Bernard Manning...

[Matthew T]

...dead.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....ning_dead.html

[Dave Lewis]

Vile, unfunny scum. The world is a better place without him.

[Captain Tancredi]

Comedians die many times before their deaths.

Probably fair to say that his act belonged to another era and he didn't change it to reflect more modern attitudes- or that enough people enjoyed his act to ensure that he didn't have to change it. Bernard Manning would have been nothing without the millions of people who watched him on television and the thousands who went to his shows and who found that his humour said something to their experience of living in a more diverse Britain. Just because most of us have more tolerant views than others doesn't mean that the rest of society is the same.

[SiHart]

He was certainly a comedian very much of his time. I wasn't a fan.

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

He should have quit comedy when the comedy movment quit him, he was never as popular as he used to be in the '70's. Working mens clubs was all he was good for.

I'm sure he'll be misssed by those who knew him personally but I sharn't be one of them.

[Larry]

Vile, unfunny scum. The world is a better place without him.

agread I much much doubt there will be to many people sheading any tears for this foul mouthed racist.

[WhiteCrow]

Vile, unfunny scum. The world is a better place without him.

I'm kind of that opinion which is unfortunate. I mean it's not like he killed anyone, but his was an attitude which was deeply unpleasant, and I'd rather that the attitude and not the man had died out.

[Trudi G]

I'm surprised he lasted till he was 76.

[Dave Lewis]

I'm kind of that opinion which is unfortunate. I mean it's not like he killed anyone, but his was an attitude which was deeply unpleasant, and I'd rather that the attitude and not the man had died out.

Racism is something that should be eradicated, I agree. And the best way to eradicate it is through education, tolerance, and changing people's attitudes, breaking down barriers in society, and encouraging people to live together in harmony, and judging others not on the colour of their skin, their religion, their sexuality, but on their deeds and attitudes.

Which rather neatly brings me onto the worthless scumbag whose death we are celebrating today.

Bernard Manning was a disgusting, talentless, parasitic cancer. He only made a living because there were (and sadly still are) enough stupid people in this country to pay him money to spread ignorance and bigotry under the guise of 'comedy'. Nothing could have been done to change Manning, no amount of education or encouragement would have stopped him telling his 'jokes' about 'nignogs', 'wogs', and 'sambos'. I'm glad he's gone, and will only be saddened if I see a stream of tributes to a "great working class comedian". He was none of these.

Let's hope Stan Boardman follows him soon.

[Rob McCow]

It should hardly be worthy of note. Let's see if any of the papers carry it as a cover tomorrow.

[Matthew T]

Whatever you do then Dave, don't read the Digital Spy thread on his death!

Another Manchester legend has passed.

RIP


great shame-we badly need people like Bernard Manning to burst the bubble of political correctnes and offend as many people as possible! R.I.P Bernard.A great man.

PS you people should understand the concept of comedy..if only those suicide bombers who blew up the WTC had a sense of humour wouldnt the world be a betetr place...


Terrible news, I know he was very controversial, but never the less a legend. One of the very few old school comedians who ever dared to go close to the line and sometimes even cross it. A very sad day in the world of British comedy


I knew this would make the politically correct tossers of this world happy.


Bernard Manning was a warrior for freedom of speech and for that the prime minister and the queen should pay tribute to him tonight!


He was a working class hero and told it like it was, he had the balls to stand up and say what he thought and didn't care if he offended anyone, it was his right to do so. So what if others didn't like him, you don't have to listen. There'll be a lot of laughter in heaven now.


I hope they show a whole month of Tribute shows on every channel that would piss all over your cornflakes lololol.


I loved Bernard Manning like a father.I am sitting here crying at news of hs death,but do any of you care how I feel????


Bernard Manning was a very funny man...
Its a shame that the PC brigade came along and took away our rights to having a sence of humour.
Todays 'comedians' could have learnt alot from Bernard Manning and other comedians like him.

I loved the guy, he said it how it was and took no notice of the PC brigade.

[Dave Lewis]

A few you missed, Matt... DS is always good for a laugh, but sometimes it makes you want to puke - what a bunch of wankers.

he was a good cathlic boy who told rasist jokes and lets not forget a great deal for charity not my cup of tea he was of a different generation

It was his job he is a Comedian for f*ck sake and if you consider what he does bad then all those rejoicing over his death are as bad if not worse.

At least he didnt take the piss from disabled people, more than i can say about modern day bunch of fannies. we have many on DS

Taking the piss from disabled people???

[Captain Tancredi]

While I don't want to defend Manning particularly, I believe that racist (or racially-based) jokes were one of the ways that some white, predominantly working-class people adjusted to the presence of ethnic minorities in this country over the last fifty years. If a situation comes along which makes you feel threatened, you can either confront it, ignore it or make fun of it. It's only within the lifetime of most people posting here that a black and Asian professional class has emerged (mainly because first generation immigrants tend to take whatever jobs are available and then push their children through school) with the means to make itself heard and understood, and with that comes a greater sensitivity to what causes offence. But when push comes to shove, the best Irish jokes are always told by Irishmen, Jewish people do the best Jewish humour and something like 'Goodness Gracious Me' can do a fantastic job of poking fun at the less controversial issues surrounding the British Asian community.

[WhiteCrow]

Let's hope Stan Boardman follows him soon.

I was going to say Jim Davidson myself ...

[Lissa]

Here's the thing about Bernard Manning. In the early 80s he was demonised by the new generation of comedians (as was Bob Monkhouse who was about as far from Manning as you can get) and his act hasn't been seen much since. While people like Monkhouse reinvented themselves as gameshow hosts, Manning stayed a stand up.

He released a few videos in the early 90s as the 18-certificate comedy video craze brought wave after wave of old comics who could add a few more f-words to their act in a sad attempt to get a piece of the Chubby Brown bandwagon. I bought a couple of Manning videos during an angry phase where I just wanted to find more people to hate. I'd already hated Chubby Brown and Mike Reid and Jim Davidson to bits and wanted to go for the big one. What I found was an act which didn't live up to the reputation.

What Bernard Manning actually did - as opposed to what people claim he did - was give his pissed-up, mixed race, largely working class audience exactly what they wanted. It wasn't intellectual, it wasn't the sort of thing you'd want to see on television and it wasn't even very funny sober but the audience liked it.

Technically he was an ok comedian. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of jokes but lacked the charm and charisma of a Frankie Howerd, Barry Cryer or the aforementioned Bob Monkhouse. He was best suited to the boozy clubs he made his fortune in because he was sharp but not terribly subtle.

In the last ten or so years he seemed to decide that he was fed up of defending himself against the accusations of being a racist (including a disastrous appearance on the Mrs Merton Show) and did himself no favours in his few public appearances. The memory of him walking around in his pants in that fly-on-the-wall thing with washed up entertainers still haunts me.

Bernard Manning was one of the last comedians who actually believed in stand up comedy as an end in itself rather than as a springboard to do acting or sit coms or panel games. As a comedian he was streets ahead of Mike Reid (an actor playing the part of a comic), Jim Davidson (a smarmy hotch-potch of stolen jokes and nastiness) and Chubby Brown (someone who comes off as a really nice guy in interviews but on stage he is a one-trick misogynist). He had talent, he chose his direction in life, he made a lot of money and he seemed to enjoy life. And no one in the last 40 years could go to a Bernard Manning show and not know the sort of thing they would be in for.

There are worse people in the world than Bernard Manning.

[Captain Tancredi]

You couldn't be closer to the truth about Roy Chubby Brown- he's a regular patron of my cousin's shop and always has time to chat to people and sign autographs. A few months ago they had a Red Nose Day promotion and she cajoled him into doing a five-minute impromptu set in the shop.

[Rob McCow]

There are worse people in the world than Bernard Manning.

too right.

Excellent points there, Lissa. I really don't know enough about Manning to condemn him, or to praise him.

[Antony Cox]

The memory of him walking around in his pants in that fly-on-the-wall thing with washed up entertainers still haunts me.

I saw that, too. I've always found him to be very distasteful, but when I watched that documentary and saw him being a doting grandfather to his grandkids (and them obviously loving their grandfather to bits), it made me think that there must have been a nice side to that man, however abhorrent his 'act' may have been.

[Pip Madeley]

Well, it's big news here, as I don't live too far away from Harpurhey here in Manchester - his "world famous" Embassy Club is literally seconds away from one of my libraries. He won't be missed by many, but I have to admit I'm sad to see him go, as he's something of a local institution round my way. He's been a prolific donator to many charities up here in t'North.

The whole subject of racism annoys me really. I am without question no racist, I couldn't care less about what colour people are, I was brought up that way, I'm based in a library with many more ethnic borrowers than whites, my lovely boss is Pakistani, my best friend is mixed race... he sure wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and yet, I have to admit, I've laughed at Manning in the past, because at the end of the day, a joke is a joke. He wouldn't discriminate against anyone, everyone was fair game in his eyes. There's idiots who'll take it totally seriously (BNP supporters for instance) but I never have and never will. He was true to himself, I don't honestly believe he himself was a big racist (he always denied it), he'd tell jokes about anyone... he was very much of his time and his own generation, and that's why he fell out of favour after the 70s. The sad thing is, now he's dead, everyone feels they can now put the boot in. But not me. I don't laugh at people dying. My wishes go out to his family and friends.

[Dave Lewis]

at the end of the day, a joke is a joke.

If I'd said he was a fat bastard, would you have called me on that, even if I qualified it by saying it was 'just a joke'?

[Matthew T]

Also to a lot of the Manning supporters, a jokes a joke, free speech blah blah blah, unless it's a joke about Manning karking it of course. Then it's sick. But Paki jokes are OK.

[Pip Madeley]

Well that's my point really, in that a joke is never everyone's cup of tea - humour is subjective. There's things he's said that I would obviously frown upon today, but neverthless I could laugh at his act, because I never took him completely seriously, and he seemed a good-hearted man (he's renowned round here for the thousands and thousands he's donated to our local hospitals over the years). He was a great stand-up with great comic timing. You have to remember, he was at his height when shows like Till Death Us Do Part and The Black and White Minstrel Show were on - all seen as 'racist' now, but none of them were trying to be at the time. It was all different back then, times have changed, but Bernard never did. I don't think he ever meant the things he said maliciously.

Unlike Jim Davidson (aka Mr BNP).

[Wayne]

I don't really know much about Manning per se, or at least only by reputation, Having hardly ever seen him on tv over the years, & beyond that it's hard to know what to say, 'coz i agree a little bit with everyone.
But sometimes seem to find myself stuck between a rock & a hard place these days, between 'political correctness gone mad' - A situation which i believe does exist sometimes, & between the fact that my own personal feelings on racism & other 'isms' is usually the 'politically correct' one.
What it comes down to with me i suppose is whether something is snide or malicious.
If i can branch out onto the wider issue of racism or perceived racism in entertainment: I can still laugh at some old fashioned comedy shows like 'On the Buses' for example, because even when they deliberately reference ethnic minorities, i don't believe that it's done with malice. There is an argument for it representing an ingrained ignorance that still exists in some quarters of our society, but in a way i think it also represents 1960's & 70's society that possibly reflects some the points that Ian made about white, predominantly working-class people adjusting to the presence of ethnic minorities.
I can't help but be reminded of a newspaper reporter who criticised John Inman upon his death for the way 'Are You Being Served' represented homosexuality. I think that's one of those times when the 'politically correct' thing gets out of perspective, because you have to remember than it was 30 odd years ago.
Not that i'm neccesarily defending Manning with these comparisons. I don't know whether i'd view him as malicious or snide or not, because i've never really come across his 'work', so i don't really know. But i do get the impression that he was a rather charmless sort of comedian, to put it mildly.

[Pip Madeley]

You make a good number of points there, Wayne - as you said, it's all a product of its time. Manning was one of the last of his kind, he never took notice of the changes in society, he just did his thing. A lot of people on PS loved 'Life On Mars' and in particular DCI Gene Hunt, a Seventies man from a different Britain to today, who went round calling people "nonce" and "poof". If it was Manning who said it, I don't think you'd get the same reaction. You'd laugh at Gene, but frown at Manning. Both were a guilty pleasure, and many people found humour in Manning, just like many found humour in Gene Hunt on the telly.

Barry Cryer once said something about Manning that sums him up for me: "The thing about Bernard was that he looked funny, he sounded funny and he had excellent timing. It was just what he actually said that could be worrying." And it's true. He could make you laugh because of the way he was, even if you didn't agree with what he was saying. Exactly the same for Gene Hunt, surely?

I'm still sad at his death - I guess you lot can't see it like I do, because you see he died in North Manchester General Hospital at 3.10pm today. That's my local hospital, the place I was born. The library I'm based at is literally further down the same road as the hospital. So it's all a little too real for me. I can't just shrug off someones death when it's so close to home. He was a Mancunian, a normal bloke who stayed close to his roots.

[Pip Madeley]

And before I go to bed, I'd like to leave you with this clip:

Bernard Righton

Fantastic.