The pc brigade are at it again

[Raven]

Lew: "Fair point about the shell suit and school. That was just to outrage traditionalists, not a pc gimmick."


That was how I always saw these things, and of course the readers of the right wing papers are mainly conservatives who don't like to see traditions change. Quite how these stunts were supposed to get more *kids* buying the comics though, I'm not sure. And, if anything, they seem more likely to get outraged adults to actually *stop* ordering them.

Also, if a prank like the Bash Street Kids changing schools did create a sudden surge in sales after creating interest, surely it would only last a week or two, anyway?


"The Bash Street Kids one was playing the pc card though as it claimed Plug would lose his protruding teeth for political correctness."


I don't recall this one. Is this something Thomson themselves claimed they'd do? How did they get out of it?


" Same goes for the "Desperate Dan goes veggie" story, which again wasn't true, - but even today people say to me "Desperate Dan had to stop eating cow pies because of political correctness. The world's gone mad! It's those loony lefties! I know it's true because it was in the Daily Mail, etc..." "!


Is it true that the cow pies themselves disappeared from the strip for some time? (Hard to see why eating meat would be 'politically incorrect' as the great majority of people eat meat. I thought the jist was presumably that the sight of horns and tails sticking out of the things was now considered tasteless or upsetting - or something along those lines.)

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

LEW.....I became actively non-PC directly as a result of an incident at work;----I was actually taken into the office and given a formal warning for describing HITLER as 'evil'.

For this statement [which I still make no apologies for] I made was branded 'racist' against the GERMAN people [none of whom worked beside us], and it is directly as a result of this experience, I am a committed non-PC enthusiast.

When evil is allowed 'off the hook' in the name of 'political correctness', I felt it was time to question the logic and motives behind it, and decided it was just too damaging to give my backing to...

Perhaps if I described old ADOLF as a 'rather spiffing chap', I may still have been with that particular company......

[Raven]

LEW.....I became actively non-PC directly as a result of an incident at work;----I was actually taken into the office and given a formal warning for describing HITLER as 'evil'.

For this statement [which I still make no apologies for] I made was branded 'racist' against the GERMAN people [none of whom worked beside us], and it is directly as a result of this experience, I am a committed non-PC enthusiast.

When evil is allowed 'off the hook' in the name of 'political correctness', I felt it was time to question the logic and motives behind it, and decided it was just too damaging to give my backing to...

Perhaps if I described old ADOLF as a 'rather spiffing chap', I may still have been with that particular company......

ISPYSHHHGUY, it's hard to conceive of anybody taking issue with somebody describing Hitler as 'evil' on 'PC' grounds. He's commonly publically referred to as such by people ranging from historians to politicians.

A disparaging comment about Germans in general may have been considered 'xenophobic,' but how could denouncing only this 'racial purity'-promoting fascist dictator of yore possibly be 'racist' - and how could anyone consider Hitler to represent German people today?

Were no wires being crossed here? If not, you should have taken it higher had it been possible because whoever gave you the formal warning surely wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. Dressing you down for denouncing Hitler's activities would surely have got *them* in considerably more trouble than you could have been in.

[felneymike]

Also, if a prank like the Bash Street Kids changing schools did create a sudden surge in sales after creating interest, surely it would only last a week or two, anyway?


"The Bash Street Kids one was playing the pc card though as it claimed Plug would lose his protruding teeth for political correctness."


I don't recall this one. Is this something Thomson themselves claimed they'd do? How did they get out of it?

This happened in the 90's as a result of an anniversary of the Bash St Kids (40th?). They where given "makeovers", one of which made Plug good looking (though there was no "PC" involved), Toots became "girly", Sidney had nice hair etc. They also had a shiny glass school and where taught by a robot. This story lasted 3 weeks and in the last one, which was the 40th anniversary issue, they went back to normal in an extra-length story which took up the Dennis pages as well as the Bash St ones.

The same story was also in "The Beano Videostars" with some minor alterations

[Raven]

This happened in the 90's as a result of an anniversary of the Bash St Kids (40th?). They where given "makeovers", one of which made Plug good looking (though there was no "PC" involved), Toots became "girly", Sidney had nice hair etc. They also had a shiny glass school and where taught by a robot. This story lasted 3 weeks and in the last one, which was the 40th anniversary issue, they went back to normal in an extra-length story which took up the Dennis pages as well as the Bash St ones.

The same story was also in "The Beano Videostars" with some minor alterations

Thanks for the info. The 'makeover' angle sounds like a good story idea (was this when 'makeovers' started to be a big thing on TV?) though, like you say, it doesn't seem to be playing the 'PC card' at all.

[Lew Stringer]

Thanks for the info. The 'makeover' angle sounds like a good story idea (was this when 'makeovers' started to be a big thing on TV?) though, like you say, it doesn't seem to be playing the 'PC card' at all.

It's not considered pc to laugh at ugly or fat people, hence The Beano mocking it with Plug and Fatty having a makeover.

Lew

[Lew Stringer]

LEW.....I became actively non-PC directly as a result of an incident at work;----I was actually taken into the office and given a formal warning for describing HITLER as 'evil'.

For this statement [which I still make no apologies for] I made was branded 'racist' against the GERMAN people [none of whom worked beside us], and it is directly as a result of this experience, I am a committed non-PC enthusiast.

If your experience was as straightforward as that it sounds to me you were dealing with a Neo Nazi rather than anyone who was politically correct. Anyway, one experience of "political correctness gone mad" doesn't make the whole concept of "pc" corrupt does it? Branding all "political correctness" as crazy just for one extreme situation is as illogical as racists who hate all foreigners just because some black guy at work once did the dirty on them.

Lew

[Raven]

Thanks for the info. The 'makeover' angle sounds like a good story idea (was this when 'makeovers' started to be a big thing on TV?) though, like you say, it doesn't seem to be playing the 'PC card' at all.

It's not considered pc to laugh at ugly or fat people, hence The Beano mocking it with Plug and Fatty having a makeover.

Lew

Was it not just using a makeover for a funny story idea? It's the obvious thing to turn these characters into their physical opposites and that concept would have worked in any decade. It's the obvious 'comedy angle.'

Or did Thomson actually claim that they were changing the characters specifically because it's no longer 'politically correct' to laugh at ugly or fat people?

[Lew Stringer]

Was it not just using a makeover for a funny story idea? It's the obvious thing to turn these characters into their physical opposites and that concept would have worked in any decade. It's the obvious 'comedy angle.'

Or did Thomson actually claim that they were changing the characters specifically because it's no longer 'politically correct' to laugh at ugly or fat people?

It was just a publicity stunt to outrage the traditionalists but I seem to recall some areas of the media blamed political correctness. Anyway, the info is all in The History of The Beano. Buy it. It's great.

Lew

[felneymike]

It was just the traditionalists it outraged! i'd probably only been getting the Beano about 4 years at that time

Looking back on it now though, it seems crazy that any adults could possibly have expected it to have lasted more than one or two stories (not to mention turning toots from a tomboy-ish character into a "proper girl" would be the very opposite of PC!)

Also the comic version of the story ended with Plug's extreme ugliness causing all the glass windows of the school to smash! (the video version had the robot teacher exploding instead)

[AndyB]

The comic version had both. Pages 268 and 269 of the History of the Beano!