Comedian Frankie Boyle's favourite catchphrase appears to be 'Ah, but it's all true, isn't it?' He reportedly said as much to a woman in the audience at his Glasgow show who objected to his routine about Down's syndrome (Report, 9 April). Sharon Smith, the mother of a Down's syndrome daughter, had become upset that he thought it hilarious that Down's syndrome people die 'early'. (Still, it's all true, isn't it?)
It depends how you define 'dying early'. When I was growing up, I was told my sister, who has Down's syndrome, would not live much beyond 20. She's now approaching 50. Since the early 80s, the life expectancy of people with Down's syndrome has more than doubled and is now put by some estimates as high as 60. That's because they now receive decent medical and social care. Still, I don't want to spoil the joke. That would just be me being politically correct and we all know where that leads.
Colin Richardson
London
• The experience of Sharon Smith reminded me of a similar occasion some time ago when Julian Clary used people with learning disabilities as a target. When compering Have I got News for You, he referred to '… the village idiot who collects the trolleys at your local Tesco'. I wrote to the BBC to complain and said I had known a number of people who, having survived hospitalisation and other forms of exclusion, were holding down permanent jobs very successfully. The BBC replied that comedy was subjective and the question of which groups should be immune was a matter for personal judgment. I sympathise with Mrs Smith's view that Frankie Boyle's style was 'childish playground stuff'. But it is also a form of denigration which thinly disguises a hatred of difference. Compared with the controversial and irreverent humour of, say, Richard Pryor, it is – to use Elvis Presley's phrase – 'about as funny as a turd in a punch-bowl'.
Dr Alan Phipps
Manchester
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