Mad Monday!

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,602]

At least it wasnt the hey dad guy....

[timD 994]

But the jokes about paedophiles which is why it's funny and is ok.

Just like Viv Michie's joke is not about glassing people which is despicable but about Red Foo which is funny.

I understand why people don't like it. I understand it has the potential to upset Rolf Harris' victims. But at the same time I think others would see a once popular celebrity being reduced to a cheap joke, which is more than he deserves.

What I don't like is not those who are genuinely upset. But those who see AFL and Mad Monday and jump to conclusions about players behaving badly

The notion that the joke can be about paedophiles and that is ok is nothing short of bizarre.

You can joke about something and, guess what, it does not make it ok or funny. Maybe you could joke about suicide. Or AIDS. Or Ebola. Or beheading. Just doesn't get funny. Put raping kids in the same basket. Not funny. Not 'lightened' by humor. And the perpetrators not further humiliated, either. Any attempt better be brilliant, because anything short of brilliant will just make it look like you are trivialising it...which is what the players ended up doing.

Hey, perhaps if you forget there are people involved, then it makes it funny. Why don't you try that?

[beelzebub 23,364]

Mel Brooks took the plss out of Hitler... seems there is room for satire.

[Dr John Dee 1,057]

Mel Brooks took the plss out of Hitler... seems there is room for satire.

So did Charlie Chaplin. But both understood the difference between what's funny and what's not, satirising a particular version of Hitler.

'Springtime for Hitler' with dancing German troops, fine. 'Springtime for Hitler' with dancing Shoah victims, not fine.

Same here: Rolf Harris in prison outfit would have been 'taking the [censored]'. It's the inclusion of a reference to one of Harris's victims that pushes things into the unfunny.

[nutbean 8,838]

I'm offended by the stupidity of these players.

It is black humour and some will laugh and some with get offended.

My girlfriend and her ex husband ( pre-me) went to a party dressed as Azaria Chamberlain and a dingo. - they weren't in the public eye and some at the party laughed and some were offended

What irks me with the players is that they should realise they are pushing a boundary and not taking freakin pictures ( or better still - think twice before deciding what to wear - Chris Dawes - very clever and very funny)

Every year, every mad Monday I wait for it - what moron will do something and put his picture on instagram and the papers dine out.

I_diot footballers should have long ago realised that football is a fishbowl and they will be heavily scrutinised.

We can bleat as much as we like about political correctness but these dimwits want to take the big money that comes with gig - realise on everything they do that it will be end up in the public forum and for every person who finds it funny there will be someone else who will think it offensive.

[beelzebub 23,364]

They are being scathed for nothing more really than being amateur satirists.

i think everyone just needs to get over it

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

It was dumb, not just becuase it was tasteless (mind you I didn't even realise Terlich was trying to look like Harris) but because they should know Melbourne are easy targets for the media to stick the boot in.

[Biffen 12,943]

Not quite up there with the most offensive things I have ever seen.

Moral prudery ,false outrage and indignation seem to be gripping the city

in some sort of wowser rennaissance.

Yet it's OK for our government to gaol kids seeking asylum indefinitely.

It's also OK to run guns to Iraq.

Our priorities are all retarded.

We are a whitebread nation of fat ,lazy,self satisfied half wits with a reactionary media that plays it's corporate citizens like a fiddle.

This country is run only for the benefit the wealthy.

There is no more respect in Australia for working people, in fact they are despised.

We are truly on the slide.

The corporate media,it's beneficiaries and their advertisers are the scum that erode our society daily and make it rubbish.

Nobody complained about Rolf Harris till it was too late to defend him and I bet there are some big name pedos in the UK and Australia hoping their victims have already suicided and the media has got it's sacrificial lambs.

Any person seriously offended by this should grow a thicker skin.you will need it .

Edited September 1, 2014 by Biffen

[nutbean 8,838]

They are being scathed for nothing more really than being amateur satirists.

i think everyone just needs to get over it

Slow news day.

Dumb footballers - nothing unusual to see here - move on.

[mauriesy 7,287]

Agree it was a bad error of judgement and poor taste, although it would have been a little less dumb if they hadn't been photographed together.

[Gipsy Danger 1,067]

Just have Roosy and PJ give them both a foot up the arrse and be done with it

[binman 42,919]

DL is a lot better when it sticks to footy.

When it strays to a subject like this I find the glimpse into people's world view frequently disturbing.

Dressing up as a convicted pedophile satire. Right.

And what is this business about Harris being made a figure of fun and in fact that's a good thing because it embarrasses him? Lets for the moment ignore how stupid that is and pretend for the sake of argument that it is a position holds some water. How then does a player dressing up as a victim of child abuse fit? Is the victim a figure of fun? Does lampooning a victim of child abuse equate to satire?

Forget Rolf Harris. Think about his victims. I doubt they see the humour or satire.

[jabberwocky 2,301]

Dumb, not hangable, we move on.

[poita 3,902]

Yawn. When do finals start?

[frankie_d 1,471]

And Rolf wearing the St Kev's blazer?

pocket off, thank heavens...

[P-man 13,366]

Any victims would never have been alerted to it had they not posted it on Instagram and the media picked up on it and insisted upon the outbreak of moral outrage because, shock horror, footy players are dressing up as something distasteful. This was their greatest mistake. Not the dressing up in the first place.

Perhaps those who are In a stampede to get offended at something like this have a different exposure to the world of comedy. There is a hell of a lot worse than this out there. It doesn't make it funny. But it also doesn't make it off limits.

Edited September 2, 2014 by P-man

[chook fowler 19,458]

Not quite up there with the most offensive things I have ever seen.

Moral prudery ,false outrage and indignation seem to be gripping the city

in some sort of wowser rennaissance.

Yet it's OK for our government to gaol kids seeking asylum indefinitely.

It's also OK to run guns to Iraq.

Our priorities are all retarded.

We are a whitebread nation of fat ,lazy,self satisfied half wits with a reactionary media that plays it's corporate citizens like a fiddle.

This country is run only for the benefit the wealthy.

There is no more respect in Australia for working people, in fact they are despised.

We are truly on the slide.

The corporate media,it's beneficiaries and their advertisers are the scum that erode our society daily and make it rubbish.

Nobody complained about Rolf Harris till it was too late to defend him and I bet there are some big name pedos in the UK and Australia hoping their victims have already suicided and the media has got it's sacrificial lambs.

Any person seriously offended by this should grow a thicker skin.you will need it .

Don't worry they'll all be shot when the revolution comes.

[daisycutter 29,613]

let's just say their satire was up to the same standards as their football and move on

what do people expect from amateur comedians - mel brooks?

interesting the outraged media had to reproduce the images in large size when surely just text would have sufficed

[Grapeviney 9,718]

We would be a better society if we could laugh at footy players dressed as Rolf and a School girl while showing care and compassion for people in a fragile state

state.

How does satirising child abuse make us a better society?

Why can't we show compassion and care for the Kim Duthie's of this world and do the same for victims of abuse.

It's got nothing to do with Rolf's victims - I think anyone who has been abused would find it in poor taste, and I don't know what's to be achieved by convincing them that they should just laugh it off.

the ability to laugh at ourselves & at our woes, is one of the abilities which help us to be humble & accepting; taking ourselves too seriously just keeps on adding more & more intensity to a painful experience.

Yes victims need validation, but to lose the sense of humour which can relieve the tensions is wrong.

Humour is a wonderful coping mechanism but I doubt it's used to help child abuse victims overcome their trauma.

Read back your words - is that really how you would respond to an abuse victim who thinks the joke offensive? To be 'humble' and 'accepting' and 'don't take yourself too seriously'?

[beelzebub 23,364]

Humour is a wonderful coping mechanism but I doubt it's used to help child abuse victims overcome their trauma.

and yet Holocaust victims have a very black sense of humour.

Was it well done? probably Not ? were they auditioning for something ? probably not. Were they taking the proverbial ? Probably

[Grapeviney 9,718]

and yet Holocaust victims have a very black sense of humour.

I love Jewish humour but I've never heard a Holocaust joke (well, not one that wasn't anti-semitic), and especially not one from a survivor, no matter how black their humour is.

I love comedy and that includes edgy, confronting comedy, but I don't think I've ever heard child abuse jokes, or genocide jokes.

[chookrat 4,247]

How does satirising child abuse make us a better society?

Why can't we show compassion and care for the Kim Duthie's of this world and do the same for victims of abuse.

It's got nothing to do with Rolf's victims - I think anyone who has been abused would find it in poor taste, and I don't know what's to be achieved by convincing them that they should just laugh it off.

Humour is a wonderful coping mechanism but I doubt it's used to help child abuse victims overcome their trauma.

Read back your words - is that really how you would respond to an abuse victim who thinks the joke offensive? To be 'humble' and 'accepting' and 'don't take yourself too seriously'?

To explain my point - If we take the Catholic Church as an example, its behaviour in covering up abuses, obstructing justice and bullying victims is much worse than a couple of footy players dressing up in poor taste. Yet of the millions of people that support the church how many demand that victims of child sex abuse are treated compassionately and that the church takes responsibility?

The world would be a better place if we focussed less on dick heads being [censored] and more on real problems and injustices.

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

I love Jewish humour but I've never heard a Holocaust joke (well, not one that wasn't anti-semitic), and especially not one from a survivor, no matter how black their humour is.

I love comedy and that includes edgy, confronting comedy, but I don't think I've ever heard child abuse jokes, or genocide jokes.

Yep I know plenty of Jews who make jokes about all sorts of things but they don't joke about the Holocaust and they don't joke about Israel generally.

That said 'how many Jews can you fit in a Volkswagon' is an old classic horrendous joke. And there are plenty of child abuse jokes going around, an old staple for those school camp nights when you sit around telling terrible jokes.

[Grapeviney 9,718]

To explain my point - If we take the Catholic Church as an example, its behaviour in covering up abuses, obstructing justice and bullying victims is much worse than a couple of footy players dressing up in poor taste. Yet of the millions of people that support the church how many demand that victims of child sex abuse are treated compassionately and that the church takes responsibility?

The world would be a better place if we focussed less on [censored] heads being [censored] and more on real problems and injustices.

I get it, I just think we can and should do both. The Royal Commission is finally exposing the truth behind the church (and other institutions') abhorrent behaviour, and rarely a day goes by when it's not prominent in the media. Expressing disapproval over these far less serious antics doesn't detract from the bigger and more important fight, in fact I think it complements it. We can walk and chew gum at the same time - it need not be an either / or situation.

[beelzebub 23,364]

I love Jewish humour but I've never heard a Holocaust joke (well, not one that wasn't anti-semitic), and especially not one from a survivor, no matter how black their humour is.

I love comedy and that includes edgy, confronting comedy, but I don't think I've ever heard child abuse jokes, or genocide jokes.

Actually there is .

I will concede maybe not the place for it.