The state of British sitcoms Page 6

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 13 2009, 11:17 AM GMT

Remember when you were a kid and the school bully tried to knife you in the neck for your Dunlop Green Flash? No, I don't remember that, it never happened.

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This simply cannot be true. The media made it perfectly clear that knife crime only began during 2008. You only need to check any paper or news report to see this is true. Before that time no one ever carried a knife for violent purposes. Ever. Any thoughts or experience we may have had that showed the streets were just as f**king dangerous ten, twenty, thirty or forty years ago are mere delusions and we should feel a bit grubby for even contemplating a similarity to today's environment.

Def.

Coke was 10p a can once though. Some bloke with a cart outisde Madame Tussaud's tried to flog us a couple for 25p each and my mum nearly smashed his face in

You make a good point about media reactions Deferenz.

Youth knife crime really took off in the early 1990s, before then it was a rarity confined to certain groups in the inner cities. Newman and Baddiel even wrote a sketch about the new phenomenom, making jokes about how they had to pretend that their bus pass holders were knives in their back pockets whenever they came across a group of teenagers.

As I never went to Borstal, I never went to school thinking I would be knifed? Did my teachers ask for stab proof vests? Was I ever worried about being mugged and killed for my trainers? Being punched in the face for my dinner money yes, murdered for personal clothing, no.

The types of violence found on the street have escalated over the last few decades due to the vast amounts of cash that can be made through the drug trade, the formation of gangs as a substitute family unit and the pressure of our consumerist society on young people to acquire expensive goods and name brands. Knives had replaced fists and guns have replaced knives.

The tabloid press was just as salacious in the 1970s and 1980s as it is today. If there had been a vast number of children stabbing each other in the playground, then it would have been reported.

And just to rubbish my argument completely, Deferenz is correct about the influence of the media in this respect. See my earlier diatribe about child molesting being swept under the carpet in the old days. Now, thanks to the press, every parent is worried about their kids being attacked by paedos on a daily basis.

In conclusion: writing my ignorant and biased opinions on Internet message boards is way cooler then ringing up talk radio stations, cuz those people are like, really sad.

Some time back I watched a programme about how dangerous Britain was over the decades. I can't recall the name of it now, but I think the gist was that it was placing a question mark over the recent claims that Britain is a more dangerous place now in modern times than it ever was in the past.

The arguement was that the streets were just as nasty decades ago but back then you didn't have instant communication, internet, 24/7 news and so on to report it all. I think they also alluded to the fact that a lot of crime was either left unreported or was hushed over by the neighbourhoods involved.

I can't comment on the rest of the country or all the time periods except for my own experience. I lived in Birmingham until I was 20 and left there in 1992. My experience of that place was that it was relatively dangerous everywhere. I lived in the suburbs as oppossed to the inner city and you had to watch everywhere you went. Even if you were not looking for trouble it would find you. I knew people who carried knives and I knew of one or two who had used them. On a few occasions I was threatend with a blade and have had flick knives and gravity knives thrust in front of my face on a few occasions. Luckily, I was never stabbed or injured but a friend of mine who tried to protect me once was slashed quite badly. This was during the 1980s tagging culture where every other kid appeared to carry a spray can and a blade. I couldn't wait to get out of that place.

Def.

It is difficult to assess the true state of matters as anecdotal evidence depends so much on social and geographical circumstances, and on state of mind. And official figures depend as much on what was reported and how the information was handled, as on what actually happened.

There was certainly violenet crime in the 1940s and 1950s but my my family came from North London and mixed in that milieu (for instance, a neighbour had his arm chopped off with a machete in a revenge attack), but they claim that as themselves being lawbiding citizens did not feel threatened by the criminality around them.

I myself lived in Balsall Heath in Brum in the early 1980s, then considered a rough neighbourhood, but I worry more now walking home at night in Welwyn Garden City. It could be I have fallen for the hype and grown more fearful, but then again a few months ago a man was beaten to a bloody pulp outside my front door after being chased by a bunch of youths who had picked on him in the street...

So from British sitcoms, to violence on the streets; where next?

Quote: Timbo @ January 13 2009, 1:49 PM GMT

It is difficult to assess the true state of matters as anecdotal evidence depends so much on social and geographical circumstances, and on state of mind. And official figures depend as much on what was reported and how the information was handled, as on what actually happened.

There was certainly violenet crime in the 40s and 50s but my my family came from North London and mixed in that milieu (for instance, a neighbour had his arm chopped off with a machete in a revenge attack), but they claim that as themselves being lawbiding citizens did not feel threatened by the criminality around them.

I myself lived in Balsall Heath in Brum in the early 80s, then considered a rough neighbourhood, but I worry more now walking home at night in Welwyn Garden City. It could be I have fallen for the hype and grown more fearful, but then again a few months ago a man was beaten to a bloody pulp outside my front door after being chased by a bunch of youths who had picked on him in the street...

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You live in Welwyn I worked there a few years ago?

Ever remember a miserablist figure? Like several goths stapled together?

You would need to be much stranger than that to stand out from the crowd in WGC. It is like living in society of post-apocalyptic freaks.

I feel far safer in South London than I do in the Slough area, where I've live for almost all of my life.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 13 2009, 1:57 PM GMT

So from British sitcoms, to violence on the streets; where next?

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The relative merits of wearing women's clothing at the weekend.

Def.

Why don't we all get together have a whip round, and take it in turns to film our own pilots and f**k waiting for rejection letters.

Because they're even worse than what's on TV, hence their not being?