Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 26 2009, 1:47 PM BSTI don't know how you could reach that conclusion. The word "amputee" is in the joke.
Quote: Tony Cowards @ October 26 2009, 1:50 PM BSTCan I just ask the people who think this joke is in bad taste what they think about the 'Tarzan' sketch?
Ridiculous comparison. It's a "nonsense" sketch, brilliantly written and executed, with no victim in it. Hope you're not using it to try and make Jimmy Carr's case.
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 26 2009, 1:51 PM BST
Why are you rolling your eyes at me Walker?
Quote: Tony Cowards @ October 26 2009, 1:50 PM BSTCan I just ask the people who think this joke is in bad taste what they think about the 'Tarzan' sketch?
Were there many complaints about it then?
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 26 2009, 1:53 PM BSTWhy are you rolling your eyes at me Walker?
Because you seem to not be bothering to read what I've written properly. Hey-ho, I know how much you like an argument... 
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 26 2009, 1:39 PM BSTRight, so the joke was nothing really to do with maimed amputee British servicemen then? Come now...
Why do think I think that?
All I said was that I (and others here) took the joke to mean "amputee servicemen improve our paralympic team" whereas you seem to think it meant "more amputees improves our paralympic team".
Both versions are valid, but yours hadn't occurred to me until you mentioned it and I still prefer mine.
Quote: Marc P @ October 26 2009, 1:54 PM BSTWere there many complaints about it then?
Brilliant, but the joke was in the very funny dialogue and Dudley Moores inability to see his disadvantage at playing Tarzan. At no point was it mentioned that he lost his leg in Vietnam.
And on that, I shall take my leave, sir...
Blimey, I can't even agree with anybody any more without annoying them 
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 26 2009, 1:53 PM BST
Ridiculous comparison. It's a "nonsense" sketch, brilliantly written and executed, with no victim in it. Hope you're not using it to try and make Jimmy Carr's case.
We, the audience, are being asked to laugh at a one-legged man. Half of the humour is from Dudley Moore bouncing around in a very unstable way.
Dudley Moore's character's inability to be able to play Tarzan is the "victim", I'm sure if someone wanted to they could argue that it is offensive to people with one leg.
My point was to show that, like beauty, offensiveness is in the eye of the beholder, if I had a pet chicken who'd been run over by a car I might find the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" jokes offensive, but this doesn't mean that they should be banned.
The Carr joke wasn't terribly funny, but I'm guessing the same people who are up in arms about this are the same people who were texting each other sick, unfunny jokes about Stephen Gateley five minutes after the poor sod shuffled off.
At the end of the day only one man is really qualified to make a judgement and until Ross Kemp issues a statement it's all so much idle speculation.
Quote: Marc P @ October 26 2009, 1:54 PM BSTWere there many complaints about it then?
I wouldn't have thought so but then at the time the tabloids probably reported news rather than trying to stoke up controversy and indignation where none really existed.
Quote: Tony Cowards @ October 26 2009, 2:03 PM BSTDudley Moore's character's inability to be able to play Tarzan is the "victim", I'm sure if someone wanted to they could argue that it is offensive to people with one leg.
Did anyone argue that?
Quote: Tony Cowards @ October 26 2009, 2:03 PM BSTDudley Moore's character's inability to be able to play Tarzan is the "victim", I'm sure if someone wanted to they could argue that it is offensive to people with one leg.
Rubbish. The fact that Dud spends the whole sketch with a smile on his face, cheerfully admitting that his disability is an issue, takes him away from being the "victim". If anything Pete's agent is just as much the "victim", having been bothered by a completely unsuitable auditionee. The audience is laughing at a visual image, the concept of a one-legged man auditioning for the role of Tarzan and the great way that Cook's agent uses language to convey the bad news of his chances of landing the role in a sympathetic way.
As I said, it's quite obviously a "nonsense" sketch, detached from any semblance of real life. I would use the word "surreal" as well, but that is trotted out too often about comedy.
To compare this sketch with Jimmy Carr's gag seems to be a deliberately obtuse thing to do. 
I see you've answered already.