Maureen Lipman: Cancel culture could wipe out comedy

[Willie Oleson]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1477011610791120896

There's no holding back on twitter!

If she wants something it's "integral" - if others do it for them it's "cancel culture".

Disaproval, or disagreeing with a disaproval, is not cancel culture.
However, the very idea that a casting choice is something that should be agreed with - as in: "would/should never be allowed" - suggests a consensus.
From that point of view I think Mrs. Lipman is indeed very guilty of her own little cancel culture.
Of course, it's difficult for any person to be 100% consistent all the time. "Allowing for leeway" doesn't hold up in an argument but maybe that is the problem: life has become an argument. Simply because we have the time and opportunity to argue and to tweet it.

Now, if everybody would just do as I say, and put Knots Landing on DVD and uncancel Dallas, then there would be no problem at all.
If that's good enough for me then it should be good enough for everybody. Dammit!

 

[Sarah]

An actor can't just be cast due to a religion - that's like saying a Catholic shouldn't play Ian Paisley or no one but an Austrian or German can play Hitler. This is all getting very confusing and I'm afraid to say slightly ridiculous. I think it's different if it's a matter of race, and it does bother me when English actors are cast to do N Irish roles (with realllly bad accents), but saying Helen Mirren can't play a Jewish person...does that mean she shouldn't have played the Queen because she isn't royalty?

 

[Angela Channing]

Maureen Lipman is being inconsistent yet again. I can understand the argument that a Jew playing a Jew could give a performance more authenticity but to suggest that only a Jew should play Golda is taking things to far.

I don't watch Coronation Street but is she playing a Jewish character in that? Would Maureen Lipman turn down a role because she is Jewish and the character she was being asked to portray wasn't? It just seems like she wants one standard for her and another for other actors.

 

[James from London]

saying Helen Mirren can't play a Jewish person...does that mean she shouldn't have played the Queen because she isn't royalty?

Royalty isn't an ethnicity.

 

[Angela Channing]

I think it's different if it's a matter of race, and it does bother me when English actors are cast to do N Irish roles (with realllly bad accents)

This is an interesting point which was lost on Maureen Lipman. She said Helen Mirren being cast as Golda Meir is equivalent to casting Ben Kingsley as a black man. Not really because many Jews are white, as it Helen Mirren whereas and Ben Kingsley is biracial (white and Indian) and it would be bizarre to cast him in a black role.

The wider issue in reciprocation. I wouldn't have a problem with English actors playing Northern Irish roles if a broadly equivalent number of Northern Irish actors were cast in English roles but that doesn't seem to happen as much.

 

[bmasters9]

At the very least, a segment of the far Left has adopted an approach reminiscent of the "Moral Majority" of the 80s. And I don't care if they're on the Right or the Left, anyone who has the moral arrogance to think they can determine what other adults are allowed to read/watch/listen can piss off.

Which is why I have never cared for many televangelists (my mother's favorite, Ralph Sexton, Jr. of Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, NC, and the infamous Jimmy Swaggart, being among those whom I have never cared for one iota).

 

[Sarah]

This is an interesting point which was lost on Maureen Lipman. She said Helen Mirren being cast as Golda Meir is equivalent to casting Ben Kingsley as a black man. Not really because many Jews are white, as it Helen Mirren whereas and Ben Kingsley is biracial (white and Indian) and it would be bizarre to cast him in a black role.

The wider issue in reciprocation. I wouldn't have a problem with English actors playing Northern Irish roles if a broadly equivalent number of Northern Irish actors were cast in English roles but that doesn't seem to happen as much.

You're absolutely right. It's a huge source of annoyance with us and has led to many a debate at Equity meetings!

 

[Monzo]

Which is why I have never cared for many televangelists (my mother's favorite, Ralph Sexton, Jr. of Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, NC, and the infamous Jimmy Swaggart, being among those whom I have never cared for one iota).

I tune into SBN (Sonlife Broadcasting Networks) from time to time, more out of curiosity than enthusiasm. Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is the founder of the network, and his son and grandson are also involved as pastors. I know Jimmy Swaggart was in his prime in the 80's before the big scandal, so I wonder how he and his family can still exist as pastors. At the moment there is a share-a-thon with the goal of raising 4.7 million dollars, 3 million have just been made. There is a Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. A duet CD by Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Lee Lewis costs $100. An SBN MP3 player costs $1000, a special bible collection $2500. All of this seems surreal and like a bubble to me or can the Swaggarts still make a lot of money today? Do you think their Christian beliefs are genuine or just there to make money?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Royalty isn't an ethnicity.

Tell that to the nazis.