Gordon Ramsay

AS Australians, we have a reputation for our offbeat sense of humour. But is the joke now on us? Or are we just losing our sense of humour, or more to the point, the art of satire?

Humour - or rather the lack of it ­ has occupied more bloggers’ bytes on news sites over the past fortnight than any other topic.

Asked by news reporters for their view, everyone, right up to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, seems to have an opinion about what’s funny and what’s not.

Continue reading "Even the blogosphere has turned against satire" »

I’ve always liked Tracy Grimshaw. She seems very nice. She does this thing sometimes with her eyes when she’s saying good night at the end of the show, it’s a little squint, it’s like she’s trying to make friends with an animal.

She’s into horses, and I’ve often wondered if hers watch her when she’s on, if they hear her voice and immediately start paying attention to the television, so that’s why she gives her reassuring blinking message. Unless they don’t watch A Current Affair. Horses are very smart.

So I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when Tracy said she’d agreed in advance not to ask Gordon Ramsay anything about his marriage, and whether he’d been shagging that other woman behind his wife’s back for all those years, meeting in hotels and sneaking around.

Continue reading "ACA abandoned journalism to suck up to Gordon" »

It was the week when Tracy Grimshaw decided to further her ambitions of becoming the next Darryn Hinch (shame, shame Gordon, shame), and Gordon Ramsay furthered his goal of pissing off the entirety of the female population of Australia once and for all.

The coverage of the slanging match between celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and A Current Affairs Host Tracy Grimshaw spread like that flu thing that has been pushed off the front pages by Gordon Ramsay and Tracy Grimshaw. Even the Prime Minister got involved.

It was on the front pages of newspapers, television news, talkback radio and all over The Punch.

We loved this falling out and so as did you by the looks of it.  There were some great posts on the fight canvassing issues of sexism, swearing and the deeper issues of how a man who looks like a Muppet Show remainder can attack anyones appearance.

It provoked wild debate among readers who both deplored Ramsay’s behaviour and those who thought that Grimshaw as host of ACA had no place lecturing people on public etiquette.

But Grimshaw’s editorialising has a long way to go to matching the master: Darryn Hunch aka Steve Vizard’s great Fast Forward character.

Continue reading "Foul mouthed conversation that stopped a nation" »

Here’s an oldie but a goody: Why do women wear makeup and perfume? Because they are ugly and they stink.

Some would say that joke, like Gordon Ramsay’s behaviour in recent days, is pretty offensive. But that personal favourite differs from the celebrity chef on two important fronts.

The first difference is arguably it’s funny. The second is obviously it’s sexist.

Continue reading "Ramsay’s attack was many things, but it wasn’t sexist" »

Forget the Red Shield Appeal, Daffodil Day, the work of the Black Dog Institute and, dare I mention them, the Make a Wish Foundation. I’m donating my cash to victims of NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

While they haven’t exactly suffered in silence - mainly because their key symptom is high-volume, profanity-laden abuse - victims of NPD have nevertheless suffered for years without any formal recognition of their condition.

It was made clear on the letters pages of The Australian this morning by Rob McCasker of Coomera, Qld, who writes: “Tracy Grimshaw has every right to be upset over the vile and unprovoked attack by Gordon Ramsay. However, she failed in her response by dismissing Ramsay as an “arrogant narcissist”. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is very real and has sufferers living a sociopathic existence destroying the lives of many people they claim to love; in short, NPD is emotional rape.”

Continue reading "Dig deep for victims of utter f***ing bastard syndrome" »

There’s nothing quite like the British press when they smell blood. When a star’s foibles move from bite-size skitty spreads in the tabloids to full-on denunciations in the broadsheets, it’s only a matter of time before the sackcloth and ashes come out. Gordon Ramsay apologised this morning - through a spokesman - for calling Tracy Grimshaw a pig.

Yesterday he was belligerent, talking about lawyers, and angry at Grimshaw for bringing up his wife when she denounced him on Monday. (That clip on YouTube has become a minor sensation and you can see last night’s follow-up here.) But Ramsay has copped a bucketing over the past 24 hours, with a columnist in London’s Daily Telegraph declaring she’s convinced he “has a death wish” and that he’s “blown it – certainly as far as female fans are concerned”. It ran on the home page of the Daily Mail website - right beside the latest coverage of the political crisis that is threatening to up-end public life in Britain:

More highlights from the global coverage below, including video of some of Ramsay’s actual comments on stage in Melbourne. (Winner for most obscure angle of the Ramsay stories around today goes to this post, which somehow manages to link the Ramsay incident to LG and the Cronulla Sharks.)

But where does this leave Ramsay now? Share your verdict in the comments.

Continue reading "Gutless Ramsay rolls as the British press tuck in" »

There are two types of people in the world: people who think there are two types of people in the world, and those of us who think it’s even dumber than the zodiac to divide people arbitrarily into just two irreconcilable camps.

However, the one issue which fits this never-the-twain-shall-meet division is swearing.

People either dislike swearing to the point of loathing it - hello Mum - or are perfectly comfortable with it, swear frequently themselves, find it amusing or edifying when other people use swear words to make their point.

Continue reading "Robert Hughes and the dying art of swearing" »

UPDATE 12.15pm: Gordon Ramsay said this morning his response was “to say silent” - apart from the following series of points: video.

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Parliaments are no strangers to the absurd, but for sheer incongruity it’s hard to match a report by the Senate last year on Gordon Ramsay’s swearing.

A submission (pdf here) from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide states in its introduction:

The revelation that the ‘F word’ was used 80 times in a one hour program raises many questions.

Indeed. You can picture a monsignor penning that line in the dim study of a parish house and muttering: “... So I’m f***ed if I know where to start.”

Continue reading "The curse of Gordon Ramsay: How he ruined the f-bomb" »

UPDATE 6.50pm: Grimshaw kicked off ACA with a massive spray at Ramsay, saying she was having a go because “bullies thrive when no-one takes them on”, calling him an “arrogant narcissist”, and denying they have any “great relationship”. She added:

Truly I wonder how many people would laugh if they were effectively described as an old, ugly pig. How is that funny exactly? And worse, it’s not even witty.

... Gordon Ramsay made me promise not to ask on Friday about his private life. He then got on stage on Saturday, and made some very clear and uninformed insinuations about mine. Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn’t find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don’t; and I’m not.

I still think she could have used the approach in the video below though.

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It’ll be a pity if, as is being reported , Tracy Grimshaw doesn’t confront Gordon Ramsay tonight on ACA over his insults towards her.

Because here’s one way she could deal with him. I particularly like that Ramsay looks shocked after being force-fed a leg-ham-sized portion of his own medicine:

Continue reading "What Tracy Grimshaw could say to Gordon Ramsay" »