God I love Viz

Perhaps he shouldn't have made the comment but is it really that offensive?

Personally I think it should be forgotten. I'm just intrigued by what the RFL's reaction will be following their 'no tolerance' policy to homophobic remarks.

I agree.

However the left wing sandal wearing witch hunters will undoubtedly insist he goes and lives with a homosexual couple for a fortnight as their child and will have to sell copies of the Gay Times in Wigan town centre on a Saturday arvo dressed in a frock as a way of combatting his deep seated disgusting prejudices

Gay people wear frocks do they?

Do gay people have no sense of humour or an ability to laugh at themselves ?

If you're gay and offended fair do's, demand an apology, i support that.

If you're straight and offended just love off and stop being trendy and PC and be offended just for the sake of looking like you're in the inclusive and having the 'hey look i'm better than you i don't live in the dark ages i'm a modern man' attitude
In fact i'm more offended by people telling me what i can and can't say.

I'm more than sure his intention wasn't to offend anyone in the gay community, it's just a small lack of awareness at worst.

I have gay friends tell me gay jokes, should i report them for being homophobic ?
My best friend is black and i hear some great 'black' jokes that are funny, is he a racist ?
Humour and sarcasm are subjective, like Leyther Matt said it's not as if he's going out to physically hurt anyone.

Racism and homophobia are about INTENT not some off the cuff thoughtless attempt at humour on twitter

Perspective people!

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... -slur.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... -slur.html

Brown is clearly not the brightest star in the sky but do we really want to see him go through the trauma of breaking down in a press conference, losing sponsorship deals and having the fearsome Ian Roberts on his case..?

Chuffing heck, if he'd put 'as happy as a Yorkshireman in a woolshop' or something this thread would have lasted about 3 posts, nae, it never would have even been mentioned.

If you're so offended stop following him on twitter then. END OF. Either that or grow thicker skins.

Is it wrong to laugh at the wrestling picture at the bottom of that report? You've got to love the irony considering the subject of the news report.

I sank my fork into a couple of faggots yesterday. Can't say I enjoyed them much.


Can I say that?

My two-pennies worth:

The joke made me laugh. And I'll probably use it. But Kevin Brown is an idiot.
Kevin Brown is a public figure. I am not. He gets paid lots of money to be a role model and a face for the sport in Huddersfield (and now he's an England player, nationally). It's not meant to offend. He wasn't being homophobic. But he was being extremely unprofessional. He can make comments like that in his private life, but to do it on one of the most public areas of all is plain stupidity. He wouldn't say something like that in a press conference, would he? I wouldn't say that at work (work in a school). It's dumb.

And to add to the matters, the RFL have set a precedent about homophobic behaviour (not necessarily about its presence, but about how clubs handle it). It's not a major thing he's done, but he (and the club) need to show that they aren't allowing this sort of thing to happen (in public). That's professional sport for you.

There are a few "oh, it wasn't bad, stop being PC" amongst us, and I tend to agree with a lot of what they say. But there's a line, and when you're in this line of work, everything you say can potentially harm you and your business. This is definitely one of them. For all we know, a sponsor could have seen that (however big or small) and pulled out, totally on the quiet. So yes, it is necessary to monitor your own behaviour. Especially in this industry.

Exactly Wellsy.

I thought he got paid to be a Rugby player? I am a manger to three staff - should I be a role model? Obviously the fact that this thread has appeared would suggest he shouldn't have put his little joke on a public forum. It also suggests that some people should get a life. Silly little issues like this also cause embarrassment to gay people. Most of them couldn't give a rats ass but so long as there's the sanctamonious crusaders out there "fighting their cause" crap like this will continue to cause such embarrassment. The crusaders feel good about themselves though so someone wins at least.

Like it or not, Kevin Brown, as a rugby league player, represents the game of rugby league. When he expresses homophopbia (through lack of sensitivity rather than malice i think it can be agreed in this case) he expresses it not as an individual but as a representative of RL.

The RFL have a duty to make sure that Browns attitude isnt indicative of the game.

Then you thought wrong. He's more than just a rugby player. If that was the case, then off-field issues wouldn't matter. No professional sports person is just a performer.


Why does it matter if your a manager to three staff or not? If people know where you work, and these people are potential customers/investors, and you act like an idiot, then does it affect your business? Would your employers be happy? Whether you think it's right or wrong is irrelevant. There ARE people that think that this kind of behaviour is wrong, and if it's the people you are trying to do business with then it's stupid. The behaviour wouldn't stop me watching him as a player, but it does bother me because there are people that it will bother as it will affect our business. It's called being professional.


Exactly. Even though I did find it funny. He (and I) are not homophobes. It's a light hearted joke. So are a lot of the racist/sexist/ageist/etc. jokes you hear and laugh at. But you shouldn't say them in public to people you don't know that are potential customers when you are in "uniform" (which he always will be as he's a public figure).


There's a difference between the people that think it's not appropriate to say these things at certain times (like myself) and the people that think it's not acceptable full stop (the PC brigade). You'll also get the PC brigade having a pop at my view-point on this saying that I'm bad because I found it funny. It's not black and white. You're not PC or anti-PC. There's a grey bit in the middle. There are boundaries, and people need to know what they are if they like this kind of humour. The "anti-PC brigade" are just as bad as the PC brigade IMO.

It's not all of one or none of one. There's a time and a place.

The two are obviously comparable what with the day to day discrimination people from Yorkshire face.

I sense a tongue in cheek remark but yeah, as an example only, people from Yorkshire get quips about them on here most days and if you tell people you're from there someone will have some gag about it. All absolutely throw away remarks that no one cares about and no one in their right mind could be offended by, but that's the same as this remark and gag Kevin Brown made.

I'm not suggesting that being gay/coming out etc and the attitude some have isn't worse than being from Yorkshire, obviously. But these types of things happen all day and everyday all over and are just little jokes which shouldn't offend anyone, and if it does, let them stick up for themselves.

Kevin Brown's done nothing wrong. He told a joke. Telling jokes is hardly setting a bad example.

No offence, but that's rubbish.

Some remarks are more offensive than others. It's not a case of "this is offensive, this isn't offensive". Some offend a few, some offend none, some offend some but not others, etc. If you think saying that someone from Yorkshire likes to buy wool is as offensive as basically saying that "puffs" are happy to stick anything up their *rse then you're being a bit daft. Brown won't have meant it maliciously in the slightest, don't get me wrong. But not everyone sees it that way, and it can harm the image of the game and our custom.

You don't always hear people's complaints, and some people aren't always in a position to stick up for themselves, so that's not really an appropriate response either. What if he'd have said a joke about severely disabled people?

It's not a massive deal. But it does need addressing. Especially after the RFL have made a deal about homophobia already. It just needs a a warning IMO.

Brown should get a warning letter.......stupid thing to post anywhere.

Bazza.....if the yanks don't like being called yanks...can I suggest "Septics" instead?

Great post, think a few witch hunters on here are getting a bit carried away with themselves and using Brown as a scapegoat for political correctness.

If he had said 'as happy as a pig in ', there wouldn't be umpteen people coming on moaning they know pigs that don't like sh1T and are offended that they are percieved to do so. (Waiting for someone to chirp up about comparing homosexuals to pigs

)

If he would have said 'I'm as happy as Larry' there wouldn't be people moaning they know Larry and he is a manic depressive due to the pressure of celebrity for being very happy.


People who want to make a stand for homosexuals need not combat the throwaway comments of a sportsman on twitter but need to do something about the way homosexuals are percieved in the mainstream media, for instance, having Julian Clarey, Graham Norton, 4 poofs and a piano and Paul O'Grady mincing about on TV does a lot more damage to the reputation of homosexuals and causes greater insult in my opinion.

It's called being professional, not politically correct. Professional sportmen are public figures. If they start throwing around daft comments in public (on something as mainstream as Twitter), then they are not being professional and harming their business.


It's a poor comparison (not because your comparing pigs with homosexuals, no problem with that, you're just trying to find a similar situation not trying to say that homosexuals are pigs). It's poor because can you offend a pig with your words? If I say that a pig is fat, it's not going to hurt its feelings, is it? It doesn't have a clue what I'm saying.
That's the whole private/public thing as well. If he'd have said the joke to his mates, it wouldn't matter. No-one would have heard it, and chances are if someone was gay that he was saying it too he'd know he wasn't being offensive.

That's the whole professional thing. You need to know when it is and isn't appropriate to say things that can be perceived as offensive and hurt your business, which is why the RFL run campaigns against racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.


Again, it's a poor comparison. Calling someone happy isn't offensive, is it? And Larry isn't a demographic. He could represent a demographic, but do people even know who Larry is?

I notice your not using examples of a racial persuation to or about people with disabilities to hammer your point home?


Julian Clarey, Graham Norton, etc. don't HAVE to be on television. It's the job to do what they do, which is entertain in the way that they do. You expect it with them, and if you like it you watch and if you don't then you don't watch. They know their captive audience. Same with people like Frankie Boyle and his extremely dark humour which definitely pushes the boundaries of what people would consider acceptable to say. I love it. It's funny. Most of what he says will probably offend people, but it's not meant in malice, and he knows people will choose not to watch it because of this and a lot of people WILL choose to watch it because of this. That's his captive audience.

Rugby League's and Huddersfield Giants' captive audience is everybody. Which is why we need the representatives of our sport to be clever with what they say and do in public. Comparing them to entertainers with specific captive audiences misses the point entirely. Rugby League is for all. Julian Clarey, Graham Norton, Frankie Boyle, Roy Chubby Brown, etc. are not.

RIP RL, its been taken over by the PC police

from a hard game born on the pits and steel mills of northern england its been killed off by the PC brigade.

And before anyone bangs on about politcal correctness gone mad and that, it's not the same. It's about being professional.

Now councils not putting Christmas lights because it might offend other religions is PC gone mad. It's a Christian-based country, and people visiting it know that and shouldn't be (and probably aren't) offended by Christian things. Now if they'd said "we aren't putting up Christmas lights this year because we're saving money because the country's skint!" then I'd accept it!