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View Full Version : 30 BT staff face sack after Irish joke is circulated



Dr Mindbender
25th February 2009, 01:36
I had a hard time finding a source that wasn't the daily fail. I'm a little bit puzzled by this case because the right wingers are actually the ones playing the racism card while the unions are crying foul.

I'm wondering how upset the unions would have been if the joke had been about blacks or gays?



http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/30-call-centre-staff-sacked-at-british-telecom-over-irish-joke/





did you hear the one about 4 irishmen?
http://frigginloon.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/call-center.gif?w=198&h=150 whos laughing now you insensitive racists?


Wanna hear the joke that got 30 call centre staff sacked at british telecom (bt)?
two irishmen, paddy and gerry, drive to the top of connor pass, where gerry looks down at the 1000ft drop and says, ‘dis looks like a grand place.’he takes two budgies out of a box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off. Paddy watches the birds fly off and gerry falls to the bottom, killing himself stone dead. Looking down, paddy shakes his head and says ‘ stuff dat, dis budgie jumping is too dangerous for me!’
moments later, seamus arrives. He walks up to the edge of the cliff carrying another box and a shotgun.’hi paddy, watch dis,’ seamus says. He lets a parrot out of the box, then throws himself over the edge of the cliff with the gun. Paddy watches as halfway down, seamus takes his gun and shoots the parrot. Seamus carries on plummeting until he hits the bottom and breaks every bone. Paddy shakes his head and says ‘i’m never trying dat parrotshooting either!’
paddy is getting over the shock when sean appears. Sean pulls a chicken out of a sack, takes it by the legs and hurls himself off the cliff. He falls to the bottom , hits a rock and breaks a spine.
Once more paddy shakes his head ‘ stuff dat, lads. First dere was gerry budgie jumping, den seamus parrotshooting and now sean and his hengliding.

hmm, after this joke circulated around staff for 2 weeks, 30 employees were given the boot for passing it on. Cynics believe bt are just using the joke as an excuse to axe staff during uk’s recession without having to pay any redundancy money.stuff dat lads, dats cheap skating!!

Killfacer
25th February 2009, 13:21
:lol: They got sacked for that? Brutal.

Janine Melnitz
25th February 2009, 20:23
How did such a lame joke start "circulating" anyway?

Pogue
25th February 2009, 20:51
Not a good joke, but its not the most offensive one i've ever heard. I hear the irish council or whatever its called said they didn't think it was really offensive.

Anyway, whoever told management is a fucking grass scum **** and is worse than who told the joke imo, i would have just told my colleagues its not funny, being anglo-irish myself, would have left it at that. It probably wasn't malicious at all either.

Never ever go to the fucking management especially over something that fucking trivial.

Sean
25th February 2009, 21:22
I don't consider that offensive in the least. Lame, but not offensive. Noone should be sacked for that. The only reason they're irish is because the accent is needed for the wordplay ffs. Its not like it was depicting Irish people as as drunks or violent.

Cynics believe bt are just using the joke as an excuse to axe staff during uk’s recession without having to pay any redundancy money.stuff dat lads, dats cheap skating!!
This sounds about right.

LeninBalls
25th February 2009, 21:55
I don't even get it.

Melbourne Lefty
25th February 2009, 23:36
damnit surely they could come up with a better racist joke than that?:confused:

Killfacer
26th February 2009, 09:57
It's not even that bad, sacking someone for that is well out of line.

Dr Mindbender
26th February 2009, 13:20
I don't even get it.

The irish have a long history of being portrayed as stupid, especially within english circles.

Killfacer
26th February 2009, 13:26
(edit) oid.

Jazzratt
26th February 2009, 13:26
Cynics believe bt are just using the joke as an excuse to axe staff during uk’s recession without having to pay any redundancy money

"Cynics" in this case meaning "anyone with an ounce of nouse"

Dr Mindbender
26th February 2009, 13:41
It's not even that bad.

To me, the offensiveness of the joke isn't the point.

The fact that these jokes are still rampant is a window into the public mindset. This habit that the english have of jabbing us in the arm while going ''lighten up paddy'' is the real joke. I don't care if its against gays, blacks, women or irish fuck all prejudices. This attitude belongs in the last century when landlords would put up no irish allowed signs in their windows.

While i agree that grassing to management was a shitty thing to do in this case, the first port of call on the part of the offended worker should have been the union. Now it appears as though the union is taking the side of celtophobes.