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Carter
offlineMember
A tragedy that will no doubt lead to some very serious media discussion about comedy over the next few days. How long before it is suggested that the media follow Leveson type guidelines on what can and cannot be written/done in pursuit of a gag?
I feel so sorry for the DJs (and everyone who loved the nurse, obviously) they were just cocking about and now they will forever be linked to someone's suicide.
Tripod
offlineMember
Although really tragic, I'm sure I not the only one who found it amusing before it took these turn of events. I think it is always hard to know how things will be taken. But now we will have a lot of people being very wise after the event.
I can't listen to them; I switch the radio off. Mind, I tend not to listen the the kind of radio that goes in for prank calls. I just find them embarrassing, and never funny. And that's not "hindsight"...
What I mean is for 24 hours the general consensus has been amusement . Mainly because of the poor quality of the impressions. Now we will have some condemning it to the hill because they now know the outcome. Comedy will always offend someone at the time, and many more will be offended because they have to be
I must add have nothing but sympathy for the family and colleagues of this poor lady
dvo4fun
offlineMember
Good grief - I thought this was going to be 'MI6' joke thread
@riesler - I did have the same thought and you're right I think - too soon.
When I heard the start of the tape I didn't find it funny mainly because someone so obviously not 'in the public eye' was harvested for laughs.
Professionally, I often had to contact GPs to exchange information about their patients but always had a written 'consent to disclose' available to fax (in them thar days) but was surprised how often the offer to send was not taken up.
Tripod
offlineMember
With all the paedophile and Savile-related accusations flying about, I'm only surprised there haven't been more suicides. Never mind the law, once you've been arrested, and made the front pages, your life will never be the same again. Fair enough, I suppose, for those who turn out to be guilty. But totally innocent people get caught up too... and their reputations are trashed for ever...
Carter
offlineMember
I'll defend comedy and satire when it's aimed at appropriate targets, but I've never enjoyed prank phone calls, because all they're usually making fun of is the poor sap who just happens to be on the other end of the phone...
Exactly. Prank calls are kicking down that's why I've never liked them. A friend at uni had a CD of 'hilarious' prank calls made by some DJ or the other and it was just the most souless, unfunny listening. The word prank or stunt in connection with comedy is usually an indication of something that is the opposite of amusing.
I'll defend comedy and satire when it's aimed at appropriate targets, but I've never enjoyed prank phone calls, because all they're usually making fun of is the poor sap who just happens to be on the other end of the phone...
http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=52738
I would say falls into the realms of what you dislike tripod. Would be worse if something had of happened.
Or was it an ironic dig at the press?
http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=49568
As far as I am aware he has not been found guilty, but if he is, well this post was ok, if not well never mind
AReader
offlineMember
I know this is kind of against the grain, but I can't help feeling that this suicide is the most pathetic, selfish overreaction to a prank ever. I don't particularly like pranks as a spectacle and don't find them amusing most of the time, but did the woman have to off herself in response?
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
I know this is kind of against the grain, but I can't help feeling that this suicide is the most pathetic, selfish overreaction to a prank ever. I don't particularly like pranks as a spectacle and don't find them amusing most of the time, but did the woman have to off herself in response?
I kind of think you should edit this, AReader. Otherwise people might accidentally think you're a complete cunt.
weematt
offlineMember
I think AReader is coming across as a complete cunt.
Always hated those pranks played on poor folk trying to do their job, like call centre operators who are in line for discipline if they offend a caller. Easy targets for mindless pranksters. Tragic consequences in this case.
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
Prank calls can be funny: Chris Morris did some hilarious work making foreigners in airports announce complete filth across the tannoy system.
But this wasn't an inherently funny idea. Having said that, it would have been impossible to predict that performing a weak prank call would result in someone's death.
It's a tragic story all right. None of us know for sure what caused her to take her own life, or what other events or might have influenced it. But it's incredibly sad that it happened.
Can't say anyone's to blame, though. It's 'one of those things'.
beau-jolly
offlineMember
Bit harsh AR? While every suicide is a tragedy it is seldom a single event that causes it. I am not suggesting for a moment that the infamy and the tragedy are not linked but just that it is unlikely that it was the sole cause. Of course now everyone will say it was the silly jape that made her "off herself". It probably contributed to push her over the edge.
<edit> got distracted. This was a response to AReader
AReader
offlineMember
I know it sounds harsh, and I know that a lot of people still hold to the Roman maxim of speaking no ill of the dead, but I'm underwhelmed by the reasoning.
If every nurse reacted to misdirection or lies by killing themselves there would be no health service left. Patients and relatives of patients lie all of the time, give partial or misleading responses to questions and generally behave like jerks. Should nurses kill themselves when they've been misled or lied to?
What of her husband, her children, her family? Did they deserve this? Because she was fooled by a prank call? Did they think she was a disgrace to them? Unlikely.
How was anyone to know she would have this extreme overreaction?
There are now steps being made to involve psychologists to deal with post traumatic stress in hospital workers and to spot the signs of PTSD in medical staff especially in A&E.
Its also worth pointing out that in a substantial percentage of suicides there are no reasons given by the soon-to-be deceased nor any plausible rationalisation made after the fact. Why did film director Tony Scott kill himself, for example?
The natural reaction of people to an unexpected suicide is to blame someone or something when in fact nobody knows what went on in the mind of the person. That search for someone or something to blame, however tenuous the link, appears to be a human frailty that most of us have. That's a reason why tabloid newspapers sell.
waylandsmithy
offlineMember
Should nurses kill themselves when they've been misled or lied to?
Actually AReader, when you put it like that, you've completely won me round to your argument.
You're right: of course nurses should kill themeselves when they've been lied to. I used to think it was a grey area, but I now realise I was just sitting on the fence.
It's the ones who don't kill themselves that really sicken me.
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