Goodness Gracious Me (Goodness Gracious Me)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	Goodness Gracious Me
Date:	10/08/08 (19 review reads)
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I will start by telling you a joke about Cerebral Palsy. A young girl with cerebral palsy goes to the ice cream van and asks for a cone. What flavour ? says the ice cream man. It does not matter she replies I will drop it anyway. A joke that is not funny you might say but if I tell you that joke was told by one of Britains paralympic athletes who herself suffers from cerebral palsy and whose actually telling of the joke is a triumph of the human spirit would you think differently? And of course what has that got to do with Goodness Gracious Me?

The question is actually is it acceptable and funny for a member of an ethnic or religious minority to make fun of the differences in culture but not acceptable for, say, Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson to do the same. Is a joke about Jewish family life only funny if it is told by Jackie Mason or similar comedian. If you believe a joke is funny when told by one person but not funny when told by someone from a different ethnic or religious background who is the racist? There is no doubt that GGM is a very well written and well acted comedy sketch programme. There is also no doubt that it does hold a mirror to our society and show how our conceptions are seen by those minorities. In this respect it surely does great good.
Its subject matter is therefore controversial. Racism for the majority of people in this might be perceived only as the way in which the white majority in Britain relate to black or Asian minorities. By showing, for example, the racism which exists between those of Indian and Pakistani origin they both widen the conventional view of racism and isolate its absurdity. They also confront some of the aspects of their own culture such as arranged marriages and British cultural integration by portraying the absurdity of trying to both maintain certain aspects of cultural identity whilst trying to deny it in other areas. In this respect the Kapoor family who strive to become the Coopers is atelling example.

There have been a few series now and I did feel the last series was treading over familiar territory. It may just be that a new format for the programme is required or perhaps they should just widen the humour a little by being just funny and continually trying to educate us all at the same time. The main cast have now all established themselves as individual performers and deservedly so. Like all self respecting comedy shows it has spurned lots of catch phrases like 'Eat My Chuddies' and characters like Smeeta Smitten have a familiarity. The scheduling of the programme on BBC2 however does not do credit to the BBC or to the show. Such an important, and more importantly, such a funny programme deserved peak time scheduling.
Goodness Gracious Me is a very funny comedy sketch show but it is also much more than that. It is relevant social comment. But in a truly multi-racial democratic society should we not also allow comedians wider scope to exploit multiculturalism from the other side. I am certainly not suggesting deeply offensive or inciteful jokes to be told but have we not gone too far. Have we allowed political correctness to go too far?

As for the very brave young lady who told the joke about her condition, it was not a very funny joke and at the end of her telling it I smiled but fought back tears as she finished it. Would I like her to be offended by an able bodied person telling a similar joke? Certainly not, but also if jokes are not told about her condition would that not isolate her and the disabled more from society. I remain confused.

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