Rita Panahi: Humourless scolds ruining Australians’ larrikin nature

Most people in this country remain largely sensible with a sound sense of perspective, but it is the hypersensitive, perpetually aggrieved who are getting the most attention.

Remember when Australians were envied for their easygoing larrikin nature and keen sense of humour?

You know, the days when the miserable, humourless scolds were more likely to be ignored than exalted.

When we understood that just because you’re offended, it doesn’t mean you’re right.

Well, judging by some recent outrages, those days are well and truly over.

Powerful cultural forces, including the media, are determined to elevate victim-playing and offence-taking.

There are dozens of high-profile examples of this phenomenon every month but two come immediately to mind and both are from the football world.

One involves a historic dad joke by Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett about ripped jeans being blown up into some sort of racist, classist hate crime and the other is even more ridiculous than that.

This week we heard about sponsors and female football players sent into fits of rage by what was described as an “appalling, inappropriate and disrespectful” joke delivered by Collingwood president Jeff Browne at the club’s AFLW awards night, held in April.

Jeff Browne has been heavily criticised for making a joke. Picture:Britta Campion

“I can’t believe he would be stupid enough to say that,” said one sponsor, while another was equally aghast: “It was so disrespectful. It would always be inappropriate, but on a night to celebrate the women’s team, it was just appalling ... I can’t imagine how the players felt having their season and achievements reduced to a joke.”

The hot takes didn’t stop there with one of the two perturbed sponsors who have chosen to remain anonymous reaching this conclusion: “It just shows that nothing has changed at Collingwood, they’ve learnt nothing, and it’s an issue from the top down.’’

Wowee, this “appalling” joke must’ve been biting indeed.

Don’t know about you but I couldn’t wait to find out what risqué comedy stylings the Pies president had indulged in, just what ribald, vulgar shenanigans had taken place at this awards night that some two months later it was still causing an uproar.

Trigger warning! Trigger warning! Brace yourself for this is the off-colour joke: “I hear some of you girls are going overseas tomorrow. I have a message for you from Jordan De Goey, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’’ president Browne said.

Yep, that’s it. That’s the supposedly outrage-inducing comment that “would always be inappropriate” and signifies deep issues at the top.

Sure, it’s not that funny but it is also not particularly ill-advised; only those determined to be offended would be stewing over such a benign comment.

And it’s not clear how exactly a lame dad joke diminishes the players’ achievements.

One wonders how these people would cope listening to Ricky Gervais or Dave Chappelle’s work ... they’d probably be claiming PTSD if they heard the material of these two comic geniuses.

When the comment was made in April it was some three months after De Goey’s New York issue was settled, after the star player pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment which is considered a violation, not a crime.

He was initially charged with far more serious offences but as his lawyer explained the video footage from the nightclub saw the serious charges dropped.

“It showed what the victim said happened didn’t really happen,” Jacob Kaplan said. “That’s the important thing which is why I think we were able to get this case reduced.”

Most people in this country remain largely sensible with a sound sense of perspective, but it is the hypersensitive, perpetually aggrieved who get the most attention and it wasn’t long before an apology of sorts was forthcoming from Collingwood.

“I made a comment at our best and fairest night which, in hindsight and given the events of the past week, using Jordan as a reference point was not a good example,” Browne said this week.

The PC police wouldn’t cope listening to Ricky Gervais.

Don’t know about you but we’re only half way through the year and I’m already suffering from “sorry fatigue” caused by unnecessary apologies and explanations from public figures.

By all means apologise if you’ve genuinely done something wrong, but this endless self-flagellation over events that are not remotely offensive to the overwhelming majority of the population is a self-defeating strategy.

All it does is embolden the next set up of miserable moaners and creates an atmosphere of fear where people are reluctant to indulge in a little harmless humour or show more of themselves.

The current malaise is largely media-led but the rot is deeper than just the fourth estate; from academia to Hollywood to the corporate world we are seeing a groupthink that is close-minded, humourless and harsh.

That’s not who we are as Australians but if we’re not careful the silent majority will be bullied into submission by the Karens and Kevins of this world.

IN SHORT

The BBC has hired inclusion consultants to teach staff there are more than 150 genders and to encourage them to list their pronouns on email signatures. The media continues to be the number one enabler of the worst excesses of the trans activist movement.