What's in a name?

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Wed, 2001-10-24 19:14

What's in a name?

Was thinking (unusual for me) about the spotted Richard thing and wondering where all this PC is taking us...

For instance, an Irish friend was telling me today that a certain brand of (Paddy...oooh!) cereal which shall, for the time being, remain nameless, used to sport a cosy kitchen scene on its packet, involving Granny preparing brekkie for the dear little grandkids, whilst contented feline sat ogling milky bowls. It was decided, however (by those that decide these things - wotta job!), that portraying said cat in the vicinity of victuals was unhygienic, so scrap the cat (they were told). And 'they' did.

Noddy is no longer allowed to kip alongside Big Ears...

Bert and Ernie were virtually incarcerated for living in the same house, never mind sharing the same cosy sleeping quarters...

The dear ol' Golliwog is now a political no-no (though the jam tastes the same)...

Wonder what they're going to suggest for toad-in-the-hole?

Wed, 2001-10-24 19:20

Dave's mate

Dave is looking forward to moving to Belfast...he has realised he will be able to have a paddy anytime he feels like it......

Wed, 2001-10-24 19:38

Shamrock

Ah, but do they have Paddy's in Southern Ireland, Dave's mate?

Wed, 2001-10-24 19:41

Dave's mate

Dunno...depends whether they lose their temper or not?

Wed, 2001-10-24 21:01

Martin T

saw burt with bin laden on a poster...don't know what that's about..... pc gone mad, yes it has, I've gone a little mad at dave's mate and shamrock...hopefully no connection to Dave Randall...nice chap...being Irish and all that...I usually don't mind paddy jokes...for them I'll make an exception.. but there are plus points to pc-ness, when I was at school in the 70s, the words nig nog, chocolate drop, and sambo, were used all the time by kids....thankfully that is now history golliwog is another one of those words so it's good that it's being retired....

Wed, 2001-10-24 21:07

Andrea

Yes, but golliwog was just the symbol on the jar...none of us kids ever associated it with anything 'untoward' or 'unsavoury', until a big thing was made of it...

Thu, 2001-10-25 09:01

andrew pack

Have to agree with Martin - the small casualties of PCness are nothing in comparison to things that used to regularly be said - about women, the disabled, homosexuals, ethnic minorities. I do remember growing up, two sitcoms - one where the premise was a black man moving next door to a white man (oh, the comic potential) and the other was "Mixed Blessings" where a white man married a black woman (and obviously that had to be a mixed blessing in some way). Words like "darkie" and worse are not ones I ever want to hear from my TV again. There is a web conspiracy called Bert is Evil, where they illustrate that Ernie's skinny mate is behind most of the evil doings of the world, hence the Bert and Bin poster.

Thu, 2001-10-25 10:36

Martin T

..."love thy neighbour" is the first sit come Andrew, it starred Rudolph Walker...now on East Enders..

Thu, 2001-10-25 10:51

Mr tibbs

The golliwog was taken away for a very good reason,most of the west indian community in brixton where taking the labels of the jars and pasting them on to fake bus passes,and using them for free rides.

Thu, 2001-10-25 13:05

#10

Wally Gogg

Why don't you take a long bus ride down a short pier, Mr Tibbs?

Thu, 2001-10-25 20:25

#11

robert

andrea, i think the best test of whether something is acceptable, is whether if it did not already exist, we would allow it to be introduced. no company would now be allowed to start using a golliwog as its logo, so it’s right that robertson’s got rid of it. in this respect the PC argument is no different to anything else – fox hunting, eventually, was done for by the same reasoning, and it won’t be many years before people realise that boxing was a mistake too. good riddance to the lot of them *asks andrew whether "expressing forthright views in one's abc user name" is a cherryable virtue*

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