Separate the Art From the Artist

[StillStunned]

It took me a long time to enjoy George MacDonald Fraser's books again after I read his collection of essays. Even though his character Flashman is utterly reprehensible, I'd never had the sense that the novels were an author tract. Afterwards... well, it's questionable.

And I'll mute the radio if Michael Jackson comes on. That's no hardship, though: there are very few MJ songs that I enjoy.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

The weird thing about Jimmy Saville in retrospect is that everyone now says that while they'll liked the show Jim'll Fix It as a kid, they always found Jimmy himself deeply creepy, or at least very annoying.

Which I'd normally say was making excuses post-revelations, except, well, that is exactly how I felt as a child.

I think growing up in the U.K. in the 70’s LOADS of stuff was creepy and not just Jimmy Saville. Pipkins, FingerBobs, Noseybonk from Jigsaw.

Also whilst we have a number of comedy acts who produced stellar work in that decade (two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise, John Cleese) a lot of popular comedy has not only dated but seems like absolute shite now (The Goodies and the Kenny Everett show).

Looking back it seemed like a creepy decade of extreme weirdos and whack-jobs.

 

[HordHolm]

I think growing up in the U.K. in the 70’s LOADS of stuff was creepy and not just Jimmy Saville. Pipkins, FingerBobs, Noseybonk from Jigsaw.

Also whilst we have a number of comedy acts who produced stellar work in that decade (two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise, John Cleese) a lot of popular comedy has not only dated but seems like absolute shite now (The Goodies and the Kenny Everett show).

Looking back it seemed like a creepy decade of extreme weirdos and whack-jobs.

I'm with you 100% on this. The first thing to note, I think, is that a lot of people may have found Jimmy Saville weird simply because he looked a bit unconventional, rather than anything specific about his delivery of his persona. It's hard to say, of course, because I'm looking back to myself as a kid, and I was always trying to think of unusual 'cool' ideas that would get me on Jim'll Fix It - not through any great desire to have that thing 'fixed' for me, but because I wanted to be on the telly.

But there was so much stuff - I remember Miss England/Miss UK/Miss World being regular TV events, the rampant racism on a lot of TV, and we hardly batted an eyelid because it was normalised.

And back to your points about comedy... yeah. And even some of the stellar work you noted was, looking back, either odd to our eyes now or obviously in denial (the Two Ronnies were classic for this - how much repressed homosexuality was going on there?!). I had a thing of looking back at some of the 70s comedy a couple of years ago, doing a deep dive on the performers, and there were things that surprised me (mostly Dick Emery being straight and a bit of a ladies man). There were some really depressing things about the 70s as a whole, and some of the comedy really contributed to that - Bernard Manning, Jim Davidson coming through back then, Canon and Ball, etc. It reminds me of music in a way, when people say that the 60s was the best decade for music ever, and then you look at what actually sold back then - I believe Englebert Humperdinck was the best selling UK artist of the decade, so, whoop for the counter-culture!

And then there was the food... I've been having this conversation with a friend lately, but the stuff they'd market to us kids as sweets back in the day was just Quatermass on steroids! The E numbers... And it all fits right in with the decade - as you note, extreme wierdos and whack-jobs.

 

[StillStunned]

(the Two Ronnies were classic for this - how much repressed homosexuality was going on there?!)

I saw a documentary about them ages ago, where Ronnie Corbett explained that he loved the skits where they dressed as women, because he had a background in panto, but Ronnie Barker was never really comfortable with it.

And then there was the food...

A fixture in our kitchen when I was growing up was huge the stack of Fanny Craddock magazines.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I think growing up in the U.K. in the 70’s LOADS of stuff was creepy and not just Jimmy Saville. Pipkins, FingerBobs, Noseybonk from Jigsaw.

Also whilst we have a number of comedy acts who produced stellar work in that decade (two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise, John Cleese) a lot of popular comedy has not only dated but seems like absolute shite now (The Goodies and the Kenny Everett show).

Looking back it seemed like a creepy decade of extreme weirdos and whack-jobs.

It sounds like your references are just that bit older than mine (Jim'll'fix It continued well into the eighties I guess) so I'll have to take your word on the creepiness of Noseybonk.

In fairness, we have just had the whole thing of Russell Brand being reported as a dangerous sexual abuser and the nation as a whole pretty much going 'Yes, that sounds about right.' Oh and Phillip Schofield. Maybe neither quite on the level of Saville, but maybe nothing much changes.