A bit of a Ricky Situation

Ohh, what's he done now?


You've probably heard all about the current 'Mong-gate' involving comedian Ricky Gervais. Since his return to Twitter, he's used the word 'mong' 728 times in 450 tweets (that may be an exaggeration), and consequently certain factions of the media have begun to kick up a storm about it.


Stand-up comic and writer Richard Herring weighed in most heavily on the issue, posting a blog piece about how he felt Ricky was using a touchy insult in a far too casual manner. "I think many comics are guilty of using mong as convenient and humourless punchlines. I don't think any of them would do the same with the word 'n***er' or 'p**i'" Herring wrote.

Furthermore, MENCAP and other disability charities have begun to express dismay at Ricky's use of the words. Francesca Martinez, an actress with Cerebral Palsy who appeared in Extras, also added to the criticism, saying "If you're in the public eye and you're saying [the word mong] is now fine, you're ignoring the reality that disability discrimination exists".

It all seems a bit of a pickle for Ricky, who for a long time has done some of the finest comedy that challenges the faux pas we have over things like race and disability. How has he got himself into this situation, and who's right?

To get to the bottom of it requires a good deal of thinking. Firstly, the word 'mong'. This shouldn't be a difficult debate really, as while definitions are fluid and in a constant state of change, there clearly still exists the derogatory insult for people with Downs Syndrome. Therefore, people are starting to take offence.

Now Ricky would say "Just because they're offended doesn't mean they're right". That's true, and we have to consider this further, but he must realise that they have a right to be offended no matter how meager the offensiveness appears to be. It may be a simple case of misunderstanding, but that doesn't discredit their right to take issue with a joke.

In either case though, 'mong' obviously does carry a weight behind it that renders it an offensive term to people with disabilities, and this is probably what the whole thing boils down to. Is it an derogatory insult or not? Well, I think you'd be best off asking the people who are actually handicapped or part of a disability group. If you're worried about whether a term is offensive or not, surely the easiest way to find out is to ask the people whom you're referring to (or not referring to as the case may be). After all, it's one thing getting offended on their behalf, but the real point is whether it actually does offend the handicapped and the families who care for them.

Intentions are more important when it comes to deciding if a joke is offensive or not, so this would be another thing to look at. Many of Ricky's tweets have used the word 'mong' as a jokey description of one of the horrifying faces he's pulled, or just a collective term for a bunch of idiots. I would find it incredible if Ricky was using this term to mean Down's Syndrome, so I think we can write off bad intentions for these jokes.

Context is also an issue. As Charlie Brooker pointed out on Twitter: "The word 'mong' appears in Dead Set script, where it's spoken by a character who's a) a twat and b) uses it to mean 'handicapped'." Clearly that isn't offensive, because it's an illustration of a character's persona and the word 'mong' is not played for laughs at the disabled. If it was also the case that Ricky was playing a bit of a persona on Twitter, then he'd have extra grounds for defence. However, the way he's taken to the defensive suggests this is definitely not the case. It is Ricky using these words.

The trouble Ricky has is he often goes on about his comedy 'coming from a good place', and therefore he can 'justify everything he does'. I believe he's right on the first quote, and the second, but that's not to say he's not making a mistake with these 'mong' jokes. Personally I'm not taking offence to them at all, but that's not to say other people aren't, and that's certainly not to say they are in the right.

My only issue with this whole saga is that it's making Ricky act very different to his usual self. The way he talks about the 'PC brigade' without irony. That really hurts to see, it's a term you'd expect a 47-year old jobless skinhead racist to use. The way he talks about 'haters' with seriousness. The way he's angrily defending himself constantly on Twitter, and using quite petulant means to do so (retweeting the odd 'I'm a mother of a Downs Syndrome child and I don't find it offensive' or a quote from a spurious online dictionary).

Someone mentioned that Ricky Gervais was becoming the new Jim Davidson. I don't think this could be further from the case, but Ricky's pride in being a shock comedian is pointing him in the wrong direction at the moment. The old him used to touch on tricky subjects with clever humour and the tongue firmly implanted in the cheek throughout. Now it seems the shock value has to come first and the joke later, and the obsession with 'mong' is possibly the very embodiment of this .

I mean, that's still a stretch from Jim Davidson, but look how well he's fitting into the jokes written for Jim: "Ricky Gervais: £25 - Strictly no mongs".

I'm still a massive fan of Ricky Gervais, and I look forward to his new series Life's Too Short. However, I wish he'd just use Twitter to post pictures of Karl Pilkington eating things with the odd insult about his head thrown in for good measure. Whether it's right or wrong to use 'mong' so casually, it certainly hasn't been much fun. It should be dropped by everyone now.