmingly met his fans and his family and just filled it with soundbites from people who hate him. They didn't.

Walker may indeed be a bit biased, but I for one am not. I was only really vaguely aware of him before the documentary. I had no idea of what kind of routines/persona/etc he had, or the jokes he told. I certainly didn't think of him as being racist (or not). In short, I knew the name, but pretty much bugger all else, and I (as well as my girlfriend, who was in the same knowledge of him) found the programme to be terribly one-sided and point-proving.

Nick may be saying that "there's no smoke without fire", but Walker and I are asking who struck the match...

I suppose we'll just have to agree to differ on this one.

Sure I can agree to disagree but I don't think that anybody could accuse that documentary of striking the match. Frank Skinner (hardly a prude) raised exactly the same point with him a long time ago and other interviewers have as well.

I also think that any documentary maker would have included the comments about them 'f***ing off home' and anybody who makes that sort of remark is going to be judged on it. That's not the documentary's fault, it's his fault for saying it.

Maybe i am biased, but then again, i have met the man, and i have been watching him for a long time. I think i am more likely to know what is true or false about him that most people here. If i was biased, i would say he is an angel, but i am not saying that. I am saying that the documentry, though it showed good and bad sides about him, said, and i quote, "The line between Royston Vasey and Roy Chubby Brown is blurry" when it isn't, anyone who has seen him and met him will know the line is clearly defined with a nice thick black line. That is the point i am trying to make.

But his comments that, 'they should F*** off home' disprove that. I am not saying that he wasn't a lovely guy when you met him and the documentary did show him being a nice guy when he met fans of all races. But if he is going to make ignorant comments like that while being filmed then there is no way that the documentary isn't going to broadcast them and comment about them. Now he made those comments as Royston Vasey so the line clearly was blurred at that point.

The comment was taken out of context. His comment was in response to the whole PC Christmas thing, in which he said that "they should f'ck off home" if they are disturbing and changing other's way of life. Which, to my memory, was the general opinion of the British press, and public.