BBC says gypsy is a racist word, says comic
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Independent Minds
Comedian Ben Miller said the BBC tried to stop him using the word "gypsy" in his new sketch series with Alexander Armstrong because it could be seen as racist.
The pair wanted to use the term in their BBC1 show to ridicule attitudes held in the 1970s.
Speaking to November's issue of FHM magazine, Miller said: "We're having a debate at the moment with the BBC over whether we can say gypsies, because they say gypsies is a racist term, and you think 'Yes it is, but that's the point that we're making, that we were more racist in the 70s than we are now'."
Asked where he draws the line on good taste, Miller replied: "You have to be really precise.
"One thing we talk about is who's our target?
"Ricky Gervais has jokes about people with disabilities, but do I think that's a healthy thing?
"Yes, I really do, because he's chosen his targets very carefully and he's thought about what he's doing."
Miller was quoted on the Daily Mail's website as saying the word was dropped after a discussion with the corporation.
He said: "After discussing the issue both amongst ourselves and with the BBC, we decided to use a different word, so that the target (racism) was clearer and the joke was funnier.
"These discussions are a normal, healthy part of writing a comedy show and help to make sure that we end up with something we can all have a ruddy good laugh at."
A BBC spokeswoman said concerns were raised about the use of the word because it might cause offence in the context in which it was being used.
She said: "There are no banned words on the BBC; 'gypsy' isn't a banned word.
"This wasn't about the word itself, but about the sketch as a whole and the potential to cause offence.
"As with all comedy, it's about context, and in this particular case we felt there were less offensive ways of making the same joke."
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Comments
Yeah,right.
There are so many banned words soon they will have to mime the news.
I love the freedom we have int his country. Political Correctness and a general climate of fear dictating everything we say and write on the one hand, and overzealous Health and Safety rules telling us what we can and can't do.
Not to mention the endless lists of permits and insurance policies required to organise any event, the endless databases, the CCTV everywhere, I could go on.
This isn't the first time I've read an article like this. I recall another similar article where a number of scriptwriters and producers were lamenting the fact that the BBC was so damned controlling of programme content: everyone had to be seen to wear a seatbelt, characters couldn't use mobile phones whilst in the car, characters were never alloweed to smoke etc. etc.
This petty censorship, which lacks any kind of insight into the context of the work being produced (we did use the word 'Gypsy' in the 70's, use the word 'Roma' back then and it would conjure up images of Frankie Howerd in a toga).
I wonder how much fuss would have been made by actual Roma groups, how much would come from the white, middle-class, placard-waving tie-dyed activists from the home counties who sit there in wait for the tiniest transgression of the PC Rulebook, and how much from the exec-appointed £50k+ PA guardians of the UKs moral compass who stomp down the corridors of Media power brandishing their clipboards and tickboxes.
There is certainly a prevalent attitude that people who live a mobile lifestyle are in some sense inferior, but that attitude is about the lifestyle, not the word used to label it. Using an alternative word (such as traveller) makes no difference to the attitudes about the people concerned. Maybe we should think more about changing attitudes to people who have a non-conventional lifestyle, and less about the choice of words used to refer to them.