Racist Reg hacks slammed for 'vitriolic hatred'

Not just a troll...

an dark, ugly, pugnacious little troll at that. Seems AA Gill was right all along!

Erm... Font?

I thought I should point out to those Welsh speakers amongst you who are whining about the apparently incorrect Welsh at the end of the article and correcting it that he has actually got it right! He used a capital i for the first letter and given the font ElReg uses it merely **looks** like an L.

Respect

It's not funny, it's racist bullying, an English majority picking on a Welsh minority and insulting them and expecting them to just laugh along at how weak they are.

All you Welsh who laugh when told you're a sheep-shagger - where's your self-respect?

I want to hear the English "get a sense of humour" merchants defend Pakistani corner shop jokes, jewish and black jokes. Well?

Country?

As a part-Welsh person myself, I would like to point out that Wales isn't, as many here seem to think, a country.

It's a principality.

/pedant

Get a sodding life,

it's a giggle, and yes the Welsh I know found it funny.

It's not discrimintaory at all, as where is the discrimination occuring? To read vitriolic hatred into that article is stretching the realms of reality. And your attacking a site that even changes it's masthead to Welsh on St Davids' Day!

MUPPET

Not only Englishmen laughed

What the hell is wrong with people nowadays? Political correctness has gone way too overboard.

I for one an not english, but I still found this article to be pure comedy gold. It's not as if I meet a welsh person I'll start making fun of them just because of this.

In fact, I'm from Bulgaria. Yes, the country of origin of the 'Bulgarian airbags' joke. Yet, I'm not offended at all by that particular joke - I find it entertaining, maybe a bit overused, but definately not racist.

Seriously, some people just need to get out more!

Relative views of ovine molestation

When I lived in (rural) England, I was taunted with the sheepshagger jibe because I was Welsh. When I moved to Cardiff I was taunted with the sheepshagger jibe because I was seen as a country boy. But as someone else said above "We shag em, you eat em!"

Sence of humor failure

... or he needs to get laid and soon (not that i'm offering or anything).

Principality?

"I would like to point out that Wales isn't, as many here seem to think, a country.

It's a principality."

Principality? Wouldn't that mean it was ruled by a prince?

From what I've seen of the Welsh Assembly, country is a far more accurate term ;-)

You're only jealous!

I'm Welsh and proud of it!

I also have what I presume is a typical sense of humour and I found the article hilarious, containing no offence whatsoever. Ignore all this political correctness crap and continue with the boredom alleviating oratory!

btw Don't knock a bit of sheep shagging til you've tried it.

omfg

"England or the English or to a man or woman from the West Indies"

Whats that got to do with anything.... you want unfair... any american or chinese, or basically ANY film in the world, if there is a badguy, he will have an english accent.

@Dimitrov

"In fact, I'm from Bulgaria. Yes, the country of origin of the 'Bulgarian airbags' joke."

OOOoooo - tell me more... not heard any of those ones! :)

Half-Welsh....and proud of it !!

Well I think D.Bevan must be the President of Boring Humourless Git's Anonymous if everyone he knows didn't even raise a slight smile at it.

Im half-Welsh, (my mother Welsh,) so I've had to endure the "Sheep Shagger" comments from time to time. I just respond with humour.

"Sorry Im half Welsh, so I don't shag sheep.....I just get oral off of them" :)

Shuts the other person up and gets a laugh ;)

Fr Ted: Spiteful, Racist, Targeted

Dear Hat Trick Productions,

I find the tone, manner and content of your TV show "Fr Ted" racist. Moreover, it promotes and gives weight to unfair, false and malgnant stereotypes of the Irish people. The people who I have shown it to have grimaced to the point of tears and shook with convulsions of disgust. This is yet another example of paddy-wackery coming out of an English Broadcasting house. This Graham Lenihan fellow is obviously a racist who hates Ireland.

There has, in recent years, been a group formed of conscientious people who object to such treatment of our people. Every year, they gather on Achill Island to show that Irish people on islands are not all buffoons(http://www.friendsofted.org/). We take ourselves 100% seriously and are, in the main, abstinent from alcohol.

Suas Mothoin

PS: My head was just *resting* up my arse.

@ Respect

Well matey, I for one know of several people I work with who routinely take trips to various comedy clubs, gigs, pub stand-ups etc.

The group is diverse in ethnicity, faith, nationality and sexual orientation.

And during many of the long, long, looooong coach trips it's actually been put forward that such jokes about ethnic, national or faith sterotypes could be seen as offensive by the most petulant and pathetic members of those groups the vast amount don't care about the jokes and even LIKE the jokes as they're just parodies of a sterotype that only truly narrow minded fuckwits seem to think are even vaguely true..

All you have to do is look around - many people lampoon their own sexuality, race, religion or nationality for shits and giggles.

Wheres the Welsh self-respect ? I don't think I've met a Welsh person who isn't proud of their heritage and nationality and rightly so, it's bloody lovely place with amazing people and a great history. Still dosn't mean I won't rib Welsh mates for interfering with livestock!

FFS - I'm a white, middle-class, straight English chap of no particular faith. I'm fucking boring. I should WISH to have something interesting about me.

Be proud of your differences but don't get arsey when people have a laugh about them - only the truly dull, unimaginative and repugnant people get so irked as they often get frustrated with their own intellectual impotence and with not being able to respond in a timely and witty fashion.

Wales is not a country....

D Bevan wrote : The posted article contains offensive statement targeted at a small country and countrymen.........

Just to clarify, wales is not a country.

Wales is no more a country than Yorkshire [any or all of the Ridings] and there are lots of parallels : both have their own dialect, both were invaded by the Angles, the Saxons, the Norms, the Romans.... [anyone missing?] both have their government in London with the Pound as the currency, both are green and hilly and NEITHER ARE COUNTRIES.

The welsh do receive large amounts of unnecessary money to keep their dialect alive, have a TV station disproportionately subsidised by the Government and have a very large and totally pointless County [no 'R'] Council, sitting in Cardiff.

Oh, and D Bevans house, one very VERY large soap box and no sense of humour.

MD

@Mark Daniels

Diw Cymraeg ddim yn "dialect" fel ti'n dweud. Neu fydde cachu fel ti'n gallu darllen hwn fel dy Saesneg Sir Caerefrog, tyfe.

Of course Wales is a country

My ignorant friend Mr. Mark Daniels states that Wales is not a country. In fact Wales is one of the four constituent coutries of the United Kingdom - even a schoolboy should know that. However, Wales is not a sovereign state (is that what you mean, Mr. Daniels?) and is more correctly termed a principality.

Go take your ignorant prejudice back to whichever country you come from, Mr. Daniels.

Made me laugh and I'm Welsh

Don't take this to heart, keep up the good work.

Best answer I come up when anybody has a go at me for being Welsh is I point out that I'm the British one as the people in England are actually French since the Norman conquests............... ;-)

Gerald Davison

Born, brought up and living in Mold, N. Wales

Re: Principality?

"Principality? Wouldn't that mean it was ruled by a prince?"

You mean, like a Prince of Wales?

Sign Turners

Just returned from a holiday on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales and although I didn't spot anyone playing inappropriately with our woolly cousins I did notice that a great many signposts were pointing in random directions - I could only imagine it was an attempt to dissuade visitors. It did make me wonder if the culprits intended to spend the rest of their lives in the village they were born in (cos otherwise the word hypocrite might spring to mind)...

Everyone I actualy met was very friendly even though it is an area where Welsh is the primary language.

Anyway I didn't find the article hilarious, too long and obvious for that.

Ahem

My wife sez: "As somebody who is shagged by a Welshman on a regular basis, I say 'Baah' to Mr Bevan".

Funny thing is, I'm from Huddersfield.

Paid a mallu cachau!

I'm offended...

...as an American! What's with all you Brits thinking that you can get away with your so-called "metric system" any longer? You really think that you can escape?

In all seriousness though, this guy needs to lighten up.

By my count, el Reg has insulted Bulgarians, Sheep, Vacuums (of the Space, not the Cleaner variety), Grapefruit, Welshmen, Practicing Bestiality Fetishers, "Funbags", Walnuts, the Known Universe, Chickens, Harley Davidson's, and probably some guy here in America for not translating the metric system often enough (we Americans really are retarded when it comes to your metric system, I'm serious).

Oh, and as an American who likes walnuts and grapefruit, rides a Harley, has a wife with quite spectacular funbags, and who's lineage is almost entirely Welsh... you'll be hearing from my lawyer shortly!

@Andrew Thomas

From the OED :

country

n noun (plural countries)

1 a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory.

principality

n noun (plural principalities) a state ruled by a prince. (the Principality) British Wales.

So, Andrew. Wales is not a country.

Have a look at the history of wales. At no point ever, EVER, has it been a country. Wales is more like Durham than Yorkshire, Andy. Ruled by a Prince, [the Prince Bishops] hence the name, principality.

Cheerio and have a good weekend.

MD

Worried

If we can't make fun of Wales and the Welsh then what are they for?

Three for the price of one

This bloke is obviously a Dai-d in the wool Welsh Nationalist (groan)

I remember a story about an American who shows up in a pub in Scotland with the immortal greeting "Hello sheepshaggers!" One of the company stands up at the back and yells "That's Wales!"

"Wow!" says the American. "You guys must be really strong swimmers."

Anyway, the English are much more suspect in the sheep-bothering stakes. Where else do you find people with surnames like "Ramsbottom" and "Woolcock"?

@Law

Bad guys in American movies have bad German accents too.

/sigh

The Welsh haven't been denied a job, or entrance to a theater or anything of the sort. They're not being discriminated against here -- they're being made fun of.

Yes, you bloody sheep-shagger, there is a difference.

Prince is the proof

As several Reg readers have pointed out, Wales is a principality. Its 'ruler' is therefore the current Prince of Wales. As any fule kno, the Prince of Wales currently does it with a woman who looks like an equine, not an ovine. Ergo, the Welsh cannot be sheep-shaggers.

Stick THAT in your pipe, D Bevan, you humourless horse-humper.

All that said (and in a weak bid for topicality) I've always thought Camilla is twice as wank-worthy as the sexless Diana (when she was alive, obviously). I wonder if Cammy uses IRC... ?

Sounds familiar

"The welsh do receive large amounts of unnecessary money to keep their dialect alive, have a TV station disproportionately subsidised by the Government and have a very large and totally pointless County [no 'R'] Council, sitting in Cardiff."

Sounds a lot like Quebec here in Canada. And from Mr Bevan's comments, they sound about as uptight about themselves and their language too.

I demand D Bevan gets a life...

I am Welsh and I suspect that far more damage has been done to the reputation of my homeland by the attempts of D Bevan to portray us as completely lacking a sense of humour than by any number of jokes about sheep. I have been reading the Reg for some time, certainly long enough to know that that it treats anyone and everyone with an equal lack of respect, and to feel in no way targeted by an article which I actually enjoyed.

My advice to D Bevan is that he will achieve far more by responding to any future comments regarding sheep with a witty comeback rather than seomewhat feeble allegations of racism. It really does achieve so much more...

RE: Welsh for Wanker

Welsh for Wanker is "Englishman"

In New Zealand...

We use velcro gloves when shagging sheep, to gain better traction.

Fortunately most Welsh people have a sense of humour.

Forgive the Yank ignorance....

but last I checked Wales was part of the United Kingdom. An Englishman making fun of a Welshman is like me making fun of someone from another state. Not only is it not legal grounds for a law suit, most people would laugh it off.

Being of Scottish and Irish heritage (and probably some Welsh since there is a castle with my family name on it there), my race is Caucasian... i.e. I am a white boy. Welsh has less to do with race than locality and culture. Simply being born in a particular area does not make the people of that area a separate race, any more than a white boy from the US is racially different than a white boy born in London, Cardiff, Paris, Johannesburg, Berlin, etc. White is White. No better or worse than anything else. And race is all a matter of genetics anyways and therefore meaningless in terms of sexual preference. Although if you could prove there was a genetic pre-disposition of Welshmen toward wool critter sexual preferences, you could make a race argument since that would be unique to the area....

The Irish are worse...

I'm Irish and give you full permission to slag us all off. We can take it, even from a Limey. Seriously, if you don't have a sense of humour about this stuff, when it was obviously written with tongue firmly in cheek (I mean, is the speed of a sheep really quantifiable?) then go read another site. I certainly wouldn't want anyone leaping to my defense when someone is just being humourous. And it was a funny article too.

who are we kidding

very few of us are shagging anything were geeks I am

part welsh and I don't feel the slightest offense mostly

because I know El Reg and thats the sort of humor that

they like and well so do I . I am also part Irish and I love to

drink so maybe not all stereotypes are wrong or funny.

Now if only that dwarf were welsh.

Count me in..

"How many Welsh men and women laughed at your "humour" umm?"

*raises hand* (albeit sheepishly...)

Gareth

Now you mention it, Michael

I was once openly denied a job in Wales because I was English. The argument was that the locals would make trouble if they imported someone into a high-unemployment area so they had to struggle to find someone local with close to the required (very specific) skillset rather than risk employing an Englishman.

If you think about it, this probably worsened the unemployment in the area since the company was less profitable and therefore less able to employ more people.

Why do birds fly upside down over Wales?

Because it's not worth shitting on.

What offends me is that the Reg does not have all of it's articles in Welsh (being the international business language of the future)

Agree with Bevin

Reluctantly I have to agree with D. Bevin. If you make certain jokes or comments about certain groups, you will be taken away in a dark van. The law in this area is so tight that I could break it simply by telling a racist joke here as an example. However the media treats groups differently. It seems okay to ridicule and promote hatred of groups A, B and C but not group D. I think the law should apply universally to all groups. Unfortunately D. Bevin you are in group D. Hard bun.

There was only good humour behind the Reg article and no hatred at all.

re: this welsh man laughed

That as may be, but did you ever go to school? Or do you sheep-shaggers not bother ;)

@upside down bird comment

"What offends me is that the Reg does not have all of it's articles in Welsh (being the international business language of the future)"

Er... that'll be "its" not "it's". Perhaps you'd better brush up on your English (I am assuming that you speak the international business language of the future: Mandarin Chinese). Xie xie/diolch.

Offended and disgusted

As a Scotsman, I am deeply offended that the article contained no references to Scottish people as drunk ginger tight wads.

Oh to slap an englishman.

And some welsh people show no racism towards the english?

I lived in wales for a number of years working on building sites. If I didn't want to be the butt of racist jokes (in english and welsh language) then I just made out I was born in wales to welsh parents who left wales when I was a baby. I was then accepted as one of them, no more offensive jokes or violence.

I remember seeing an ad for the six nations rugby that featured an englishman as the butt of a racist joke on S4C. Had the ad been turned around to feature a welshman as the butt of the joke and shown in england there would have been understandable outrage at the ad and heads would have rolled.

Although I was offended by the ad it was actually quite funny!

And the Ad?

Can't remember it exactly now, but there are 4 people on a train: 2 ladies, one welshman and one englishman.

The train goes through a tunnel and the welshman slaps the englishman. As the train leaves the tunnel, the englishman is rubbing his face wondering if he had done anything to offend the girls.

The commentary exposes the welshman's thoughts and he is surmising what each of the other characters is thinking. Then finally turning to his own thoughts he 'says':

...and as for me, I can't wait till the next tunnel.

(so violence towards englishmen is both acceptable and funny!)

And finally...

Where's the best place to shag a sheep?

On the edge of a cliff as they push back harder.

Welsh as sheep botherers?

Have a look where all the trash got dumped out of the UK many years ago... Aussies much worse than wales ;)

.......in the divine words

of Lord McDonald "I am Loving It"....

A lil bit more if this chocolate fest will make this week brighter..

Can we have some more please ?

Oh yes, I am a Grammar Nazi. We don't do spell check :)

Carry on Vulture Central

The views of a Welshman!

Jesus Christ, I'm Welsh and thought it was funny. Why do people come to a site renowned for taking an accurate yet tongue-in-cheek attitude to the world, and expect anything different.

I once tried to steal a sheep from a field and fell into a stream, destroying my Sony CyberShot digital camera. I wasn’t intending to bum the sheep... but Ebay crossed my mind.

Anyway, my digital camera still came on when I dried it out, but it could no longer take photos of anything other than blurs. Luckily I took it to a pawn shop and they didn’t test it out properly.

I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll leave you all now! Oh the joys of alcohol.

Down here in the antipodes...

...we thought it was fucking hilarious.

I dont know what his problem is, as far as we are concerned you are all bloody poms anyway; whats the difference? :)

Disclaimer : Gross generalisations are fun, but not suitable for children under the age of 4; may be harmful if swallowed.

err!

D.

PS: the earlier posters were accurate, its the kiwis that are the sheep botherers.

Half-Welsh

For all the people calling themselves "half welsh"... if the sheep was from Wales, you are still a full blooded welshman/woman, albeit of mixed parentage.

Its only if the sheep was foreign that you qualify as a halfbreed