Would you take offence if someone called you a Leprechaun for being Irish??

SharpshooterTom

Not really a big deal, but yesterday you may have heard Rory McIlroy's abrupt injury putting him a cast and possibly ruling him out of the open championship and uspga, Fox News decided to report (I use that term loosely) on it with one of the hosts being overheard saying "He's a leprechaun. I can't stand him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWD_dWPi0U

(I believe its the first host you see in the video who said it)

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/fox-news-anchor-slates-rory-mcilroy-live-on-air---he-s-a-leprechaun--i-can-t-stand-him-073856324.html

I noticed some of the press here, Belfast Telegraph, Independent, Journal.ie etc ran the story and getting a bit miffed over it. I think one of the fox news hosts ended up afterwards ended up having a conversation on twitter with paddypower.

Would you get offended if American, British person or whoever referred to you as a leprechaun? Is it an offensive slur and should someone have repercussion for saying it? Or is it just nothing really?

BattleCorp

Begorra ta be sure I would me boyo.

Now I'm off. Top o'the mornin ta ya.

The Backwards Man

If a Fox News anchor couldn't stand me, I'd take that as a compliment.

Menas

Shure isnt it better than been called a midget or dwarf so it is?
Or a drunken langer.

SpaceTime

In that context - yes!

It was a very deliberate and intentional somewhat xenophobic slur that sounds like schoolyard bullying.

She shouldn't be presenting the news if she can't refrain from making nasty remarks about people.

Richard Hillman

No. I'd just laugh at the awful putdown

Ush1

Is it supposed to be an insult? I don't even understand.

keano_afc

She's just after his Lucky Charms.

DoYouEvenLift

If I was Rory McIlroy I wouldn't give a sh!t what any reporter calls me, I'd be richer than them.

speedboatchase

Happened before and yes, I was offended. I was working in a retail store in England and when I asked a colleague a question, she was surprised to see me and said "Ooh, you popped up like a little leprechaun there!"

I pointed out that if I wasn't Irish she wouldn't have said that, and that it was a bit messed up to say that. I didn't kick up a huge fuss but it was irritating, especially since she couldn't understand how I might have been offended.

SpaceTime

I'd still rather be called a leprechaun than represent Fox "News"!

Bio Mech

Leprechauns don't have nationalities.

biko

The internet, now you can get offended 77% faster than before.

Actually I would think it rather cute...

But...

look at the fuss when google (an inanimate programme) misidentified a photo of a black person as a gorilla... or the fuss about using 'indian' in US football team names.. or the political correctness applied to some people who want to kill us....and I begin to wonder if we shouldn't be offended a lot more.

kneemos

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Not really a big deal, but yesterday you may have heard Rory McIlroy's abrupt injury putting him a cast and possibly ruling him out of the open championship and uspga, Fox News decided to report (I use that term loosely) on it with one of the hosts being overheard saying "He's a leprechaun. I can't stand him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWD_dWPi0U

(I believe its the first host you see in the video who said it)

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/fox-news-anchor-slates-rory-mcilroy-live-on-air---he-s-a-leprechaun--i-can-t-stand-him-073856324.html

I noticed some of the press here, Belfast Telegraph, Independent, Journal.ie etc ran the story and getting a bit miffed over it. I think one of the fox news hosts ended up afterwards ended up having a conversation on twitter with paddypower.

Would you get offended if American, British person or whoever referred to you as a leprechaun? Is it an offensive slur and should someone have repercussion for saying it? Or is it just nothing really?

What was the conversation with Paddypowder.

Boring username

I think Peter Griffin speaks for all of us when he says:

hadepsx

would they take offence if a leprechaun brought "the pain"

kneemos

Have we proof that he's not in fact a Leprechaun?

The Sun King

I find it very hard to get offended when others take the piss out of Irish people. My friends and I were saying worse things to each other when we were 13.

I assumed this stuff just rolls off of us.

Harry Palmr

Fox should be shot like a fox

NachoBusiness

It's just a term use to lightheartedly slag us..

Like calling New Zealanders sheep shaggers, or French people cheese eating surrender monkeys.

speedboatchase

The Sun King wrote: »

I find it very hard to get offended when others take the piss out of Irish people. My friends and I were saying worse things to each other when we were 13.

I assumed this stuff just rolls off of us.

There's a difference though, especially if you're comparing joking with friends, or watching a comedian on TV, with someone insulting you to your face. If someone insults you out of malice, rather than as a joke, and insults you on the basis of your nationality, it's more charged than just insulting someone for their behaviour.

SpaceTime

That didn't sound like a joke. She said it pretty nastily!

Also note how her colleague just tried to rapidly move on with a slight "wtf? Did she just say that" expression...

lickme

It's like calling American people fat when clearly there obese.

SpaceTime

lickme wrote: »

It's like calling American people fat when clearly there obese.

How very dare you! They're simply horizontally challenged!

Mr_Muffin

To be honest we are all Leprechauns behind it all. We all descended from the same Leprechaun clan so i don't see the problem.

OiL RiG

While living in the US as an Irish person, I never once took offence to the many references to leprechauns. Either people use it naively in a light-hearted way, or (in this case) they're stupid enough to think that it's actually an insult. Neither is worth getting offended about.

Also, this wouldn't even make the list for worst things said on Fox that day.

Boom_Bap

She was obviously cut off mid scentence. She really said
"He's a leprechaun. I can't stand hymn hummers or leprechauns. Rory is the exception. He is buff and totally rad."

SpaceTime

Seems being the school bully qualifies you for a job anchoring on that channel.

LDN_Irish

I'd never heard leprechaun being used as an actual term of abuse until watching a video of 3 Americans (I think they were Americans) jumping an Irish guy in a GAA jersey outside a pizza place and him frantically trying to hold on to his pizza while they sucker punched him. I thought it was over for him until they made him drop his pizza and he got the rage and started throwing out drunken haymakers until they all ran for their lives.

So yeah, the anchor just needs a drunken haymaker and we're all square.

kneemos

I think Fox have a very narrow band of what's acceptable in a human.

wp_rathead

Context is always important and In this context it was intended as an insult

It is such a sh!te attempt at an insult though it is kinda pathetic to take it seriously

The Fox News anchor deserves to be ridiculed for saying something so juvenile

Streetwalker

Disgusting tbh. Hope she loses her job over it.

dont bother

HAHA Brilliant!!
no-one deserves a ridicule more than that ugly little smug minger Rory Mcilroy. MInger.

hatrickpatrick

Personally I'd take it as a sexual advance rather than an insult.

jester77

The Americans still use plenty of slurs towards the Irish, leprechaun wouldn't be the worst. Paddywagon is one that I find offensive.

arybvtcw0eolkf

speedboatchase wrote: »

Happened before and yes, I was offended. I was working in a retail store in England and when I asked a colleague a question, she was surprised to see me and said "Ooh, you popped up like a little leprechaun there!"

I pointed out that if I wasn't Irish she wouldn't have said that, and that it was a bit messed up to say that. I didn't kick up a huge fuss but it was irritating, especially since she couldn't understand how I might have been offended.

You must have an awfully high opinion of yourself :pac:

Riskymove

jester77 wrote: »

The Americans still use plenty of slurs towards the Irish, leprechaun wouldn't be the worst. Paddywagon is one that I find offensive.

American culture certainly has a skewed, old world view of portraying Irish people as drunken peasants etc.

On TV in Star Trek there are a number of examples but my favourite story is that there was an episode of Deep Space Nine centered on Chief O'Brien involving some idea about mythological figures coming real. The idea was to have a Leprechaun until Colm Meany told them where to stick it and it ended up being Rumplestiltskin or some such.

Cold War Kid

SpaceTime wrote: »

That didn't sound like a joke. She said it pretty nastily!

Also note how her colleague just tried to rapidly move on with a slight "wtf? Did she just say that" expression...

Yeah entirely dependent on context/intent. Plenty of scenarios when it would just be funny or no biggie
but in this case the intention was to disparage.

Son Of A Vidic

So the good old dim witted bigots on Fox News are just being their usual selves. Personally it doesn't bother me, because I would give greater gravitas to the opinion of a slug, than anyone from Fox News.

Duckworth_Luas

Riskymove wrote: »

American culture certainly has a skewed, old world view of portraying Irish people as drunken peasants etc.

On TV in Star Trek there are a number of examples but my favourite story is that there was an episode of Deep Space Nine centered on Chief O'Brien involving some idea about mythological figures coming real. The idea was to have a Leprechaun until Colm Meany told them where to stick it and it ended up being Rumplestiltskin or some such.

Was Colm afraid of being typecast given his starring role in The Magical Land of the Leprechauns?

razorblunt

LDN_Irish wrote: »

I'd never heard leprechaun being used as an actual term of abuse until watching a video of 3 Americans (I think they were Americans) jumping an Irish guy in a GAA jersey outside a pizza place and him frantically trying to hold on to his pizza while they sucker punched him. I thought it was over for him until they made him drop his pizza and he got the rage and started throwing out drunken haymakers until they all ran for their lives.

So yeah, the anchor just needs a drunken haymaker and we're all square.

To be honest for wearing his GAA jersey abroad he deserves to lose his pizza.

Riskymove

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Was Colm afraid of being typecast given his starring role in The Magical Land of the Leprechauns?

lol, good one!

Paramite Pie

NachoBusiness wrote: »

It's just a term use to lightheartedly slag us..

Like calling New Zealanders sheep shaggers, or French people cheese eating surrender monkeys.

^^Those are far worse!!

Magico Gonzalez

It's wrong to call the French "monkeys"....

il gatto

Coming from WASP central at Fox, it is an insult. Turn the other cheek if it makes you feel big but if I was McIlroy, I'd sue them. F@ck that Victorian sh1t.

dont bother

but he actually does look like a leprechaun. his melted "botched plastic surgery" looking face even though he hasnt had any!? his horrible smug attitude, his horrible accent, etc etc...

he's the spit of the evil leprechaun from the movie of the same name. horrible little git.

DEFTLEFTHAND

dont bother wrote: »

but he actually does look like a leprechaun. his melted "botched plastic surgery" looking face even though he hasnt had any!? his horrible smug attitude, his horrible accent, etc etc...

he's the spit of the evil leprechaun from the movie of the same name. horrible little git.

Ahh I think he's a nice little fella, he seems to have matured quite a bit recently.

When it comes to his appearance he's a bit froggy looking around the face and has bad skin, not completely hideous though.

il gatto

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Ahh I think he's a nice little fella, he seems to have matured quite a bit recently.

When it comes to his appearance he's a bit froggy looking around the face and has bad skin, not completely hideous though.

Ha. He would be if he wasn't loaded. He'd lead a lonely life romance wise if he was poor.

Overheal

Take it away, Frau

WesternZulu

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

It's wrong to call the French "monkeys"....

Everyone knows they prefer the term ''frogs''.