He had expressed views

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Think before you cancel.

A venue has accepted that it discriminated against a Jewish comedian when it cancelled his show at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Stand-up comic Philip Simon had been due to perform a solo show called Shall I Compere Thee In A Funny Way at The Banshee Labyrinth, on the city’s Niddry Street. However, the venue pulled his act over what it said were his views on the conflict in Gaza.

His views were too Jewish. Now what does that remind me of…?

In a statement given at the time to industry magazine Chortle, the venue said Mr Simon had expressed views on social media and elsewhere that it said “align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations”.

Say what? “align with the rhetoric and symbology of”? It’s a venue saying all this? Since when are venues in the business of sniffing out “views” that “align with” a string of pompous quasi-academic verbiage?

Mr Simon took legal action against the venue’s owner, Morrison Bros Ltd, claiming it had discriminated against him on the grounds of “unlawful belief-based discrimination”.

And used pompous verbiage to do so. The pompous verbiage is important here. It allows and encourages people to think they’re saying something both reasonable and important, when they’re not.

Comments

6 responses to “He had expressed views”

  1. Colin Day Avatar
    Colin Day

    Compere? Yes, that’s in the title.

  2. The Whimster Gap Avatar
    The Whimster Gap

    Isn’t symbology the academic discipline that Dan Brown invented for whatsisface in The Da Vinci Code? I think it might have been.

  3. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    Whimster, Dan Brown may have invented the use of that term for it, but semiotics was an established field long before. He may not have wanted to throw a word into his books that would send his readers to the dictionary – or to the bookstore to return his book.

  4. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Psst Whimster knows that, Whimster was being ironicalish.

  5. Ian Hargreaves Avatar
    Ian Hargreaves

    Ah, the weaponised accusation of anti-semitism. Good to see those still doing the rounds. Except… it wasn’t that. I’ve noticed that both Mr. Simon and the venue were VERY careful to avoid implying that he was cancelled for being “too Jewish”. It would be more accurate to say he was cancelled for being “too IDF”.

    He has, of course, a right to hold pro-IDF views. He has no right to escape criticism or consequences as a result of holding those views.

    I would say “shame on the venue for capitulating to this repellent manipulation”, but I don’t blame them. He used manipulative language to leave unsaid the implication that he was really being cancelled for being Jewish… and it worked.

    I suspect the venue were advised by their legal counsel that if they contested it, those implications would come strongly to the fore – how could they not? They always do. Much better to cut their losses and stay on side, even if it means capitulating to a supporter of a genocidal regime.

  6. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    Psst Whimster knows that, Whimster was being ironicalish.

    Ah. Sometimes irony is hard to spot online. However, it did give me the opportunity to use the word semiotics, which is something I can’t use often in my day-to-day life, and I love the word. So, sorry Whimster if I underestimated you, but thanks for giving me an opportunity to use that word.

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