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When will voice impressionists be cancelled?

Pussyhands

Voice impressionists or those that try to be ones, such as Mario Rosenstock, Oliver Callan, Doireann Garrihy have made careers out of doing voice impressions.

These are essentially efforts to mock someones accent, voice and speech.

Take for example mimicing Bertie Aherns speech. Bertie has a stammer which is cruel to mock someone for a speech impediment. Michael Flatley has an Irish/American accent mix which is mocked. Joan Burtons high pitched voice was routinely mocked for years. Joe Duffys strong Dublin accent is routinely mocked. Jose Mourinho speaks great english yet is mocked routinely by impressionists by pronouncing nothing as nussing.

I'm not saying I support them being cancelled but you'd think it's inevitable.

Similarly, I'm surprised the Little Britain guys David Walliams and Matt Lucas haven't been cancelled. They created transphobic, homophobic, fatphobic, xenophobic yet they've not been targeted by the usual crowd and still have careers.

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jo187

Little Britain got some blowback a while ago. Matt Lucas apologise on twitter, David Williams didn't back down really.

The other examples you point to are Irish and mostly on the radio. So who really cares, be my take.

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058227422/when-will-voice-impressionists-be-cancelled

I haven't heard Bertie complaining. How it it cruel to mock his stutter? Are you being offended on his behalf?

Cyrus

all the crack is slowly being sucked out of the world. I saw Mackenzie Crook coming out and almost apologising for the office, probably the greatest comedy of our time, sad days.

Danzy

Bertie doesn't have a stutter, that's just an affectation for to appear a ordinary man.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459769#Comment_118459769

I think it was likely more to do with the fact they were "blacking up" for want of a better phrase no? They also used tape on their eyes to look like Asian schoolgirls.

In summary imo no voice impressionists won't be cancelled.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459816#Comment_118459816

No thats his bank account you're thinking of

[Deleted User]

My late mother had a hilarious habit of “doing the voice/doing the accent” when quoting somebody and she would do this unconsciously only to catch herself out and change to a monotone mid sentence. Used to looove it as a young kid, she was a great storyteller of real life stuff! Cork accents were a speciality.

I’ve always loved taking off accents, and have got away with impersonating people. It is a kind of musically related gift and it would be an absolute shame if it were cancelled. I have really enjoyed the odd time people have tried to take me off! Just love mimicry, I think there’s parrotry in the genes.

Mr. CooL ICE

When will cancelling be cancelled?

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459828#Comment_118459828

They don't really care about the why.

It's the satisfaction they get, the sense of control and power. The moral righteousness of casting down a person deemed a sinner.

It's why Progressives on the left are. As quicker to destroy each other than outside of the group. Extra purity points.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459816#Comment_118459816

Was often said that Bertie turned up the Dublinese whenever he was on camera

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459942#Comment_118459942

De mudder sold,ah, de cobble stones to hungry Dublin fans on Hill 16, pushed around in a wheel barrow made from a Guinness keg she ah found in da liberties.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459784#Comment_118459784

All cast members of the office should apologize for enabling that useless unfunny muppet Gervais.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460036#Comment_118460036

i respectfully disagree.

CGI_Livia_Soprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459784#Comment_118459784

"Almost" apologising? You're so sensitive.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460001#Comment_118460001

Sounds like a story you would get from a Joe Duffy caller.

BarneyJ

Interesting. I think Davy Fitzgerald has admitted that he is not happy with Mario Rosenstock's impressions of his voice. I would have sympathy for Davy. It's all a good laugh for us the listeners but if it's genuinely upsetting for Davy then I would be of the view that Mario should drop those impressions.

I was watching Callan's Kicks recently and he had a sketch featuring the two Healy-Rae brothers. Danny Healy-Rae looked like a werewolf in the sketch. It was funny but you would understand if he was offended by it.

Bo' Selecta is another one that comes to mind.

generic_throwaway

Good to see the 'cancellation' moral panic still being propagated by the usual reactionaries. Great use of the 'slippery slope' logical fallacy.

Keep up the good work, folks! Soon we will have the gays and the brown people and the women back in their place.

Wanderer78

hopefully humans dont go full retard on this one, impressionists can be very funny, and we all need the fun

[Deleted User]

they certainly did not. They made a show, which was making fun of everyone. Making a joke about an Asian person, black person, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, straight, religious, atheist, etc etc etc is just that— a joke.

if I made a joke about a friend of mine who happens to be a black gay guy, I am therefore a homophobic racist? Fcuk off.

absolutely sick to death of things from THE PAST many many years in THE PAST which at the time did not offend anyone being labelled as this, that and the other by a select group of gobshites.

David Walliams, quite rightly, would not apologise for LB and he shouldn’t. It was yonks ago & also cancelled? Like grow up, he’s one of the best selling kids authors and an absolutely lovely person.

but fcuk all that he did black face years ago for a comedy show!!!! CANCEL HIIIIIM.

/rant

Peregrinus

Complaints that comedy is being gutted or destroyed by new-fangled moral standards have pretty much always been a feature of the comedy world. As each generation of comedians matures and is challenged by an upcoming generation with different notions of what works as comedic, they complain about this. In the 1970s, black people were considered inherently comedic in the UK — the main gag in [i]Love Thy Neighbour[/i] was that the protagonist has a neighbour who is black! Gosh, how funny. That ceased to be funny, or even acceptable, by the 1980s, but mother-in-law jokes thrived for another decade until they, too, fell out of favour with public taste. And so forth.

Comedians affected by this - which is all of them who stay in the business for more than a few years - either adapt their work to evolving public taste, or they get fewer and fewer bookings in lousier and lousier venues and, in the latter case, they complain that they are being censored and cancelled. But they are not; they are just being outmoded.

Voice impressionists aren't necessarily mocking their subjects' vocal mannerisms. Especially on the radio, the main point of the voice impression is that the listener will know who the subject is supposed to be. If Bertie Ahern is depicted as stuttering, that's not because stuttering is funny; it's because Ahern stutters, and so the stutter is how the listener knows that Ahern is being depicted. The humour should be found in the words that are put into Ahern's mouth, not in the fact that Ahern stutters.

whisky_galore

I think there are boundaries these days that can't be crossed. It was very funny in days of yore to take the piss out of Proinsias De Rossa's stammer, not so much now.

I think 'regional' accents ranging from rural to Dortspeak or affectations (see Dr Bill/Bertie) are still fair game. Like a caricature in a newspaper these are about more exaggeration than imitation.

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118459783#Comment_118459783

You ever think someone else with a stammer might hear others laughing and mocking Berties stammer and feel very self conscious and be affected by that?

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460459#Comment_118460459

No.

If it was a thing you would hear about it.

As I say, you seem to be getting offended on others' behalf, which is weird.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460459#Comment_118460459

get over it?

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460471#Comment_118460471

You're grand with homophobic jokes then?

DarkJager21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460459#Comment_118460459

Maybe they do maybe they don’t, it doesn’t change the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around their feelings. Grow a thicker skin might be the best advice for someone like that?

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460480#Comment_118460480

as soon as people with stammers get treated like gay people you can ask that question and I’ll take it seriously.

but the last time I checked, correct me if I’m wrong, there was no referendum held to pass law which allowed someone with a stammer to get married.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460459#Comment_118460459

I have a stammer and I don't give a fcuk. As someone already said Bertie doesn't really have a stammer.

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460170#Comment_118460170

That makes no sense. Little Britain itself was cancelled. I'm just surprised the creators themselves haven't been targeted.

They certainly did not make fun of everyone. Minorities were the butt of their jokes for the most part.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118460505#Comment_118460505

Mate it hasn’t had a new episode since 2007 & was removed from online streaming in 2020.

13 years for someone to cause a big fuss about it, yeah, it really offended people of the day.

Who it offended, I imagine, is the type of person such as yourself, to ask such a fcuking stupid question as “well if berties stammers are fair game so are the gays right?”

either a troll or a total clown you are.