# Roy Hodgson's Half-Time Joke



## Pale Rider (Nov 15, 2011)

It's interesting that people like Greg **** seem to think that Hodgson's "joke", which compared Andros Townsend to a monkey, was acceptable - because, and I paraphrase, "Hodgson is someone of the highest integrity and therefore the comment was not racist".

I'm not one to get too concerned about this kind of joke because if you go too far down that road most of humour becomes potentially offensive. However....

Isn't it strange that, when fans make monkey chants and chuck bananas, that this results in the offenders being banned for life. No one seems to try to find out if they're people of the highest integrity who are just having a laugh. Isn't it strange that a UKIP MEP is lambasted for referring to "Bongo Bongo land" as a joke and gets booted out of the party. Or that anyone who uses a non-PC term, like "coloured" to describe immigrants is hauled over the coals.

Yet Roy Hodgson can liken Townsend - the person who almost single-handled won the last two games for him - to a "monkey".

The only effing "monkey" here is Roy effing Hodgson. He's been whingeing for months about not having any effing players to select from. Then he selects Townsend because of injury problems - and he turns out to be the BEST EFFING player in the team.

And he calls him a monkey. Then he tries to take credit for selecting him. On yer bike mate.


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

Don't agree at all!!

The joke has been taken completely out of context, in the original joke NASA were essentially saying the Monkey was more intelligent than the human astronaut and hence he was only there to feed the monkey... Switched back into the England context... Townsend is better then you lot (Chris Smalling) so give him the ball... The Monkey is irrelevant, it could have been a fly, a dog, a rabbit or a bloody Lemur, its irrelevant as he was not comparing Townsend to anything!

Absolutely nothing racist or offensive in this situation but as usual the media have taken it out of context and blown it out of proportion.

Also i personally have found the last few England games have been played at the highest tempo and with some of the most attractive attacking play that i have seen for a long time by 11 men in an England shirt (Ireland game aside as that was dire, i was there!).


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## YELLOW_TT (Feb 25, 2004)

Just wondering why this is in the joke section :?


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## Pale Rider (Nov 15, 2011)

NickG said:


> The Monkey is irrelevant, it could have been a fly, a dog, a rabbit or a bloody Lemur, its irrelevant as he was not comparing Townsend to anything!


Except that Hodgson's joke wouldn't have worked if the punch line had been "feed the fly, etc". It's utterly disingenuous to claim that the joke doesn't depend on the fact that Blacks are sometimes referred to derogatively as monkeys.


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## leon1984 (Oct 7, 2010)

Agree on both points.



NickG said:


> Don't agree at all!!
> 
> The joke has been taken completely out of context, in the original joke NASA were essentially saying the Monkey was more intelligent than the human astronaut and hence he was only there to feed the monkey... Switched back into the England context... Townsend is better then you lot (Chris Smalling) so give him the ball... The Monkey is irrelevant, it could have been a fly, a dog, a rabbit or a bloody Lemur, its irrelevant as he was not comparing Townsend to anything!
> 
> ...


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## leon1984 (Oct 7, 2010)

Pale Rider said:


> NickG said:
> 
> 
> > The Monkey is irrelevant, it could have been a fly, a dog, a rabbit or a bloody Lemur, its irrelevant as he was not comparing Townsend to anything!
> ...


not at all, the original joke was saying "you are purely there as a support to the monkey" and this is what Hodgson meant... Townsend is having a flyer, so you are all there to just give him the ball.

Race, colour, Monkey jibes had nothing to do with it.


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## Pale Rider (Nov 15, 2011)

leon1984 said:


> not at all, the original joke was saying "you are purely there as a support to the monkey" and this is what Hodgson meant... Townsend is having a flyer, so you are all there to just give him the ball.
> 
> Race, colour, Monkey jibes had nothing to do with it.


But imagine if the animal that was sent into space to do the real work was, for example, a crow - which are also highly intelligent creatures. I don't think that the "joke" would have occurred to Hodgson because the punch line simply wouldn't work. As I said, the joke only works because monkey is a pejorative term for Blacks. It's a very clear example of a racist joke and I'm surprised that Hodgson seems to be getting away with it.

Take another example. A few years ago a Tory MP, Ann Winterton, made a joke about the deaths of some Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay. It involves two sharks swimming around in the ocean and one saying to the other "I'm bored with all this fish - fancy nipping round to Morecambe Bay for a Chinese?"

She was expelled from the Conservative Party for racism, but I don't see this as racist joke. It relies on its humour on the play on the word "Chinese" which can mean a Chinese person or a Chinese meal - which is pretty inoffensive. Hodgson's joke relies on the play on words where "monkey" is used to indicate a Black person - or someone of mixed race. That is plainly racist no matter how you look at it.


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## leon1984 (Oct 7, 2010)

Sorry I disagree that the original joke Roy was alluding too was racist, or had any connotations towards black people - hence why I dont think his bringing it up or use of it was relevant to any race.

I see the point your making, and if the original joke was linked to using a monkey as a reference to black people then I hear you - I just see the original joke totally different.


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

The current society are waiting to be offended. Its ridiculous. If he said to Smalling give the ball to Rooney, feed the monkey... is that offensive? You can read into it what you will but at the end of the day it needs to be put into context. Hodgson has said no racial offense was meant, Townsend has said no offense or racial slur has been felt, infact he took it as a compliment, so where is the issue? The media love a good story and it seems another victim has fallen fowl of their trap.


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## Pale Rider (Nov 15, 2011)

NickG said:


> The current society are waiting to be offended. Its ridiculous. If he said to Smalling give the ball to Rooney, feed the monkey... is that offensive? You can read into it what you will but at the end of the day it needs to be put into context. Hodgson has said no racial offense was meant, Townsend has said no offense or racial slur has been felt, infact he took it as a compliment, so where is the issue? The media love a good story and it seems another victim has fallen fowl of their trap.


I'm not one of those who's looking to be offended - but I know what you mean. I think the joke is basically racist in that it relies for its humour on the word monkey being a pejorative for Blacks, but I don't necessarily think Hodgson is racially prejudiced. It just seems odd to me that he seems to be getting away with it.

Remember when Ron Atkinson said (when he thought the microphone was switched off) that Marcel Desaillies was a "****ing lazy n****r". He was immediately fired (from all his media jobs) and has virtually never been heard of since, yet he is definitely not a racist. Also I'd regard the N-word as less offensive than monkey - many Blacks refer to themselves as n*****rs and it's included in some rap group names. It's just a corruption of the word ***** which is derived from the Latin for black, negrus, and was in common using a few decades ago. It's a whole different ball game to the monkey slur.


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## zzrob (Sep 28, 2013)

The world has gone crazy...you're not allowed to say jack shit these days (no offence Jack)!
My Mrs works for an insurance company and they are not allowed to use the word brainstorm in case it offends somebody with disabilities....they call it a mind shower. Absolutely pathetic......I'm afraid it will get worse.


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## Smeds (Oct 28, 2009)

Is it ok to refer to a white person as a monkey?

Is the term 'pay peanuts, get monkeys' banned now?

To me, calling someone a monkey means they're a bit of an idiot, foolish, maybe a bit useless.


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## NickG (Aug 15, 2013)

zzrob said:


> The world has gone crazy...you're not allowed to say jack shit these days (no offence Jack)!


 :lol: :lol: Poor Jack!! hahhahaha!!


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## Pale Rider (Nov 15, 2011)

Smeds said:


> Is it ok to refer to a white person as a monkey?


You can call a white person absolutely anything you like - especially if they're male. "White honky trash" is absolutely fine. Saying that the BBC is "hideously white" (as Greg **** said when he was DG) also absolutely fine.

The problem comes when you refer to any of the so-called "ethnic minorities" in a dodgy way. Then you're in trouble - and might even get a visit from the Old Bill if they need to bump up their conviction rate this month.

But maybe things are changing. Roy Hodgson seems to have got away with calling Andros Townsend a "monkey". Maybe the fans can go back to chucking bananas now. :wink:


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

I think you had to be in the dressing room at the time to really understand the context of the remark. None of us were, nor were the press. And perhaps even more importantly none of us were present during the preceding few days of training when references to such matters like the NSA space monkey may have been raised several times in relation to other circumstances. It could have already been an in joke.
Who knows? You don't.


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## jack19881011 (Nov 5, 2013)

I feel okay。 :-| :-|


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