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Ricky Gervais (pictured) has moved swiftly to quash criticism of a controversial joke about Susan Boyle in his stand-up comedy show.
"The Office" creator sparked fury after using the word "mong" - a British saying often used as a derogatory term for sufferers of Down's Syndrome - in a joke about Boyle.
Officials at the U.K.'s Down's Syndrome Association contacted the comedian after receiving a "report" about the show - and Gervais immediately wrote back to explain the word was not meant to be offensive in the context of the routine.
And he's now taken to his official blog to show fans how the potential scandal was smoothed over as soon as he reached out to the association.
Gervais writes, "The DSA contacted my PR on the 6th of May explaining they had had a report about my routine about Susan Boyle and voiced their obvious concerns. I sent them an email (in which I wrote) 'I clearly explain that words change and that at no point am I referring to anyone with Down's Syndrome. Not only am I not referring to people with Down's Syndrome I also explain that I am not associating the word with its old derogatory meaning. I also do it as part of a routine about comedians taking responsibility for everything they say. I hope this is acceptable.'"
And Gervais' quick response was well received by the association's bosses - they wrote back: "Fully explained and acceptable reply. Please extend our thanks to Ricky for the prompt reply."
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
