Should Keith Barry be banned from tv?

SuperInfinity

I think he should. His actions last night were an absolute disgrace.

1) Practically sexually molesting the guests, including physical touching and instructing, who he says he never met before and having all kinds of sexual innuendo going on.

2) Making a parody of religion. Now I'm not a religious person myself, but imagine if they did that to the islam religion? There'd be so many complaints it'd be ridiculous.

3) He's a fraud, a scam artist, a charlatan, and he practically admitted as much himself.

Now I know there'll be people who go: "but shur what's the matter lol? If you don't believe it's real you don't have to, otherwise don't watch".

Because it's a LIE. It's deceit. It's a scam. It's not at all like the genuine art of magic, where you are tricked by where you were looking or something like that. This guy probably has electronic boards for the writing the name and it's written wirelessly, if he isn't blatantly lying straight out about such things as meeting them before, he has the person's friends telling them things. Didn't he practically even tell Tubridy to pick someone from the back? An illusion is different from lies. An illusion is different from electronics or getting other people to tell him vital info. A normal magician will tell you that there's a trick involved, which is not a lie. This guy tries his best to convince you he's reading your face or your eyes etc.

I hate the man. He's the biggest joke I've ever seen. And I judge you poorly if you don't hate him. You KNOW that he can't really look into someone's eyes and get something like that from them - which he accepted himself. So if you know that, and yet you tolerate this tired old repetitive mummer's farce, then I think you must be just stupid.

Joe10000

I'm not a fan of his but I do get a buzz out of some of the tricks, it's great entertainment.

I think most people over the age of 10 know that what magicians do is just not possible and part of the wonderment is thinking how on earth was that done.

I didn't see tv last night so I can't comment on the particulars.

henryporter

Sounds like you just want anyone who doesn't share your world view to be banned from the planet

dlofnep

He should be on TV daily, just to annoy you.

chalkitdown1

I think you need to get out of the house for a while and take in some fresh air.

fuerte1976

Having a bad day are we ?? No I don't think he should be banned so I'm poorer for your displeasure of me :rolleyes:

crazygeryy

Keith who?

red dave

So you're annoyed because the guys "magic" isn't real? He "lies" about been able to read peoples minds, whereas other "magicians" are honest people who perform "honest magic"?

Hate to break it to you here on a public forum....but...Santa isn't real.

I know how you feel now. Parents...such scumbags lying to us for so long about Santa.

Good news for you though. The Easter bunny is real

Min

I read what was posted in the LLS thread as I missed it, was watching the Masters golf, however it does appear the OP has a point as no one who watched it and who were posting in the LLS thread seemed to like what Keith Barry was doing.

So I think SuperInfinity has made some valid points even if some are not receptive to them.

Medicine333

RTE should be criticised for allowing this man mock Catholicism like he did last night, particularly on Good Friday. Like you say, if it had been Islam he was ridiculing, we would be seeing a large-scale investigation now.

He should not have treated the two audience members like that, and as you say, using sexual innuendo and being completely inappropriate with them.

RTE seem to continue their tirade against the largest religion denomination in Ireland.

dinorebel

Try watching him after your period has finished.

Mod Note: User cared for personal abuse. Comment on the posts, not the poster.

Stormchas3r

RTE should be ashamed of themselves allowing this kind of performance on the Late Late Show.

The foul language, sexual innuendo and mocking of Christianity by the puerile Keith Barry on, of all days, Good Friday is completely unacceptable.

How low can standards go?

Lapin

I'm not sure where people are going with this "imagine if he offended the Muslims" angle.
I'm an atheist myself but surely, offending Christianity (or any other creed) is as much in poor taste as pissing off followers of Allah.
Just because those who believe in Mohommad might threaten to blow us all to bits when they get annoyed doesn't make their grievance any more valid than those who simply preach forgiveness.

As for Keith Barry. I'm not in favour of banning people just because they piss me or other people off.
As I posted on the LLS thread last night after seeing his 'act', if I had tickets for his show, I'd hand them back.

What I saw last night was sleazy (in a cheap and nasty kind of way) and not funny or entertaining in any way.

I'd be more in favour of banning the Late Late Show given what it has become in recent years.
Few television shows worldwide can match such a fall from grace towards an inevitable slow, agonising and humiliating death.

Time to put it out of its weekly line up of misery.

red dave

Medicine333 wrote: »

RTE seem to continue their tirade against the largest cult in Ireland.

Ftfy

Min

I watched it on the RTE player.

He had two women from the audience, he has his make up confessional, he got the women to put their hands through some holes in the panel that separated them in his mock up confesional, he said to one of them her hands were around the height - close enough to crotch height.
He referred to both women as 'my child', mentioned 'phallus' as he pretended to be a priest, had one woman rub her hands on his legs as he said her hands were too sweaty and said she had 'wonderful tits'.
He said to one of the women her sex toy in the third drawer needed the batteries changed.

What could have been good, was taken to gutter level, presuming these women do not know the man it was entirely inappropriate and if any of us were to take two random women and do a similar sort of 'entertainment' act, we would be up for sexual harrassment and rightly so.

I read that while he is still trending on twitter in Ireland, that Keith Barry was also trending worldwide for a time after his LLS appearance, with both praise and condemnation for his act.

I see the promoter for his 7 deadly sins act posted a picture of Keith Barry drinking beer before he went on.

secretambition

The whole act was basically him predicting stuff. Here's one way of doing it - meeting them beforehand. Also, he couldn't have used the tone that he did with them without being confident they were up for it.

dlofnep

I saw him live years ago, and I have to say - the show was pretty good. And what's all this lark about 'mockery of the Catholic Church'? Since when did the church become out of bounds? People looking at any reason to be upset.

The only things I thought were inappropiate for a conservative show like the LLS - was the sexual innuendos. The confession thing I wasn't bothered about.

patsman07

Have to agree with the above. And as someone else stated already if anyone else done what he done they would be liable to be brought up on sexual harrassment charges. The women chosen from the audience should have given him a slap and walked off.
I was at Derren Brown in the Bord Gais theatre last week and he was far more impressive while being a gentleman throughout. Only 14 year old boys would have found Barry's smut entertaining.

drquirky

Its amazing how Catholaholics have no sense of humor- get over yourselves...

cruizer101

For those who want to see starts at 1hr 33min on rte player.

Little bit cringy for some parts alright, fair enough if people volunteer but did feel bit bad for girl who was just randomly picked.

In relation to the gorgeous tits comment in fairness it was actually related to the story wasn't just out of the blue.

Wasn't too impressed with the performance but didn't see anything too bad about it.

Min

dlofnep wrote: »

I saw him live years ago, and I have to say - the show was pretty good. And what's all this lark about 'mockery of the Catholic Church'? Since when did the church become out of bounds? People looking at any reason to be upset.

The only things I thought were inappropiate for a conservative show like the LLS - was the sexual innuendos. The confession thing I wasn't bothered about.

One would think RTE had enough of the Catholic church given the huge error they made with Fr Reynolds and the false accusations they made against him without having someone come on, pretend to be in a confessional and a priest and to then to make sexual references and innuendo as well as having the supposed penitent or child as he called them being subject to sexual harrassment.

This is what Keith Barry said on twitter: On way home from late late. Great fun.interesting thoughts a round.not my fault the girl thought of her boobs or Michelle! #8deadlysins

he retweeted the following

degraded women, was gratuitously anti-Catholic, offended Christians and made a joke out of sex abuse #RTEbias for Good Friday Retweeted by Keith Barry

dlofnep

Min wrote: »

One would think RTE had enough of the Catholic church given the huge error they made with Fr Reynolds and the false accusations they made against him without having someone come on, pretend to be in a confessional and a priest and to then to make sexual references and innuendo as well as having the supposed penitent or child as he called them being subject to sexual harrassment.

This is what Keith Barry said on twitter: On way home from late late. Great fun.interesting thoughts a round.not my fault the girl thought of her boobs or Michelle! #8deadlysins

he retweeted the following

degraded women, was gratuitously anti-Catholic, offended Christians and made a joke out of sex abuse #RTEbias for Good Friday Retweeted by Keith Barry

The Catholic Church is not out of bounds for comedy. This is a free world we live in, with freedom of speech. Stop being over-sensitive.

Cardinal Richelieu

All publicity is good publicity, Barry loves threads like this. Is OP his agent? I would say most here have seen worse in the Magic/Hypnotist Acts during RAG week over the years.

JonathanAnon

SuperInfinity wrote: »

3) He's a fraud, a scam artist, a charlatan, and he practically admitted as much himself.

Because it's a LIE. It's deceit. It's a scam.

I hate the man. He's the biggest joke I've ever seen. And I judge you poorly if you don't hate him.

Okay, I feel I have to respond to this... I used to work with Keith about ten years ago, and always found him to be a decent guy. He was just a normal guy in a normal job, with the rest of us... quite funny actually. He worked on the magic in the background the whole time, and he rose to fame very quickly, but he's really just a normal guy that put in a LOT of work learning his trade...

He has always maintained that what he does IS the work of suggestion, misdirection, NLP etc etc and has never claimed to have magic powers. He has in fact offered up 10k for any psychic (who are the real charlatans, pumping money from vulnerable people) who can pass a test to prove that they have the powers that they claim, and none have accepted the offer.

With regard to last night's act, I agree with you. I thought the thing was awful thrashy, was very lowest common denominator (particularly the "while you're down there luv" jokes), and was very unfair to the two girls who were chosen as (very unwilling and uncomfortable) volunteers.. But I think your attack is WAY too personal, judge the sin not the sinner.. (unintentional pun, Joe Duffy would be proud of that one )

Min

dlofnep wrote: »

The Catholic Church is not out of bounds for comedy. This is a free world we live in, with freedom of speech. Stop being over-sensitive.

Pretty poor comedy if that was suppose to be funny.

dlofnep

Min wrote: »

Pretty poor comedy if that was suppose to be funny.

I never said it was funny - that's subjective. I didn't exactly find his piece entertaining. But that's not the point here. The point is you feel that the Catholic Church is out of bounds for comedy.

Medicine333

dlofnep wrote: »

I never said it was funny - that's subjective. I didn't exactly find his piece entertaining. But that's not the point here. The point is you feel that the Catholic Church is out of bounds for comedy.

Last night was not comedy. It went well beyond that. It was insulting, degrading and blasphemic to all Catholic and Christians alike, particularly as it was Good Friday.

dlofnep

Medicine333 wrote: »

Last night was not comedy. It went well beyond that. It was insulting, degrading and blasphemic to all Catholic and Christians alike, particularly as it was Good Friday.

He's been running that segment long before last night. It's a part of his touring show. It was 'comedy'. It's irrelevant if you found it funny or not - I didn't find it funny either, but it's intent was from a comedic standpoint.

Also - You still haven't demonstrated on why religion is out of bounds for satire.

red dave

dlofnep wrote: »

Medicine333 wrote: »

Last night was not comedy. It went well beyond that. It was insulting, degrading and blasphemic to all Catholic and Christians alike, particularly as it was Good Friday.

He's been running that segment long before last night. It's a part of his touring show. It was 'comedy'. It's irrelevant if you found it funny or not - I didn't find it funny either, but it's intent was from a comedic standpoint.

Also - You still haven't demonstrated on why religion is out of bounds for satire.

The user did....they mentioned the word "blasphemy".

Good to see the religious nut jobs are plentiful in numbers. I guess the priests will have some material to rant about to their ever faithfull sheep in tomorrow at mass. Anything to deflect attention away from the bible fiction.

poiuytsam

Hi all , saw the show last night , and I have to agree it was a very poor performance from Keith Barry. They say there is no such thing as bad publicity ! , well this may be the exception to the rule !

I was quite amazed at his performace , it was tactless , slezy , unprofessional and quite simple unintersting !

He is certanily capable of a lot more

kingtubby

I'm not sure why people are complaining about him being a fraud.
The whole art of a stage magician is about deception and illusion.

Min

dlofnep wrote: »

I never said it was funny - that's subjective. I didn't exactly find his piece entertaining. But that's not the point here. The point is you feel that the Catholic Church is out of bounds for comedy.

That is not true, I found Father Ted funny.

dlofnep

Min wrote: »

That is not true, I found Father Ted funny.

And you didn't find Father Ted blasphemed the church?

horgan_p

I do quite a bit of mentalism/ hypnosis and I have to say , making fun of a volunteer or leaving them feeling embarrassed isn't clever.
Its cheap , sleazy and unnecessary.

I do think Keith is very good at what he does and fair play for getting a gig on the lls on the one friday night when nearly everyones at home.

Its a pity he feels he has to play to the cheap seats.
To see it done properly and with respect google "Derren Brown"

Min

dlofnep wrote: »

And you didn't find Father Ted blasphemed the church?

For me it is not about blasphemy and clearly Father Ted was done in a light hearted manner, it didn't use sex.

We all know the Catholic church had the scandal of sexual abuse, Keith Barry used this through innuendo, the point is: this is not funny, it is a very grave matter that Catholics do not find funny or feel should be used as comedy, as the events that happened are far from funny for the people who suffered abuse.

henryporter

Just watched it there on RTE Player - if that's offensive to Catholics but priests molesting children isn't then I think its Catholicism that should be banned as the practitioners perspectives are truly warped.

starlit

Its only a bit of banter, magic isn't real! Its just a bit of fun so what. There has been worse things on TV than his magic tricks like! Just because it was good friday so what its not the end of the world! Its ok to have a laugh if its light-hearted! Its not like he insulted the girls?!

To be honest there has been a lot more serious innuendoes in Fr Ted than Keith's magic tricks like! Does the Milk man not ring a bell!?

You can have a laugh at and with Fr Ted like its funny.

I don't see what the big deal is and why it was offensive there as has been a lot more offensive things on Tv than that like. You wouldn't be complaining if it was something a lot more sinister!

paky

SuperInfinity wrote: »

I think he should. His actions last night were an absolute disgrace.

1) Practically sexually molesting the guests, including physical touching and instructing, who he says he never met before and having all kinds of sexual innuendo going on.

2) Making a parody of religion. Now I'm not a religious person myself, but imagine if they did that to the islam religion? There'd be so many complaints it'd be ridiculous.

3) He's a fraud, a scam artist, a charlatan, and he practically admitted as much himself.

Now I know there'll be people who go: "but shur what's the matter lol? If you don't believe it's real you don't have to, otherwise don't watch".

Because it's a LIE. It's deceit. It's a scam. It's not at all like the genuine art of magic, where you are tricked by where you were looking or something like that. This guy probably has electronic boards for the writing the name and it's written wirelessly, if he isn't blatantly lying straight out about such things as meeting them before, he has the person's friends telling them things. Didn't he practically even tell Tubridy to pick someone from the back? An illusion is different from lies. An illusion is different from electronics or getting other people to tell him vital info. A normal magician will tell you that there's a trick involved, which is not a lie. This guy tries his best to convince you he's reading your face or your eyes etc.

I hate the man. He's the biggest joke I've ever seen. And I judge you poorly if you don't hate him. You KNOW that he can't really look into someone's eyes and get something like that from them - which he accepted himself. So if you know that, and yet you tolerate this tired old repetitive mummer's farce, then I think you must be just stupid.

i said it before and i'll say it again. keith barry is the worst thing that ever made it onto irish television. he shouldn't be just banned from television, he should be stripped naked and throne into a dark dungeon and left there for the rest of his life

Min

henryporter wrote: »

Just watched it there on RTE Player - if that's offensive to Catholics but priests molesting children isn't then I think its Catholicism that should be banned as the practitioners perspectives are truly warped.

That is why it is offensive, we all know about the sexual abuse in the Catholic church which was a great offense committed against innocent people and to a much lesser extent against Catholics in general, as ordinary Catholics including the majority of clergy had nothing to do with it. We don't need to be told what we should find offensive, it was offensive as the innuendo was Keith Barry pretending to be a priest, get the person in the 'confessional' to touch them while making sexual references as he called them 'my child'.
Would victims of abuse find that acceptable, I think not, I don't think they need to be reminded on what should be a light hearted program.

plasmaguy

I really think the segment is symptomatic of how standards have slipped in RTE generally, and how there seems to be no editorial cop-on at the station.

Frontline Presidential debate, PrimeTime Investigates and now this segment on the LLS where a clearly inebriated Barry acts the maggot.

There was nothing funny or entertaining about this.

Someone in the LLS production team decided what a great laugh it would be to mock christianity on good friday or something to that effect.

Instead it just came across as sleazy mostly in a sexually denigrating way, reducing women to tits, bums and so on.

Medicine333

henryporter wrote: »

Just watched it there on RTE Player - if that's offensive to Catholics but priests molesting children isn't then I think its Catholicism that should be banned as the practitioners perspectives are truly warped.

This ranks as one of the most idiotic, flippant comments I have seen on boards. Catholics care very much about the abuses that occurred in the Church, and suggesting otherwise is loose anger and idiocy on your part.

Why are you allowing your hatred of Catholicism cloud your objectivity?

Sar_Bear

Ah lads... Seriously, it's a bit of craic. Try not to take things so seriously and get a sense of humour and don't pick at everything.

plasmaguy

Sar_Bear wrote: »

Ah lads... Seriously, it's a bit of craic. Try not to take things so seriously and get a sense of humour and don't pick at everything.

Hmm so if a boss came into your office in the morning and said to the girl at reception, "nice tits" everyone should just have a laugh and not take it too seriously?

Barry has a responsibility to anyone he brings on stage to treat them with respect and certainly not behave the way he did last night, which was frankly crude, sleazy and disgusting.

Like I said, because you bring someone on stage, and because you alledgedly hynotise them, it doesn't give you carte blanch to act in a way to them they would normally find offensive.

Barry might have intended to come across funny but failed miserably.

If he uses audience plants, then he shouldn't be on TV because it's all fakery.

If he doesn't use plants, he still shouldn't be on TV, because frankly he is awful.

In the absence of proper guests, the LLS have really resorted to scraping the barrel.

Sar_Bear

plasmaguy wrote: »

Hmm so if a boss came into your office in the morning and said to the girl at reception, "nice tits" everyone should just have a laugh and not take it too seriously?

Barry has a responsibility to anyone he brings on stage to treat them with respect and certainly not behave the way he did last night, which was frankly crude, sleazy and disgusting.

Like I said, because you bring someone on stage, and because you alledgedly hynotise them, it doesn't give you carte blanch to act in a way to them they would normally find offensive.

Barry might have intended to come across funny but failed miserably.

If he uses plants, then he shouldn't be on TV because it's all fakery.

If he doesn't use plants, he still shouldn't be on TV, because frankly he is awful.

That's a terrible example. People know what they are letting themselves in for when they go on stage with him, they're not being forced to go up there.

It's called entertainment.

Tommy Tiernan & others do and say alot worse.

Halloran springs

Medicine333 wrote: »

RTE should be criticised for allowing this man mock Catholicism like he did last night, particularly on Good Friday. Like you say, if it had been Islam he was ridiculing, we would be seeing a large-scale investigation now.

He should not have treated the two audience members like that, and as you say, using sexual innuendo and being completely inappropriate with them.

RTE seem to continue their tirade against the largest religion denomination in Ireland.

Unacceptable
RTE should be ashamed of themselves allowing this kind of performance on the Late Late Show.

The foul language, sexual innuendo and mocking of Christianity by the puerile Keith Barry on, of all days, Good Friday is completely unacceptable.

How low can standards go?

I think Father Ted should be banned also, after all that show is the biggesst p1ss take of catholicism and christianity ever to grace our airwaves. Disgraceful carry on.

And yes I'm being sarcastic, anyone who still believes the christianity hocus pocus in today's society deserves to have the p1ss taken out of them. Father Ted has enhanced a lot more peoples lives through the art of comedy, in comparison to the pain and destruction catholicism has caused this country over the last 100 years.

plasmaguy

Halloran, I don't have too much issue with a p*sstake of christianity generally, although I thought the day that was in it, wasn't ideal.

It seemed more of a p*sstake of sexual abuse in the church than anything else.

It's not really a topic you'd make a joke of to be honest, as it has caused so many people so much hurt.

If Barry went to the States and done a p*sstake of 9/11, would they find that funny?

I think Barry tries to go close to the edge but usually gets it wrong or miscalculates what is acceptable.

Honestly, was there any need for a confessional box, the crude sexual remarks, calling the person child, and so on.

If it was funny fair enough. But it wasn't, it was just embarrassing, pathetic, crude, misogynous and so on.

Worst of all the women had no choice even though the last one was clearly uncomfortable.

But like I said, it's symptomatic of RTE and how sh*t it's gone recently, and they have to bring on someone like Barry every so often.

Message to RTE. If you can't get quality quests not from the RTE canteen, then please can this show.

Halloran springs

plasmaguy wrote: »

Halloran, I don't have too much issue with a p*sstake of christianity generally, although I thought the day that was in it, wasn't ideal.

It seemed more of a p*sstake of sexual abuse in the church than anything else.

It's not really a topic you'd make a joke of to be honest, as it has caused so many people so much hurt.

It was this kind of "hush hush let's not talk about it" attitude that actually led to the long-term sustained rape of children by the catholic church. So I'd have to disagree and say that everything is fair game for comedy, whether the particular sketch is funny or not is irrelevant.

South Park dealt with this perfectly, for years the voice actor who played "Chef" was happy to participate in taking the p1ss out of christians, muslims, hindus, hare krishnas, jews, etc. But then after around 8 seasons of this they start insulting scientologists - and he left. Serious hypocrisy. Either everything is fair game for comedy or nothing is.

Min

Halloran springs wrote: »

It was this kind of "hush hush let's not talk about it" attitude that actually led to the long-term sustained rape of children by the catholic church. So I'd have to disagree and say that everything is fair game for comedy, whether the particular sketch is funny or not is irrelevant.

South Park dealt with this perfectly, for years the voice actor who played "Chef" was happy to participate in taking the p1ss out of christians, muslims, hindus, hare krishnas, jews, etc. But then after around 8 seasons of this they start insulting scientologists - and he left. Serious hypocrisy. Either everything is fair game for comedy or nothing is.

No one is saying they want a hush hush approach to sexual abuse.

Is it fair to victims of sexual abuse to make little of what they went through?
Is it fair to Catholics to make out every priest is a sexual predator - it is what RTE did when they refused to take a paternity test to back up their story after the priest had begged them to as he had told them he was completely innocent.

There are limits to what is fair game, making little of sexual abuse by having an act where a person is pretending to be a priest, calling his subjects a child and then sexually harrassing them shows there is a limit, and Keith Barry crossed it last night.

henryporter

Medicine333 wrote: »

This ranks as one of the most idiotic, flippant comments I have seen on boards. Catholics care very much about the abuses that occurred in the Church, and suggesting otherwise is loose anger and idiocy on your part.

Why are you allowing your hatred of Catholicism cloud your objectivity?

Why are you letting your Catholicism cloud your objectivity - I didn't see or hear anything offensive in Keith Barry's act but then again perhaps thats because I'm open minded

WolfgangWeisen

I've more of a problem with them putting the angelus on TV than Keith Barry.

Min

henryporter wrote: »

Why are you letting your Catholicism cloud your objectivity - I didn't see or hear anything offensive in Keith Barry's act but then again perhaps thats because I'm open minded

ok go around and say to random women, their batteries for their sex toys need replacing and make sure you say it in front of their parents and everyone who knows them.

I think then you might start to see how bad overall the act was.