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Friday 14th November 2008

I can't believe we didn't point it out in the podcast and maybe it's too obvious to say, but the ridiculous thing about the newspaper's reaction to that stupid bath sex story is once again that although the Mail are taking the moral high-ground, they are actually reprinting the photos in a national newspaper, that will be seen by far more children than the 42 who were accidentally given the book. The newspapers also added to the offence by explaining that the pictures are depicting sexual positions, which was not the case for the original kids, whose parents, if they were sensible, could just have said that the cartoon figures are just playing in the bath. Sainsburys have apologised for the mistake and given vouchers to at least one of the offended families, so what about all these newspapers? What are they going to do about the fact that they have potentially now shown and explained the image to any child who can read? Possibly some five year olds have seen the cartoon and to quote the man in the article, "Young minds are the most malleable and this incident has robbed a large number of children of their innocence. They should be ashamed."
Of course the incident has done none of those things, whipping up a furore about it has drawn unnecessary attention to it and made kids who would probably have not taken much notice in the first place really have to think about what is going on.
I guess we're always going to be stuck with self-righteousness, it just seems to me that the self-righteous do a lot more damage than the people they're railing against. But I think perhaps subconsciously they know that. It's a way for them to spread information that will prove offensive to people, without having to take any of the blame for the offence.
Ah fuck em.

I wondered if my Buzzcocks appearance would have any effect on my daily life - I've heard other comics say that they get a bit of hassle after appearing on a terrestrial panel show with people recognising them and shouting at them in the street. I'd been working all day writing links for "Batteries Not Included" and only been out for a paper, so it wasn't until I headed out for my gig this evening that the theory would be put to the test. Would I never get a private moment again?
And sure enough as I walked along Shepherd's Bush Grey I heard footsteps running up behind me and a teenage girl stopped beside me and said "Were you on Buzzcocks last night?"
"Er yes," I said, not knowing what to expect next.
"Oh... Hello!" she said, waving her hand by her face, before then just running back to her friends.
That hadn't been too bad.
Within thirty seconds another voice chimed in from my right, "Excuse me..."
"Yes," I said, turning to greet them. It seemed that from now on I wasn't even going to be able to walk along the street without constant recognition.
"You haven't got 50p for a burger have you?"
It was an old homeless fella, pretending to be hungry, so he could get some booze money.
I realised that life was going to carry on pretty much as it had before. No one else recognised me for the rest of the night.

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