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Post by ellie on Jul 24, 2018 15:02:59 GMT
I haven’t seen him anywhere in a while, but I really liked Russell Brand. I thought he was silly and weird and different. Then one time he had a comedy special on tv, and there were tons of warnings about the offensive subject matter. I remember a tv critic trying to review it said that his jokes were ‘unprintable’ in the review. But as I watched it, I didn’t see anything offensive at all. Until the last few minutes - when he became absolutely filthy. I think he did it the right way - if you’re going to be shocking, show us first that you’re actually funny. Russel Brand has managed to get himself in a lot of trouble over the years. He got sacked from MTV for going on air dressed as Osama Bin Laden the day after the 9/11terrorist attacks, then in another stunt he stripped naked in Picadilly Circus as part of an anti capitalist protest. The fact he was a heroin addict during that period is probably significant! Later on he and another DJ got fired from the BBC for leaving a message, on air, on a well known actor’s answerphone saying Brand had sex with his granddaughter. These days he’s much calmer, has kicked the drugs and got into activism on behalf of various causes including drug addiction rehabilitation services. But, yes, he can be hilariously funny.
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Post by sgev1977 on Jul 31, 2018 2:54:55 GMT
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Post by mllemass on Jul 31, 2018 5:29:32 GMT
I completely disagree. Those internet bullies didn’t write all those offensive tweets. It might be a different story if JG were denying that he wrote them. And they weren’t private messages that were somehow exposed and made public. He was proud enough of what he was writing to put it out there for the world to read, and now the world is reacting to it.
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Post by queenzod on Jul 31, 2018 6:07:24 GMT
The world reacted to it 6-8 years ago when he first did it. It’s hypocritical of Disney to hire him knowing he wrote those tweets and then fire him under a pressure campaign from a bunch of trolls years later. He’s apologized, recognizes the stuff he wrote was terrible and wrong, expressed regret at his stupid choices, and hasn’t done it since. I don’t understand what you want from him.
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Post by sgev1977 on Jul 31, 2018 10:37:01 GMT
I completely disagree. Those internet bullies didn’t write all those offensive tweets. It might be a different story if JG were denying that he wrote them. And they weren’t private messages that were somehow exposed and made public. He was proud enough of what he was writing to put it out there for the world to read, and now the world is reacting to it. They are accusing him of being a pedophile! Again those kind of jokes were very common at the time. You can hate him for them but he wasnt the only one so if he should pay for those jokes then there is a lot of comedians and actors who should also pay. A lot of them also worked or work for Disney. And this logic is feeding the worst kind of people to do baseless accusations of pedophilia against everybody and everything! Now even against people who doesn’t even made those kind of jokes but are just known liberals!
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Post by mllemass on Jul 31, 2018 12:01:51 GMT
I agree that they should never have hired him.
I don’t care about what the trolls are saying. My concern is that he says he has changed, but those are just words, aren’t they? He tells us that he didn’t actually mean all the stuff he said in those tweets - they were just words, but he expects us to believe his words now? I suppose I’m just not a very trusting person.
And this isn’t about him specifically, it’s about people deciding everything they do is ok and without consequences.
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Post by sgev1977 on Jul 31, 2018 13:26:29 GMT
The thing is if Disney shouldn't have hired him then they shouldn't have hired (or they should have fired): Robin Williams (Aladdin), Gilbert Gottfried (Aladdin), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars), Bob Saget (Full House), George Carlin (Cars), Whoopie Goldberg (The Lion King), Sarah Silverman (Wreck-It Ralph), etc. And those are just the actors I remember that were in The Aristocrats!
His hiring and then firing doesn't have any logic apart of pleasing a bunch of extremists which are doing fake allegations that go way beyond tasteless jokes. Just think about it: you said there should be consequences to those jokes as there have not been any but what is worst than having your name associated to a disgusting crime like that!
And more important, we should never ignore who is behind this. No matter how much you hate him or his jokes. Maybe he isn't really regretful. Who cares! It's not about him! And anyway you don't know him (nor me) so we would never know if he is sincere or not but we also can't decide he isn't and asking for a bigger penance! The central point is that this was a coordinated campaign with political ends by very dangerous extremists. Disney and people from the left who ignore or not consider this are feeding and helping those extremists. And again, this environment in which out of context comments, faux pas and very bad jokes (especially those by celebrities) are used for character assassination was a left wing technique and of course, at the end it would be used against them by very dangerous people. Maybe it's time that the Tumblr-Twitter left understand it so they could see how easily is to manipulate them by very dark forces with ugly agendas.
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Post by ellie on Jul 31, 2018 13:40:13 GMT
Sometimes I think you have to look at peoples actions and make a call. Gunn made some bad taste jokes for which he apologised and stopped doing. There is no evidence he ever ever physically sexually harrassed or abused anyone so I feel he is being treated in a manner disproportionate to his actions. I personallly would give him the benefit of the doubt and accept his apology.
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Post by mllemass on Jul 31, 2018 15:47:56 GMT
In 1999, when we first got email at work, someone sent me pictures of naked men. I panicked and deleted them, worried that I would be fired. We had been given a lengthy policy about using email and about what was or wasn’t acceptable, and we were told that our emails could be read by our employer. So I waited for the phone call telling me I had been fired, but none came. I later asked someone in IT about it, and he said that we were not responsible for what people send us, only for what we send others. What a relief! I wouldn’t have sent naked pictures even if it had been acceptable, but I learned way back then that I can only control what I do and not what others do.
Over the years, as internet use grew at work, our employer started blocking a lot of websites, including shopping, travel, games and social media. If we wanted a website unblocked, we had to contact IT and tell them why. Even with all those policies in place, people still messed up all the time! There were many embarrassing “Reply all” emails that were actually intended for only one person. Those emails usually got immediately deleted by IT, but not before a lot of us had already read them. It helped when they made “Rely sender” the default instead of “Reply all”.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the internet is not a new thing. I’m old enough to remember life without it, and I remember when it really was new and we were still learning the rules. So no one today should be playing dumb about the stuff we post online. What we put out there will be there forever, no matter how much we may regret it later. It sounds like James Gunn is around my age, so he’s had many, many years to know better.
That’s it for my internet speech!
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Post by ellie on Jul 31, 2018 15:56:08 GMT
I don’t think he’s playing dumb about what he put online. He put that stuff up knowing people would read it. What he’s saying is he accepts the jokes were offensive. He apologised and hasn’t done anything like that ever since.
I can understand him never being forgiven and severely punished if he were a sex offender but, really, do some offensive jokes deserve that severity of response?
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