Aussie comedian, Catherine Deveny got the boot from Melbourne Newspaper The Age after sparking outrage by “attacking” the late Steve Irwin’s daughter Bindi Irwin via her twitter account. Deveny was commenting on the various celebs she noticed arriving at the Logie Awards when she tweeted, “I so do hope Bindi Irwin gets laid #logies.” That night Deveny made comments on lots of stars but this tweet seemed to be the step too far and she was fired. Her ex boss, editor Paul Ramadage said in a statement, “We are appreciative of the columns Catherine has written for The Age over several years but the views she has expressed recently on Twitter are not in keeping with the standards we set at The Age.” Yet again someone is fired because they think what they say on the Internet is harmless.
Comedians are known for their cutting remarks. They purposely don’t hold back to get the biggest reaction from their audience. But those comments are best saved for when they are solely representing themselves, and here Deveny forgot that she’s never not representing her work. It would not have been so bad if she were doing a stand up show and she made this comment because people would be expecting crass language, but over the Internet a comment like that barely ever gets communicated the way you would want it to. The audience couldn’t see her when she said it and they couldn’t see what she was seeing when she said it. It was completely unexpected and all they saw was a columnist for their newspaper making crude comments. Maybe firing her was a bit drastic but this may not have been her first strike and suggesting that a 12 year old have sex was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Good news is now she can say whatever she wants on Twitter.
Do you think Catherine the comedian should have been let go?
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