What happened to Graham Linehan?

[dumbo]

Let's even pretend that he is right for a minute: surely this still isn't a good look. The stuttering-nazis-they started it stuff is the stock in trade of the web imbecile. In the past he had the presence of mind to mock this type of oblivious hysteria in his comedy, now he has become one of his own characters.

If you're going on Newsnight with a divisive opinion then wouldn't you try to dial back the antagonism, set out your concerns in an authoritative manner and acknowledge that you could have been more resonable in the past, while still holding firm on your position. Getting embroiled in a semantic debate about the merits of a nazi metaphor is utterly amatuer.

I sort of feel bad for the guy.

 

[dumbo]

Oh and his work for the Daily Mail while we are here.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7982837/How-hated-man-internet-writes-Graham-Linehan.html

 

[CassiusClaymore]

What's happened to him? He's the Rachel Riley of TERF's and further proof that spending too much time on social media platforms will drive you quite insane.

 

[Redlambs]

Yep. Twitter and spending way too much time stroking your ego caring about followers and what people say to you.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Graham Linehan : Says something toxic. Gets offended when it gets toxic.

 

[Sassy Colin]

I'm more interested i what happened to Des Lynam.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I'm more interested i what happened to Des Lynam.

Turned into a ball and flew back to his home world.

 

[DOTA]

He's having the longest public meltdown in response to mild criticism in history.

After a career of receiving nothing but adulation, one day a few people told him they didn't like his depiction of a transwoman in an episode of the IT Crowd.

Faced with the options of ignoring them, apologising and saying his views have moved on, or doubling down that mocking trans people is still good, he went with the latter and bit by bit it consumed more and more of his life as he saw every bit of pushback online, in his professional circle and in his personal life as further evidence of the importance of his fight to stop transphobic voices being shunned.

 

[esmufc07]

Kick Graham Linehan up the arse

 

[Sweet Square]

I hear you're a transphobe now, father!

 

[RedTiger]

Let's even pretend that he is right for a minute: surely this still isn't a good look. The stuttering-nazis-they started it stuff is the stock in trade of the web imbecile. In the past he had the presence of mind to mock this type of oblivious hysteria in his comedy, now he has become one of his own characters.

If you're going on Newsnight with a divisive opinion then wouldn't you try to dial back the antagonism, set out your concerns in an authoritative manner and acknowledge that you could have been more resonable in the past, while still holding firm on your position. Getting embroiled in a semantic debate about the merits of a nazi metaphor is utterly amatuer.

I sort of feel bad for the guy.

"I'll admit, I'm not the greatest person to be in this conversation"...then why do it?

 

[Hammerfell]

He’s a vile piece of work.

 

[Kentonio]

I hear you're a transphobe now, father!

 

[balaks]

He’s a vile piece of work.

I think when you read his twitter stuff most of it is in support of women and against some trans women trying to gain rights by actively downplaying or dismissing the rights of women. He may overstep the mark at times but I think calling him a vile piece of work is a bit much.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

I hear you're a transphobe now, father!

Brilliant

 

[Conor]

I reckon he fell in love with a transgender woman and she broke his heart.

 

[sullydnl]

Even leaving aside the actual rights or wrongs of his beliefs, he behaves like an absolute cnut on twitter. Nasty, cheap, reductive arguments and personal insults aplenty.

He's also obsessed beyond belief. I'm not even sure if he does comedy anymore.

There's little about the way he presents himself to suggest he isn't a generally unpleasant person.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

I reckon he fell in love with a transgender woman and she broke his heart.

Like in the IT Crowd when Douglas Renholm falls for a trans gender guy April

 

[Ole90+3]

Like in the IT Crowd when Douglas Renholm falls for a trans gender guy April

Best fight scene I've ever seen.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Best fight scene I've ever seen.

Oh God that was hilarious

 

[Hammerfell]

I think when you read his twitter stuff most of it is in support of women and against some trans women trying to gain rights by actively downplaying or dismissing the rights of women. He may overstep the mark at times but I think calling him a vile piece of work is a bit much.

It really isn't if you look at some of the stuff he's said in any detail.

 

[Conor]

Like in the IT Crowd when Douglas Renholm falls for a trans gender guy April

Exactly, that episode clearly came from personal experience.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

He's probably reading my 'Boomer' thread right now and seething...

In all seriousness - he's a clearly a snowflake.

But lets never forget that, 'there's more Graham Linehan, dun dis.'

 

[2 man midfield]

He's saying some weird things but the host isn't helping. Lots of "so what you're saying is..." followed by obvious exaggeration. Still, it seems a bit weird to complain about people disagreeing with you on the internet, if you post an opinion on the internet. Not sure about the real life abuse he claims he's faced, it doesn't sound pretty anyway.

 

[Halftrack]

I think when you read his twitter stuff most of it is in support of women and against some trans women trying to gain rights by actively downplaying or dismissing the rights of women. He may overstep the mark at times but I think calling him a vile piece of work is a bit much.

I'd say he goes a fair bit further than that. A lot of his transphobic comments have nothing to do with women's rights.

 

[Wibble]

What a dickhead. That episode of the IT Crowd was utterly cringeworthy.

 

[Snow]

What a dickhead. That episode of the IT Crowd was utterly cringeworthy.

If he meant to be anti-trans with that episode I felt like it backfired considering he used Douglas Reynholm as the transphobic character. South Park-esque in showing bigoted people being stupid to ridicule them.

 

[Wibble]

If he meant to be anti-trans with that episode I felt like it backfired considering he used Douglas Reynholm as the transphobic character. South Park-esque in showing bigoted people being stupid to ridicule them.

But a) it just made use of various lazy transphobic tropes, b) it wasn't OTT South Park style parody and c) is wasn't funny.

 

[Snow]

But a) it just made use of various lazy transphobic tropes, b) it wasn't OTT South Park style parody and c) is wasn't funny.

Not tropes plural surely. What other tropes are there besides "the woman is really a man"? I'm not sure transexuality could even be consideredIt sure was OTT. They fistfighted out of one room into another where they, or so the people in the other room though, ended up breaking the internet.

Whether it was funny or not is subjective. The punchline when you break it down is the same as any other Douglas Reynholm scenario.

 

[Wibble]

Not tropes plural surely. What other tropes are there besides "the woman is really a man"? I'm not sure transexuality could even be consideredIt sure was OTT. They fistfighted out of one room into another where they, or so the people in the other room though, ended up breaking the internet.

Whether it was funny or not is subjective. The punchline when you break it down is the same as any other Douglas Reynholm scenario.

Likes male sports, strong, resorts to male punch up on rejection etc etc

 

[Snow]

Likes male sports, strong, resorts to male punch up on rejection etc etc

Yeah, guess I didn't think about it that way. I usually don't think too much about comedies in general. If it's funny its funny, if it's not it is not. Few comedies age gracefully and if you nitpick most of them the people in them are full of flaws.

 

[Kentonio]

c) is wasn't funny.

To you. Humour couldn’t really be any more subjective.

 

[stepic]

The episode was also from 2008. Fair to say we’ve moved on a bit since then in terms of trans rights so seems a little OTT to be too retrospectively critical. I don’t have any issue with the episode tbh even now.

 

[Shane88]

To you. Humour couldn’t really be any more subjective.

Exactly.

The fight scene is bloody brilliant.

 

[sullydnl]

The key thing with that episode is that it's exactly what sparked Linehan's anti-Trans (sorry, "pro-woman" *cough*) crusade. It recieved the exact same criticism that Wibble just expressed and instead of responding to that like an adult Linehan just detoured wildly into the trans-rights debate.

 

[GBBQ]

The episode was also from 2008. Fair to say we’ve moved on a bit since then in terms of trans rights so seems a little OTT to be too retrospectively critical. I don’t have any issue with the episode tbh even now.

I mean I think you can be critical of that episode if, 12 years on. the creator is doubling down on his beliefs. This isn't a James Gunn badly chosen joke that he has since profusely apologised for; Linehan is essentially saying that the depiction in that episode is exactly how he sees Trans people.

 

[stepic]

I mean I think you can be critical of that episode if, 12 years on. the creator is doubling down on his beliefs. This isn't a James Gunn badly chosen joke that he has since profusely apologised for; Linehan is essentially saying that the depiction in that episode is exactly how he sees Trans people.

Fair enough. I’ve not been following the latest Linehan developments, was just responding to the episode itself.

 

[Wibble]

The key thing with that episode is that it's exactly what sparked Linehan's anti-Trans (sorry, "pro-woman"

Yes and I only remembered it for that reason. We only watched The IT Crowd for the first time this year and while some of it is funny much hasn't aged well. The trans scenes we are discussing were just a bit cringeworthy and from another time rather than hugely offensive in of themselves.

To you. Humour couldn’t really be any more subjective.

True but the trans stuff in that episode was Mrs Brown's Boys level unfunny.

 

[DOTA]

The key thing with that episode is that it's exactly what sparked Linehan's anti-Trans (sorry, "pro-woman" *cough*) crusade. It recieved the exact same criticism that Wibble just expressed and instead of responding to that like an adult Linehan just detoured wildly into the trans-rights debate.

Quite. Anyone else would've just said 'different time, soz!' and they would've been fine.

He had so much goodwill that it would've been the easiest thing in the world.

It turned out that his views weren't a joke. He just really hates trans people.

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]