What was Enda Kenny's racist joke?

shelsfan

...about Prime Minister of Congo Lumumba who was assassinated in 1961?

BerigWielbark

A Moroccan barman 'with shiny teeth' had been asked why a cocktail was called a 'Lumumba' and replied it was named after 'some ****** who died dans la guerre'. according to The Guardian.

Something along those lines. And people ask why I would rather drink rat poison than vote FG...

jaggeh

umbongo umbongo they killed him in the congo

Blisterman

I don't get it.

netwhizkid

^^^Ditto

robz150

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,792360,00.html

Still don't get the joke

karlh

i dont get it either but jageh's one is class

John R

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,792360,00.html

Kenny initially asked reporters at the function not to report his remarks and, to the astonishment of some commentators, a number of newspapers agreed.

Doesn't surprise me at all. The media in this country are as corrupt as the politicians.

I always thought Kenny was a pig ignorant little troll, I can now add stupid and un-funny to the list.

Mossy Monk

the first i have heard of this controversy

Enda Kenny is a ****ing moron

**** joke to boot

Amazotheamazing

Storm in a tea-cup, it isn't a particulary racist joke, it's about one black guy calling another guy a "******". I can see why it would be found offensive, but I don't think it makes Kenny a racist. Calling someone kebabs is alot more racist in my opinion.

limerick_man

Yeah, I dont like Sinn Fein or Fine Gael... them be the two that i dont want in power!
I like the PD's and I like Bertie Ahern, i think having the 'greatest leader in europe' is good for Ireland on all political fronts.

ratboy

'greatest leader in europe', do you happen to be rich?

BerigWielbark

Kudos Jaggeh...

I didn't see the joke as being offensive as such either...more ill-timed and frankly crap but not offensive.

Anne Winterton's "joke" was far more inflammatory.

segadreamcast

ratboy wrote:

'greatest leader in europe', do you happen to be rich?

No, he's like 16 though :P...

Hagar

That wasn't a racist joke.
Something has to be funny to be a joke.

netwhizkid

ratboy wrote:

'greatest leader in europe', do you happen to be rich?

I reckon he must be, Only people who have something to gain would vote for those two. If Bertie Ahern is the greatest leader in Europe i was assassinated in the Congo.

J.R.HARTLEY

ratboy wrote:

'greatest leader in europe', do you happen to be rich?

maybe he was being sarcastic, hence the quote marks around the phrase

Shabadu

Ok- this has me a tad baffled. Kenny didn't call Lumumba the N word, he was referring to a barman who had called him such. Does this mean if I say "I heard someone call someone an offensive word once" mean that I had called the person the offensive word? No. That being said, I don't think he was being appropriate nor should use that word in any context.

AARRRGH

Yeah, this hardly makes him a racist.

If we're all honest, we've all laughed once or twice at highly politically incorrect jokes. That doesn't make us all racists though...

Still, he's a moron for saying it. His job is to NOT say things like that...

Jim10000

oh shiiiiiite!!!!

i just wrote a STINKER of an e-mail expressing my disgust to the Fine Gael party h.q. and now I see that Guardian article is from 3 years ago????

what gives? why has this been brought up now?

is he still even leader of the party?

I'm just hoping that coincidentally he's gone and put his foot in it again recently and they'll think that's what I was on about.

DamoKen

Jim10000 wrote:

I'm just hoping that coincidentally he's gone and put his foot in it again recently and they'll think that's what I was on about.

thats hilarious, though chances are yeah they'll just think "oh fook, how did he find out about <insert latest gaff here>

segadreamcast

I know this isn't what you wanna hear Jim10000, but that's bloody hysterical :P.

Incidentally, jaggeh's comment is far funnier than the original 'joke' ...

FX Meister

Don't forget he also said he wasn't going after any 'black' votes as "they all look the same" and it would be hard to tell them apart at the polling stations. I have personally witnessed him call a chineese waitress a slope and his new poster boy Pascal Donohoe laugh along.

Hagar

FX Meister wrote:

I have personally witnessed him call a chineese waitress a slope.

This is getting worse.
Doesn't the fool know that "slope" is the correct derogatory term for a Korean? Pft...
If you're going to insult people at least have the decency to do it properly.

snickerpuss

"In London, a spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said it was 'inconceivable' that a prominent politician in Britain would use such language and keep his or her job."

Whats up with the British politician thing?

Shabadu

FX Meister wrote:

Don't forget he also said he wasn't going after any 'black' votes as "they all look the same" and it would be hard to tell them apart at the polling stations. I have personally witnessed him call a chineese waitress a slope and his new poster boy Pascal Donohoe laugh along.

When did he say that?

morlan

snickerpuss wrote:

"In London, a spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said it was 'inconceivable' that a prominent politician in Britain would use such language and keep his or her job."

Whats up with the British politician thing?

I've seen a few reports in British newpapers casualy referring to Ireland as Britain.

FX Meister

Hagar wrote:

This is getting worse.
Doesn't the fool know that "slope" is the correct derogatory term for a Korean? Pft...
If you're going to insult people at least have the decency to do it properly.

I'm sure they just "all look the same" to him.

FX Meister

Shabadu wrote:

When did he say that?

Which one? The comment about them all looking the same was in the paper some time last year. As for the slope comment, it was in the run up to the local elections in 2004 in a pub off the Navan road.

nobodythere

John R wrote:

Doesn't surprise me at all. The media in this country are as corrupt as the politicians.

I always thought Kenny was a pig ignorant little troll, I can now add stupid and un-funny to the list.

Actually we have the 4th free-est media in the world... according to some survey somewhere

SprostonGreen

I just hope the present shower of bastards are thrown out in the next election, they wont though. FG/Lab has to be a better alternative.

hawkmoon269

Sproston Green - great song!

hawkmoon269

I think Inda is a bit of an idiot but I don't think this joke was particularly offensive. It was certainly a lot less offensive than a 'joke' at the expense of the homeless I heard some prat in a bow tie tell at a bankers do a few years ago.

Shabadu

FX Meister wrote:

Which one? The comment about them all looking the same was in the paper some time last year. As for the slope comment, it was in the run up to the local elections in 2004 in a pub off the Navan road.

Jesus. You'd think this would automatically prevent him having any chance at leadership. Do you mind if I ask are these attributed quotes? "Sometime in the papers" does not strike me as a reliable source. I have large doubts that something so blatantly racist would go under the radar to this extent. IMO he would have had to resign, or sued the paper for libel to save face if this actually had credible witnessess.

Did you actually hear him offend the waitress or is this something you heard from someone?

DamoKen

snickerpuss wrote:

"In London, a spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said it was 'inconceivable' that a prominent politician in Britain would use such language and keep his or her job."

Whats up with the British politician thing?

think they just meant that if a prominent British politician was to say that, there wouldn't be a chance of them retaining their position, which is generally speaking true enough, a whiff of scandal in British politics and you're generally out on your ear, it wasn't inferring that we're part of Britain as I read it

FX Meister

Shabadu I heard him make the comment about the waitress, he didn't say it to her face obviously. There was a group of us there and I was with the group. He made the comment to a number of people beside him including some of the party office staff. As for his comments about them looking the same, he made it at some young FG debate or something. It was in either UCD or Trinity.
As for him being the leader of the country. I don't think the current government is that good but Kenny as a leader would be a disaster. He has never heald any position of power, ever. Even when his party was in power he didn't hold any key position. I think his ego is far too big as well.

besty

Shabadu wrote:

Ok- this has me a tad baffled. Kenny didn't call Lumumba the N word, he was referring to a barman who had called him such. Does this mean if I say "I heard someone call someone an offensive word once" mean that I had called the person the offensive word? No. That being said, I don't think he was being appropriate nor should use that word in any context.

That's an important distinction to make. I personally dont think he is that bad.

strassenwolf

FX Meister wrote:

Shabadu I heard him make the comment about the waitress, he didn't say it to her face obviously. There was a group of us there and I was with the group. He made the comment to a number of people beside him including some of the party office staff. As for his comments about them looking the same, he made it at some young FG debate or something. It was in either UCD or Trinity.

If you are going to be saying defamatory things about someone, you really should be able to back them up. I'd be surprised if he said such things, but I can't imagine that it would have been missed by the media if he had said them.

As for him being the leader of the country. I don't think the current government is that good but Kenny as a leader would be a disaster. He has never heald any position of power, ever. Even when his party was in power he didn't hold any key position. I think his ego is far too big as well.

Well, you're wrong on that, so it's hard for me to take your earlier comments with any seriousness. We don't know what kind of a leader of the country he would/will make, but we do know that he has had several junior minister positions and was a cabinet minister from 1994 to 1997. No position of power?

Hagar

Shabadu wrote:

Kenny didn't call Lumumba the N word, he was referring to a barman who had called him such.

besty wrote:

That's an important distinction to make.

So it's ok now for posters to tell racist niqqer jokes in the Humour Forum as long as the preceed it with "I heard a barman say this..." ?

Somehow I don't think that's going to work.:rolleyes:

asahi

So Enda Kenny made a remark which was considered offensive.

He apologised, and the incident was forgotten about, and we all moved on.

Vincent Browne made a remark which was considered offensive.

He apologised, and the incident was forgotten about, and we all moved on.

Well, not all of us, clearly.

gonedrinking

thats what my thoughts were too, Kenny is a hypocritical little cnut

davetherave

Some have moved on, others have won an award for bump of the millennium. :rolleyes: :pac:

gonedrinking

davetherave wrote: »

Some have moved on, others have won an award for bump of the millennium. :rolleyes: :pac:

but its now relevant because of kennys supposed high moral ground stance

mconigol

gonedrinking wrote: »

thats what my thoughts were too, Kenny is a hypocritical little cnut

lol...the irony!

moaning about kenny being racist but yet you seem to think it's acceptable to call him a **** (spelling it wrong doesn't make it any different)

FF supporters must be really desperate to be digging up a thread from 2005 :rolleyes:

Jim Stark

Zombie thread!!

Joke wasn't racist, but unfunny.

gonedrinking

Jim Stark wrote: »

Zombie thread!!

Joke wasn't racist, but unfunny.

So its ok to use the N word now to describe black people, right so.

gonedrinking

mconigol wrote: »

lol...the irony!

moaning about kenny being racist but yet you seem to think it's acceptable to call him a **** (spelling it wrong doesn't make it any different)

FF supporters must be really desperate to be digging up a thread from 2005 :rolleyes:

I'll be voting fg in this election due to the lack of credible alternatives, but even I can see that Kenny is no better than anyone in FF. He is a corrupt, backward, gombeen, this little incident and his handling of the FG TD who threatened the garda just proves it.

Badgermonkey

Given time, Kenny will discredit himself.

No need to go digging for slurs.

minidazzler

gonedrinking wrote: »

So its ok to use the N word now to describe black people, right so.

Technically Jenny didn't describe anyone as a jigger, he told an annecdotal story which involved someone else using the term as a description. And it was a long long time ago. Get over it.

Spelling mistakes due to hangover and mobile

mconigol

minidazzler wrote: »

Technically Jenny didn't describe anyone as a jigger, he told an annecdotal story which involved someone else using the term as a description. And it was a long long time ago. Get over it.

I'd agree with that post...I'm just puzzled as to how that anecdote would ever come up in normal conversation

DOC09UNAM

mconigol wrote: »

lol...the irony!

moaning about kenny being racist but yet you seem to think it's acceptable to call him a **** (spelling it wrong doesn't make it any different)

FF supporters must be really desperate to be digging up a thread from 2005 :rolleyes:

You're joking right? Being racist and calling someone a cúnt are miles apart.