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Kate Moss dressed down alongside Little Britain's 'Vicky Pollard' character for comic relief in 2006: and the skewed fascination with the 'lower' classes hasn't gone away... Ian West/PA

Lisa McInerney Playing the 'pleb' - why are we still at it?

Jarvis Cocker was right – it’s not cool to pretend to be poor, and struggling to get by doesn’t automatically make you a folk hero.

SO, THAT’S IT for another year. Okay, so that’s a term usually applied to the December holiday sometime around 8pm on the 25th, but given the advancing status of Halloween as a festival in its own right, it works just as well here.

With the amount of work people put into their costumes these days, it’s no wonder some of them spend November in creative fatigue.

Then there are those who love taking part in the fun of the spooky season, but couldn’t be bothered with the whole creative concept of a good Halloween costume. So we get people who dress as ‘sexy’ versions of insects, people who go in their usual garb with some excuse about being a character that requires no costume – “I’m a serial killer! They look just like the rest of us!”.

Or people who turn up as a character from a real social group who they assume won’t have sent any representatives to attend the shindig in question. So you get people dressing as “a chav” or “a big fat gypsy bride” or “a redneck” or – mortification on mortification – “a gangsta’ rapper”. Complete with blackface.

Dressing up as people from what we think is a lower social order is a pastime that’s older than any of us. The French nobility, pre-revolution, reportedly enjoyed dressing as peasants, as a fun distraction from their lives of tiring debauchery and cake-eating. The idea that being of noble birth isn’t quite as relaxing as being a wretched pleb has been used countless times in literature, on screen, in song.

“We’re still at it – and not just at Halloween”

It’s been nearly twenty years since Jarvis Cocker took the proverbial out of a rich student who thought that “poor is cool” in Common People, and really, that should have been the end of it (for what kind of monster doesn’t pay heed to Jarvis Cocker?) But we’re still at it – and not just at Halloween.

TV shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo have a bigger editorial focus on encouraging laughter and derision than cultural or social understanding. Specific to Ireland, you’ve got the likes of the Rubberbandits, a couple of comic talents who play the roles of badass skangers, but in reality have never had a horse outside unless there was a footman in livery attending it.

All well and good. It’s very hard to write or perform fiction without characters, after all, and we’ve been laughing long enough at the “upper class twit” trope. What’s interesting about the scorn involved in modern pop culture depictions of people of “lower” social classes is that no matter how mean it gets – whether it’s sneering at working class Dubs with overdone tans, or overweight Southern mamas who enter their overweight children into beauty pageants – we still haven’t moved on much from those French noblemen and their skewed admiration for the simple folk.

There is still very much a notion that living on the edge is a more authentic way of being, that people who struggle every day of their lives are somehow more “real” than their middle-class counterparts, that, to quote Jarvis again, “Poor is cool”.

“This is nonsense: life is frequently unfair”

There is an impression that people of lower social castes just don’t try hard enough to fit into society. This is nonsense, of course; life is frequently unfair and simply pulling up one’s shirtsleeves doesn’t guarantee success. Still, the feeling is that the lumpen proletariat are somehow free of the pressures of life; that they just don’t give a monkey’s about professional mobility or complying with social (or legal) boundaries. The offshoot of that is the “poor is cool” concept. It’s considered much more authentic to be a mouthy, council estate rebel than it is to be a privileged product of an artistic background (as Lily Allen’s take on her own upbringing shows).

We’re particularly susceptible to it here in Ireland, because we tend to tie the idea of struggle to our self-worth. It’s not enough to have a nice dress on; it has to be a nice dress we bought on sale in Penneys. It’s not enough to give birth; we have to have nearly died doing it. It’s not enough to have had a happy childhood; it has to have been a happy childhood in a hovel with the only toy available a hand-me-down Mr Frosty. To admit to having had a privileged upbringing is tantamount to declaring yourself a wastrel fop, so no matter the truth of our situation, we claim to having been wrung through the mill from birth.

Once, when I was writing for a site that an onlooker mused was “staffed by middle-class women”, I turned contortions in my insistence that I be reclassified as the spit ‘n’ sawdust type I am. My teenage self would have been horrified; she knew what it was like to not be able to attend school
events because there wasn’t money to spend on such fripperies, to not have the same branded sports gear as the cool kids, to return to school in September every year with no holiday news (hey, teenagers are shallow and materialistic).

But the older I got, the more I railed against my upward mobility, saw it as a betrayal of my own background. Which is strange, really. Struggle might be authentic, but it’s no bloody fun.

Jarvis was right. Poor isn’t cool. Struggling to get by doesn’t automatically make you a folk hero, living hand-to-mouth as you reject the confines of a life lived by the rules. It just makes you bloody tired. Emulating popular underclass characters for Halloween is forgiveable, as is basing one’s comedy act around earthy types not afraid to give hell to their betters. Superheroes are in short supply; it’s just that you’re no more likely to find them in a council estate than you are anywhere else.

Read previous columns on TheJournal.ie by Lisa McInerney >

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46 Comments
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    Mute Christian O'Brien
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:27 AM

    Is there no editor in the Journal that could have canned this article. That 5 min of my life wasted I will never get back.

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    Mute Nuffsaid Thatsall
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:15 AM

    Exactly!!! Yaaaawwwwnnn!!!

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    Mute Dave Kavanagh
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    Nov 5th 2012, 12:20 PM

    I didnt read it as I have lost precious time recently reading this correspondants articles and find them petty and self serving. Just skipped straight down here to see what everyone else thought of the article and Surprise Surprise 350+ people agree it was waffle.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Nov 5th 2012, 1:23 PM

    Usually the same rubbish from this writer. “Oh look at me I’m so working class because I grew up on a council estate.” And now it’s “oh I’m so genuine working class and don’t like others pretending to be working class in order to look cool because that would make you poser so just leave us working class to be cool on our own”.

    I honestly think its ridiculous to have a class system in the first place never mind having people arguing to have other people not trespass on another classes image.

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    Mute Maria
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:24 PM

    I enjoyed it. I think she speaks the truth and perhaps that’s makes some people feel uncomfortable.

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    Mute Sean C
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:38 AM

    “The December holiday”…when did we become American and lose Christmas ?

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    Mute John Everyman
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:37 AM

    John, Irish people are, and always have been, European. Our culturral links with the continent are thousands of years old and not some recent intrusion on Ireland’s purity as the ultra-nationalists would have us believe. Oh and speak for yourself when you say we have lost our Irish identity, I still have mine.

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    Mute Adrian de Cleir
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:48 AM

    I come from a middle class background and im really cool.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:17 AM

    Well your name is De Clair so that suggests you are of Norman descent, who became the the ruling class after Strongbow (who was De Clare but that’s close enough to De Clair) conquered Ireland. So stop pretending to be middle class!

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    Mute Tom Barry
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:49 AM

    Weren’t the O’Brien the kings of Thomond? #PotKettle

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    Mute Rebecca De Stanleigh
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:08 AM

    Oh yeah so if you have a Norman name you’re upper class. Pass me the caviar.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Nov 5th 2012, 1:17 PM

    Jeez do you guys have your humour sensors turned off today? I’m not actually dissing his name; just humorously trying to say how ridiculous it is to put people into social classes because of some inane difference, as this tripe article does.

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    Mute Rebecca De Stanleigh
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    Nov 6th 2012, 12:56 AM

    I agree. It isn’t very good..

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    Mute Damocles
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:01 AM

    And what about people dressing as ghosts? Surely they are the worst offenders, wilfully dissing people who are so impoverished they are bereft of life.

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    Mute Mary Jordan
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:58 AM

    Contender for comment of the week!

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    Mute Adrian de Cleir
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:51 AM

    This article makes far too many assumptions about how we think tbh.

    Also the notion that ‘poor is cool’ has nothing to do with satire of poor people tbh. The likes of rubberbandits are popular because they’re funny and are just as popular amongst working class as they are with anyone else.

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    Mute Maria
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:28 PM

    Yes, but they are popular for the wrong reasons amongst those they mock. I was at one of their shows (didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for!) The amount of druggie idiots there who thought the bandits were edgy! I think they thought their Up the Ra lyrics really told a true story!

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    Mute Andrea Rock Massey
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:34 AM

    What a load of nonsense, I have been to parties where people have dressed up as French Aristocracy, Royal family etc. It’s dress up, a bit of fun. And anyone, who reads as much into it as the author of this “article” does, either has too much time on their hands or a massive chip on their shoulder. Who cares? Little Britain take the proverbial out of the upper class just as much as the working class.

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    Mute D Carr
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:07 AM

    “No, but, yeah, but, no, but, yeah, but, no, but, yeah but I know because I’m not wasting police time because you know Micha? Well, she saw the whole thing, right, because she was bunking off school because she was gonna go down the wimbley and get off with Luke Griffiths, only she never because he’s been trying to grow a moustache but it just looks like pubes, so she got off with Luke Torbet instead, only don’t tell Bethany that because she’s fancied Luke Torbet ever since she flashed her fanny at him during Home Ec”.

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    Mute Ciaran MacAoidh
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:24 AM

    Too much of the article (rednecks/blackface) is based on an american college Halloween anti-racism campaign rather than actual observation in Ireland. The campaign included other groups that weren’t based on poverty, so this is a bit of cherry picking to show horn a concept into the article. I found whole thing confused too; are we bad because we take the piss out of poorer people or because we want to be poorer people?

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    Mute Ciaran MacAoidh
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:25 AM

    *shoe-horn

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    Mute Neil Warknock
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:24 PM

    What is the point of this article? Get a wider variety of friends from different classes? Problem solved

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    Mute Declan Pollard
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:05 AM

    Me wearing white socks always make me a north side rebel looking for a cause instead of me being a rebel without a cause. Lol Now I wear them because they are cheap and my wife couldn’t be bothered to buy me any other ones!

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    Mute Diarmuid Donoghue
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:24 AM

    I jus love white socks cause instead of black bits stuck in your toenails, its white fluffy bits, much more easy on the eye.and.chicks dig it ;-)

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    Mute Paul Grealish
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:42 AM

    When did we introduce this class structure in Ireland??? It all sounds so terribly English! As far as i was concerned we were all just Irish and were all the same and were comfortable and happy out in each others company regardless of our diverse backgrounds until i started listening to talkshows on 4fm (a bloody good station!) and we all seem to be defined by classes now. Was i off the day this happened or what’s the story???

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    Mute Damocles
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:02 AM

    Class structure is a natural occurrence in human society. You can say you’ve removed it and that all are equal but one will emerge. People like to feel that they are better than other people and will peck down on them, they will justify this according to some sort of societal order, this will be the basis for class.

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    Mute Jill :D
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:26 AM

    Just open your eyes. Ireland has been like this for a long time now. Look at teenagers there’s a fine divide between Addidas wearers and Abercrombie wearers!

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    Mute Sean C
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    Nov 5th 2012, 5:35 PM

    Damocles I’ve been to all English speaking countries in the world, lived and worked in four of them and visited the rest, and in my experience Ireland and the UK are the only two that have a class structure.

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    Mute Nivag Yeoh
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:31 AM

    No idea what the author is saying here

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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:51 AM

    Lisa,

    Have you ever been to see a Sean O’Casey play? If you were a contemporary of his, would you have a problem with middle class actors playing his sometimes tragic, sometimes humourous characters? Take Joxer Daly in Juno and the Paycock: on the spectrum (defined by you) of French aristocrats parading as peasants, to someone dressed as a redneck for hallowe’en, where does Joxer lie?

    I see your point, to an extent. The likes of O’Casey used characters as comic device in tackling broader social issues in Ireland at the time of independence. However, do you not think that shows like Shameless also make a social commentary? We enjoy these characters because they explore taboo, and go beyond our sensibilities and what we consider to be acceptable behaviour.

    We pay equal homage, in popular culture, to wealthy mobsters, gangsters, mafia etc. Look at the success of shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos the Godfather trilogy … I could go on all day.

    So yes, reverence to pop-culture depictions of “lower” class is more for our amusement than anything else. But then, there’s hardly any less or more harm in reverence to mobsters, football players, celebrities etc. It may not have the artistic social commentary of Sean O’Casey, but in a way it does present to us a humourous outlet for the regrettable situations of many.

    As for people dressing as “sexy insects”, and people dressing in Penneys, I’m really struggling to find your point. On the latter, most of us grew up in a materialistic culture needing the best runners, etc, (a point you made yourself) and now you criticise people for taking pride in their thrift? Middle class people should buy labels or else they’re pretending to be poor and thinking it’s cool??? Bizarre. On the former, sexy costumes are indicative of a wider issue of over-sexuality creeping into everyday life, with bedroom attire visible in pubs, and that’s a whole different issue to what (I presumed, after mental filtering of noise) is the supposed central point of your argument.

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    Mute Revolting Peasant
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:34 AM

    being poor is the shitest thing ive ever done, not being poor was much more fun

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    Mute MichealO'Keeffe
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    Nov 5th 2012, 7:12 AM

    Just shows us the “them and us” Devide. Some people have to face reality. Others are out of touch with Reality.

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    Mute Eric Davies
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    Nov 5th 2012, 12:13 PM

    strangely enough my own personal take on Irish society in the last 10 -15 yrs would be quite the opposite to the authors view . i think more Irish people pretended to be much richer than they were rather than poorer, just look at all the ‘dallas’ style houses with the false Greko Romanic fronts, all the Mercedes, beemers and stretch limo’s at every christening, communion or birthday party, hearing people talking in the pub or in work about their holiday to Tuscany or their second home on the Spanish Rivera, and how they go skiing every winter, now those same people are worried sick about losing their big houses,mercs and 3 holiday’s abroad each year. some people lived the dream and we are all having to pay for it, for those of us who never shook a paw with the celtic tiger, well nothings changed, we were skint then and were skint now, as for all you people who partied and overspent on credit, welcome to my world.

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    Mute Maria
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:40 PM

    Yes, but it’s no longer cool to be rich (or to pretend to be). I am not rich by any means, but when I recently took a holiday, something I haven’t done in years, I only told those who needed to know and didn’t make small talk about it. A friend of mine recently bought a second hand car and is getting comments like “it’s well for some!”

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    Mute Christopher Gardiner
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:28 AM

    I noticed this derogatory term PLEB being used more often by people with a clear agenda to discriminate and put down poor or working class people. i find it offensive because it is usually used by those who are pampered themselves.

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    Mute Damocles
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:40 AM

    But that’s what a pleb is, the lower class. It’s from “Plebian”. The Romans had two classes essentially (the concept of a middle class is relatively new) the Patricians, being the old families from whom the senators and ruling officials came, and the Plebians, everyone else free born. Below that you’d have freedmen and slaves (who couldn’t vote didn’t have many rights and weren’t worth the consideration but did all the work). In fact what would be considered middle class now is what might have been considered Plebian then. The working class would probably be more analagous to the slaves and freedmen, if you want to get all socially comparative.

    However the term Pleb comes to us filtered through the British Public/Grammar school system where it came to mean any boy in a lower year.

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    Mute Sean Herbert
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    Nov 5th 2012, 2:34 PM

    The author looks like great fun. Big smiley head on her.

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    Mute Martina Reid
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    Nov 5th 2012, 9:36 AM

    To the idiot who said he’d never get those 5 mins of his life back,.. Nobody bloody forced you to read it! In my opinion it was a nicely written piece discussing one point of view.,.

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    Mute Maria
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:31 PM

    I agree. I enjoyed it. It’s clear she has thought about something that is widespread but never analysed. The Lily Allen reference made me think.

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    Mute Robert Rusk
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    Nov 5th 2012, 8:59 AM

    Brings to mind the Billy Connolly sketch where he Lionises the working classes and deifies the nobility (‘toboggan’/'I kneow youuuu’/'humblebums’) while at the same time decrying the uncool middle-class upper-class wannabe fop with his Volvo and his Polo-kneck. I’ve heard so many wana-be working-class (who’s fathers drive mercs and are members of the local golf club) echoing this character assassination of the ‘bourgeois’ – use of such a term surely marks you out as one – where nobody questions that perhaps all Billy was doing was making fun of an outgroup who probably weren’t his fans, while bigging up his target audience and playing nice towards the rich and powerful!

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    Mute Regina Nicholson
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    Nov 5th 2012, 11:59 AM

    you mean there are people in Ireland that arent poor????

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    Mute john cleary
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:18 AM

    Lisa, come on now, behind those stern, tightly pursed lips, was your sharp tongue pressed firmly into your cheek when you placed the words ‘comic talent’ in the same sentence as ‘rubberbandits’?
    Nobody rips it out of class convention better than these guys-comics with proper talents:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DukZxJ4wS4A&feature=youtube_gdata_player
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhQYmcCI4MM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
    Good curmudgeonly article, interesting points!

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    Mute Gillian DeFaoite
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    Nov 6th 2012, 1:05 AM

    Lads, important question….

    Wtf is a honey boo boo?

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    Mute Nikki Daly
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    Nov 17th 2012, 11:30 PM

    Brilliant.

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    Mute Jill :D
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    Nov 5th 2012, 10:22 AM

    I had a great up bringing and look a model can’t even pull that look off!

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    Mute Robert Carry
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    Nov 7th 2012, 3:07 PM

    Belitting someone for their social background is no different to belittling someone for their racial background or religious background. Throwing terms like ‘chav’ and ‘knacker’ around at people because they’re from council estates is seriously harsh.

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