The Magic Roundabout was all about LSD* and yes Rainbow was camp; tell us something we don't know.
*For younger viewers, LSD was a drug once favoured by "heads" but has now been supplanted in popularity by MDMA and other newer designer drugs.
Kids' TV show Rainbow in homosexual agenda shocker
A pastor has revealed that legendary UK kids' TV show Rainbow may have attempted to "homosexualise all children". In a shock YouTube vid, "Pastor D" of the End Times News Ministry questions the true meaning of the show's title song, which explicitly states the programme makers' plan to "paint the whole world with a rainbow …
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Matt
No, you didn't make it up. The English voiceover for The Magic Roundabout was done by Eric Thompson (trivia note: Emma Thompson's dad).
I remember watching a documentary about it years ago. Thompson didn't speak French and there was no budget for translation, so he just made it all up as he went along. He must have been a talented guy to do that.
I always thought the "drug" thing was a bit bogus. Things from the 60s might look trippy now but I think it was genuinely just a more innocent time.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 10:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Blue Smarties
Blue Smarties first came out in the late 1980s (I actually remember this because there were no blue ones when I was younger).
According to Wikipedia, the temporary removal of the blue Smarties occurred quite recently- in 2006- because Nestle were moving to natural colourings and couldn't find a suitable blue one.
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:01 GMT streaky
couldn't afford to get it translated
Do you even BBC Monitoring? The beeb employs armies of translators throughout the org, I doubt that would be the actual reason.
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Monday 14th December 2015 22:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
Untrue
The reels of film that I used to handle 40 years ago, had a sep mag sound track in English, whilst the com-opt track was mas most definitely in French. We had a chap on my shift who spoke fluent french, and he was most unimpressed with he originals, much preferring the Eric Thompson scripts, which as I understood it were written by watching only the pictures.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 13:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Untrue
Well I guess the BBC's actual reasons will be forever lost in the mists of time, as it all happened half a century ago. According to Wikipedia:
"A former BBC employee, interviewed on BBC Radio in 2008, maintained that the original contract with the French owners did not include the scripts that accompanied the original animations (contrary to BBC assumptions). The BBC, instead of making a further payment to acquire the scripts, which would have required translation, decided to commission its own version – without access to the original French, and the English-language version therefore bears no resemblance to it."
Which seems plausible to me. Anyway it doesn't matter, the point is that Eric Thompson winged it and was brilliant.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 12:31 GMT BoldMan
No thats not the case, it turned out that the humour in the French Magic Roundabout wouldn't translate. For example Dougal the dog spoke French with a Scottish accent which the French find incredibly funny but everyone else goes "meh". It wasn't a case that they couldn't afford to translate, its the translation wasn't funny, so Eric made the stories up and was utterly brilliant at it.
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Wednesday 16th December 2015 13:11 GMT CrazyOldCatMan
> it turned out that the humour in the French Magic Roundabout
Part of the reason that Asterix always has had their own country-specific translations. Humour doesn't (often) translate between launguages - even those as close[1] as English and French.
[1] Heresy! (Yes, yes, English is a (somewhat) Germanic language but you don't fight people for a thousand years and *not* pick up cultural similarities..)
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:44 GMT Tim Jenkins
For even younger viewers, MDMA was a drug once favoured by "mum and dad" but has now been supplanted in popularity by 'orrible pills and powders spewing out of Chinese fertiliser factories, which is why we can still use the 'Just Say No' approach with you, even though we clearly didn't say No when we were your age...
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:19 GMT chivo243
@readinthereg
Whoa dude! Wait, wait awwwww man another color! Just wait for it!
Yes, much of the 70's art and such had sometimes awesome reference to the psychedelic experiences people had at the time, but the rainbow was just another art thingy with lots of colors, especially for children. Anyone reading into it should really question what their orientation might be. If you're happy and know it, clap your hands...
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 20:50 GMT Charlie Clark
Rainbow was camp
Don't know if it was really camp. Charmingly naff in the most part rescued by Zippy's childish nastiness.
The soundtrack was just 1970s naff – the flute is this giveaway – virtually all the music for seventies telly was hideous, like the fashion. Maybe there was a law about it? Whatever, some great TV was made and anyone looking for hidden meanings should get out more.
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:33 GMT Anonymous Custard
Or for that matter start investigating quite what the infamous threesome of Rod, Jane and Freddie used to get up to as well...
Still I could have been worse, apparently Freddy was a replacement for Roger Walker, and they were previously known as Rod, Jane and Roger which certainly conjures up some disturbing mental images...
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Or the Twanger episode
" [...] infamous threesome of Rod, Jane and Freddie used to get up to as well."
Not to mention Andy Pandy and Teddy going to bed in a box together - then discreetly closing the lid. Then there were Bill and Ben in a bed with little Weed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLLI7V-xcQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6zNwBTLSWU
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:42 GMT VinceH
Re: Or the Twanger episode
This is the best episode of Rainbow I've ever seen: Rainbow Gear - Zippy, George and Bungle doing Top Gear.
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Wednesday 16th December 2015 09:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Or the Twanger episode
Whats your name?
Carmen.
Thats a nice name, why did you choose that?
Because i like cars and men! Whats your name?
Lager Fanny....
ROFL. New KB, Screen etc...
Or, Whats your name?
Bond.
What as in James?
No, as in Unibond 'cos i wanna fill your........
ANOTHER KB needed...
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:38 GMT Don Dumb
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
@Teiwaz - "He'll be having a go at James and his magic torch next, or Mr Benn."
We get stories like this every year in the UK for us to laugh at. Anti-gay idiots in the US decried the Tellytubbies, the character Po was apparently "openly gay", the heinous charges being that 'she' carried a handbag and was purple (apparently that bit of the light spectrum is gay). The rest of us wondered how someone could look that hard for spurious clues of sexuality in a kids TV show.
Harry Potter was demonised for promoting magic and witchcraft, which apparently prevent kids from learning about Christianity.
Probably every kids show that isn't a bible story gets construed as somehow teaching kids to be the devil incarnate. These Pastors are seeing the things they 'despise' everywhere, in a way that wouldn't be at all an indicator of severe repression.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
@Don Dumb - I reckon you're right, there.
Remember the hoo-ha there was for a while over the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons? Apparently I and my friends (and many others around the world) were engaging in Black Magic and Satanism. Coo, who'dathunk? If we were, it clearly didn't work, given I'm still a Helldesker (hmmmnnn... y'don;t think...? Nahhh!)
I recall that 'three in a bed' episode of Rainbow getting sniggered at at the time without any general outpouring of outrage. Methinks Mr Pastor just wants his 30 seconds of 'fame' and has forgotten that pride goeth before a fall.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
"Probably every kids show that isn't a bible story gets construed as somehow teaching kids to be the devil incarnate."
In the 1950s in England - from the age of 4 were taught wholesome Christian stories at Salvation Army Sunday School. Like people being: thrown into furnaces; fed to the lions; drowned; massacred; or swallowed by whales. Our RCC friends had the morality tales with pictures of their saints being martyred with burning pincers, or roasted over a fire, or small boys being cut into pieces and sold as barrels of meat. At CofE school - up to the age 12 - we had to attend the adjacent church's services. They had a large statue of a man impaled on a cross with blood dripping down his face and body.
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Monday 14th December 2015 17:59 GMT Suricou Raven
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
The whale is a translation error. The ancient Jewish people did not use our classification system: Whales looked like fish, so they were just thought of as very big fish. The word in the story means 'really big fish.' It could be a whale, or it could be a giant fish. There's a section elsewhere that lists bats as a sort of bird for the same reason.
It's still ridiculous. You could imagine a very bored God sitting beside the whale's stomach, continually pulling apart carbon dioxide from Jonah's blood and shoving the oxygen back in.
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Wednesday 16th December 2015 07:40 GMT Anthony Hegedus
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
Is that the same classification system that classified dolphins and squirrels as "grey animals", making the squirrel essentially just a dolphin with a bushy tail?
Or perhaps foxes and squirrels are both "bushy tailed animals"?
It's no more stupid than believing that a supernatural being did all those goddy things he's supposed to have done. This, from the same species that believes in astrology.
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:43 GMT Ian Mason
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
>Remember the hoo-ha there was for a while over the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons? Apparently I and my friends (and many others around the world) were engaging in Black Magic and Satanism.
You've got to remember that most of the Fundamentalist/Pentacostal/Evangelical/Born-again type Christians genuinely believe there is a literal Devil and that humans literally do magic in league with him.
Back in the seventies there was a woman called Doreen Irvine who claimed to have been installed as the "Witch Queen of England" who converted to Christianity and was touted around the various evangelical flavour churches of the UK as a success story come cautionary tale. She wrote a book "From Witchcraft to Christ" and I heard her speak at a meeting on the South Coast. She laid claim to have participated in all sorts of magical rituals with all sorts of fantastical physical outcomes.
In the nineties I got to know quite a few people who were centrally active in the british magic scene in the sixties and seventies, including some prominent academic historians of british magic. Not one of the former knew her and none of the latter could place her into British magical history.
So, she was either a complete fantasist (i.e. crazy) or a complete and utter Tony Blair. Either way, the evangelical christian churches took her to their collective busom and uncritically swallowed every word she said.
The moral to this is, that many, many otherwise well meaning Christians will believe any old baloney if it fits the script and it's fed to them by an authority figure within their religion.
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:21 GMT skeptical i
Re: Sentenced to zippy.
re: "Harry Potter was demonised for promoting magic and witchcraft, which apparently prevent kids from learning about Christianity." Right. Because there's nothing supernatural or woo-woo whatsoever about turning water into wine, creating a boatload of bread and fish from nothing, bringing Lazarus back from the dead, walking on water, and so on, izzere. [*rolls eyes*]
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 10:12 GMT TRT
Re: Bible translation errors...
Every wondered why the number 40 crops up so much in the Bible? It's because they used a Pratchett-troll-like counting system* where the word for 40 was the same as the word for lots. Rained for 40 nights, Moses lived in Egypt for 40 years and went to Mount Sinai for 40 days, 40 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
*Trolls count along the lines of one, two, three, many, many and one, many and two, lots.
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:18 GMT x 7
well......lets think about this. Look at the three puppet characters.........a pink effeminate blubbery hippo, a zip/bondage fetishist, and a furry grumpy bear. Difficult to find better gay stereotypes even if you hired the entire troupe of "The Village People". Add to that the Rainbow logo and you're well on the way to promoting a homosexual lifestyle to innocent children. The BBC should have had its broadcast licence revoked for showing such filth
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:03 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Good job they didn't, then....
"Bob the Builder? Wasn't he one of Village People?"
Well, if he was, Postman Pat must have been too. And Noddy and Big Ears.
Add MR Benn and one or two more and we're all set for a more accurate 'village' people.
Either that or a very strange 'Full Monty' remake...
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Monday 14th December 2015 17:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Here we find a Daily Mail Journo in training.
"And the bear wasn't a puppet, but a suited up actor"
That could be construed as overtones of plushophilia and Yiff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plushophilia
At my fancy dress party on a theme of children's books - my character was a wolf. The costume was home-made out of fur material. It had fur trousers with a long tail, fur sleeves, and a shaman wolf head. A Little Red Riding Hood who I had never met before wanted me to take her upstairs - presumably staying in costume.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 18:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Here we find a Daily Mail Journo in training.
"Was the fur only on the outside of the trousers?"
Fortunately yes. It was a warm evening in June - and the outfit became rather hot even without air-trapping fur insulation inside. The following year in July I learned the lesson and wore a "grass" skirt for a theme of "1920s travel". There is a picture of me sitting on the garden seat with two guests swathed in overcoats - as I tried to persuade everyone to leave the warmth of the kitchen.
The "grass" skirt made another outing at a friend's birthday party - and that also produced an interesting situation.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Here we find a Daily Mail Journo in training.
"I think you're referring to sarcasm, not irony."
No, he is right. Sarcasm, from the Greek sarx meaning flesh, is remarks that have a "fleshy" component. "You couldn't find your backside with both hands" is sarcasm.
Irony is indeed the literary device of conveying something by saying the opposite, e.g. "You are of course fully qualified in the art of finding your backside with both hands" would be irony when addressed to a backside-detection-challenged person.
American English frequently uses the word irony to mean paradox, as in "despite his degree in anatomy he was completely unable to find his backside with both hands" (a paradox is something that at first sight appears contradictory but is actually correct.)
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Here we find a Daily Mail Journo in training.
" The BBC should have had its broadcast licence revoked for showing such filth"
Reminds me of the David Frost (skit) interview of a "Viewers and Listeners" man who judged the content of TV programmes from their titles. The one he judged as being the most disgusting was "Blue Peter".
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 09:57 GMT fruitoftheloon
@Commswonk:Re: Here we find a Daily Mail Journo in training.
Cw,
you are a git, you beat me to it!
Have an xmas bevy on me
I view this whole discussion wit a most amused eye, principally because my Americam mother-in-law is a puritan nut job - and one of the brightest people I have ever had the opportunity to engage in debate with!
Cheers,
Jay
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Monday 14th December 2015 17:22 GMT Voland's right hand
You missed the sarcasm tags
The rainbow was misappropriated to become a gay symbol in this century. It was not when the show was filmed. Same as the word gay - it had a completely different primary meaning when I learned English a few decades back. If we go back a few more decades the meaning which today is considered primary was not there at all. And so on.
In any case, to the original poster - you should never forget the Sarcasm/Humour tags. This site is visited by quite a few people who have had a humorglandoctomy at a very early age.
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:04 GMT x 7
Re: You missed the sarcasm tags
"Same as the word gay - it had a completely different primary meaning when I learned English a few decades back"
I'm not so sure about that.........years ago I found a reference to Shakespeare using "gay" as homosexual description, but I can't remember when/where. It was cited as the first known use
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Monday 14th December 2015 20:41 GMT Faceless Man
Re: You missed the sarcasm tags
'"Same as the word gay - it had a completely different primary meaning when I learned English a few decades back"
I'm not so sure about that.........years ago I found a reference to Shakespeare using "gay" as homosexual description, but I can't remember when/where. It was cited as the first known use'
It did have a completely different use in Victorian times. It meant "on the game". Which is possibly where the modern usage comes from, as male prostitutes seemed to cater mainly to other men, it could be assumed that a "gay boy" was, well, "gay". (Or even "well gay".)
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 07:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: You missed the sarcasm tags @Voland's right hand
>Same as the word gay - it had a completely different primary meaning when I learned English a few decades back
Larry Grayson was using the phrase "What a gay day" in the early 70's probably so early as to preceed Rainbow and there was definitely no misunderstanding as to it's usage.
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:26 GMT Pen-y-gors
Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
What's his take on Genesis 9?
13 I do set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud.
Did the Great Sky Pilot intend that all who see the rainbow should immediately indulge in rumpy-pumpy with members of their own sex?
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud.
Given that large clouds are generally a bad portent, "when I bring a cloud over the earth" has a clearly ominous sense; surely foreshadowing the terrible prophecies of Revelations! That "the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud" is obviously therefore God himself warning that the apocalypse will be brought about by the liberal gay conspiracy!!!
IT'S IN THE BIBLE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
Discarding all the religious bible tosh, we now know rainbows are nothing more the refraction of white light through raindrops.
Science, myth busting religion, well only since they stopped burning scientists at the stake or stoning them to death for heresy.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
"Discarding all the religious bible tosh, we now know rainbows are nothing more the refraction of white light through raindrops."
More interesting than you might think. Roger Bacon used the explanation of the rainbow to suggest that when God said that the rainbow was the sign of his covenant, he meant that since everybody sees their own rainbow, everybody has their own personal covenant. He spent a long time in prison for this and other heresies, but it was one of the things that led to Protestantism - which this "pastor" is supposed to profess.
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Monday 14th December 2015 17:00 GMT Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face
Re: Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
That's not what a rainbow is. It's what a rainbow is made of. Otherwise you and I would be nothing but bags of chemicals and water, possessing a meaningless existence within a meaningless universe. Were this true, you wouldn't be posting your thoughts here.
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Monday 14th December 2015 20:33 GMT Commswonk
Re: Interesting theology from this 'pastor'
"Otherwise you and I would be nothing but bags of chemicals and water, possessing a meaningless existence within a meaningless universe. Were this true, you wouldn't be posting your thoughts here."
And there was me thinking that was the precise reason why we post our thoughts on here. Ah well; live and learn.
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:00 GMT Teiwaz
"Religion is always a profession to which it has no meaning and is absurd; it's used as a method of extortion and mind control on the stupid and vulnerable."
Does that make it the second oldest profession?
Organised Religion, certainly. Other beliefs which rely on an authority figure to interpret the will or intent of the spirit world quite probably. Those beliefs (few that they are) that leave interpretation to the spiritual growth of the individual, less likely. The latter were the first and will hopefully be the last and final in humanities history.
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Monday 14th December 2015 15:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
...like, what *exactly* was the deal with Roland Rat and his "number one Ratfan", Kevin the Gerbil?
Was Roland really so wrapped up in himself that he missed the bleeding obvious, or was that boring "Glenis the Guinea Pig" (who- somewhat suspiciously- arrived later) the beard? Or was he having it both ways?
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:10 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
"...like, what *exactly* was the deal with Roland Rat and his "number one Ratfan", Kevin the Gerbil?
Was Roland really so wrapped up in himself that he missed the bleeding obvious, or was that boring "Glenis the Guinea Pig" (who- somewhat suspiciously- arrived later) the beard? Or was he having it both ways?"
I'm not sure I parsed all that, but it gave me the unsettling mental image of some kind of puppet rodent gang-bang...
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:19 GMT x 7
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
personally I was always waiting for guest appearance from Rogered Rabbit and Buggered Bunny, but it never happened. I heard that they had considered a character called Homie Hedgehog at one stage though......dunno how true that is.
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:48 GMT WolfFan
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
I'm not sure I parsed all that, but it gave me the unsettling mental image of some kind of puppet rodent gang-bang...
You, you poor, culturally deprived person, have obviously not seen Animanics. Or you'd not be 'unsettled', not after the antics of the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister, Dot). One wonders exactly what went on inside the water tower... Hint: other characters included Herr Professor Doktor Scratchnsniff, Hello Nurse, and Minerva Mink, who had several of her segments deleted 'cause she went _too_ far. And for those with a They're Gay! fixation, there were Pinky and the Brain. And Rita and Runt, especially 'cause Runt, who wasn't too bright, thought that Rita was not merely a dog but a guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Animaniacs_characters
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:33 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
@WolfFan
You're sick, The most the often demented 'puppy children' (Wally Llama) engaged in was 'we're not going to do it for art, we're not going to do it for you, Mr Michaelangelo, we're going to do it because 'we like painting naked people'". Hello Nurse, I got the impression, never seemd to notice the effect she had on men (probably tsundere to boot), scratchnsniff I could see clearly gave the impression he'd be inclined to masochism (I'll give you that)
My personal faves were Mindy and Scrappy Squirrel and I dare you to 'suggest' (with either).
The best shows, the ones that endure, often have the odd reference designed to go over a younger persons head and reach the adult also watching. The Goodies, The Muppets, others from the time when the entire family sat round the tv together looking to be entertained had these. Those shows that are sanitised into total safety have no re-watch value (i.e. Tom and Jerry kids) as you grew older. This does not necessarily mean innuendo in a sexual way, but more subtle meaning.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 12:06 GMT micheal
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
"The best shows, the ones that endure, often have the odd reference designed to go over a younger persons head and reach the adult also watching. The Goodies, The Muppets, others from the time when the entire family sat round the tv together looking to be entertained had these."
Captain Pugwash
Cow and Chicken
2 Stupid Dogs
Johnny Bravo
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:26 GMT WolfFan
Re: Seriously? There are far more important issues to consider...
...like, what *exactly* was the deal with Roland Rat and his "number one Ratfan", Kevin the Gerbil?
Did Kevin have a very good friend named 'Richard', by any chance?
Was Roland really so wrapped up in himself that he missed the bleeding obvious, or was that boring "Glenis the Guinea Pig" (who- somewhat suspiciously- arrived later) the beard? Or was he having it both ways?
Hint: Glenis was not the one who was doing the, ahem, boring.
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Monday 14th December 2015 20:03 GMT Chris G
Re: All we got in my day . . .
Mostly we acted like we did, because we could. The Muffin the Mule joke was around in those days too, just.
I wonder what the Reverend would say if Morcambe and Wise were still on TV, in the early '70s they were often seen in bed together on TV, sometimes with audiences as large as 28 million at Christmas and probably seen by the Queen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Daz9fFrL-Y
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Wednesday 16th December 2015 13:21 GMT SImon Hobson
Re: All we got in my day . . .
> I wonder what the Reverend would say if Morcambe and Wise were still on TV, in the early '70s they were often seen in bed together on TV ...
Yay, have an upvote for that. Took until the third page for a M&W reference. I gather they took the attitude that "it was OK for Laurel & Hardy, it's OK for us".
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:26 GMT SMabille
The proof is in the pudding
There was also a short version intended for internal diffusion / spoof (available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc) that has large amount of camp humour.
There was a better quality copy around but can't seem to find it.
Just to made it clear, this was not targeted at children and has never been broadcast.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:28 GMT John H Woods
We should promote homosexuality
It's a win-win: (1) it forms a scientific trial; if after a few years of promoting it, the incidence of homosexuality stays roughly constant (within statistical bounds) we will at least confirm that all these people are talking rubbish but (2) if it causes a massive increase in homosexuality, we can reap the consequent benefits of population reduction.
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Monday 14th December 2015 16:53 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Surprised to read this far
"and no mention of Captain Pugwash with the oft-repeated urban legend of Seaman Staines and Master Bates ?
E2A: In a typical example of Sods law someone else posted about CP whilst I was typing."
Probably 'soddoms' law (any 'conversation' involving questionable childrens tv will have reference to Pugwash)
(another biblical ref, but what the f**k is a gamorah/gomorah? I've always wondered why nothing was named after the other mythical? city...)
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 14:27 GMT Intractable Potsherd
Re: Surprised to read this far @dogged
Well, with Pugwash's adenoidal speech, "Master Mate" certainly sounded like "Master Bate". Also, I can't be the only one to think that "Pirate Willy" could have an alternative meaning ...
John Ryan, the creator of "Captain Pugwash", was a bit of a knob for taking a libel case over a few jokes (which are still being told - early Streisand Effect?)
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:00 GMT Michael Strorm
BINGO. The gay pride flag was apparently created in the late-1970s, by which point "Rainbow" had been on the air for several years.
In both cases, it probably had more to do with the fact that rainbows seem to have been a relatively common graphical motif in the 1970s.
(Similarly, the rainbow-striped Apple logo which people try to rationalise with an Alan Turing association- because Turing was gay- came out (no pun intended) in 1977, the year *before* the gay pride flag).
It's like how "bow chukka wow" wah-wah pedal guitar music is associated with porn now. The fact it became associated with porn in the first place has more to do with the fact that style of music was in fashion when porn first became reasonably widespread in the early 1970s. If porn had come along ten years later (i.e. during the early 1980s), stereotypical "porn music" would likely have been synth-based or something similar.
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Monday 14th December 2015 19:46 GMT Teiwaz
The 'rainbow' was an image often adopted by 'hippie' groups. Pre 'burning man' there were festivals held over the world using the name 'Rainbow' and had nothing to do with sexual orientation.
I had this thought several hours ago but couldn't express it succinctly other than the though that this pastor was being ignorantly revisionist. Kind of like seeing a swastika dating from several hundred maybe thousands of years ago and assuming this meant nazis carved it.
The rainbow was heavily used as a symbol of christianity in the 'Good new' bibles and childrens 'religious education' in the seventies and early eighties from what I remember.
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Monday 14th December 2015 18:55 GMT Deltics
Rainbow and LGBT associations
Only really became established in the late 70's - 1978.
Rainbow - the TV show - started in 1972. At that time, since the 60's, the rainbow was associated primarily with the peace movement. "Paint the whole world with a rainbow" = Make the world a world of peace.
Just saying.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 08:25 GMT Slx
While we can all laugh at the absurdity of this, I would hate to be the gay son or lesbian daughter of one of these guys or stuck in a household filled with this poison hatred.
There are still a lot of people getting a really horrible time over their sexuality. Things have moved on but knuckle dragging, right wing, religious nutters of various flavours seem determined to keep up the homophobia.
Also what's wrong with having a camp hippo character!? We're not all some grey, macho, emotionless stereotype of 1950s maleness. It's one thing that I think gets forgotten about; how many guys get bullied for being not into sports, being a little less than macho or whatever. Homophobia and passive gay bashing actually impacts a lot of straight victims too because being gay is still being seen as a negative or shameful thing by some. Nobody should be going around "checking themselves" to ensure they're not a bit too gay.
I'm just hoping that the broad acceptance of gay people and the end of nonsense taboos actually breaks a whole straight jacket of crapology that a lot of people have put up with over the years. Nobody should be going around living in fear of just being themselves.
Religious bullies need to be ignored or told where to go!
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Saturday 19th December 2015 13:17 GMT Kiwi
While we can all laugh at the absurdity of this, I would hate to be the gay son or lesbian daughter of one of these guys or stuck in a household filled with this poison hatred.
I grew up with a lot of this. It was only in her last months that my mother accepted me. I can say this without a doubt though - she loved me deeply and did the best she could with the tools she had. She made a lot of mistakes, but they weren't out of laziness or abusiveness or power tripping or whatever. She did what she did because she wanted the best for her children.
There are still a lot of people getting a really horrible time over their sexuality. Things have moved on but knuckle dragging, right wing, religious nutters of various flavours seem determined to keep up the homophobia.
Just recently I had the honour of sitting down and chatting with the man I am named after. It was quite an eye-opener for me, when we got on to the subject of my sexuality (we have not spoken for many years - but he had so much of an impact on me I can still remember hearing him speak as a child - and I found out this week that I had yet to reach my 3rd birthday). Anyway, he encouraged me - it's not a problem for him, he has no issue with people being gay. He looks at how they live before he thinks they may have problems with their faith. And he's an Anglican reverend.
There are many of all faiths who do a lot to discredit what they believe in (I do include Atheists here, but I also include Christians, Jews and Muslims and so on). But there are those real gems who are true to their faith. Not all of us are evil!
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Sunday 20th December 2015 13:23 GMT x 7
"Just recently I had the honour of sitting down and chatting with the man I am named after"
A Mr Kiwi? I take it he's a bit of a fruit............
" she loved me deeply and did the best she could with the tools she had"
those New Zealand sheep farmers have some interesting knives and rubber bands.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 08:43 GMT Putters
Am I missing something.
Hmm - three "non human" characters.
None of whom has identifiable gender - Bungle, a six foot bear with a suspiciously high voice for such a creature, a pink hippo (George - short for Georgia, Georgina ?) and Zippy - and I still don't know what Zippy was, let alone gender.
So, forget the homosexuality. If you're gonna bitch about something, bitch about the interspecies sex !
George and Zippy don't have anything below the waist to walk with, let alone misbehave with ...
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 09:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
TBH this is claptrap
When I grew up I managed to watch Kenny Everett, Rainbowm Magic Roundabout etc and I managed to stay relatively normal.
Adults read far more into these things than watching children do - any campness was simply a funny use of words, I was completely unaware of rainbows being a gay flag either and I wouldn't have understood its significance if I had.
Children simply dont analyse their viewingto the extent necessary to be that corrupted. Its watched, its fun (or not) and move on...
I enjoyed the drawings that were made with all the sound effects though...
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 09:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: TBH this is claptrap
"[...] any campness was simply a funny use of words,"
A friend's son went through an apparently homophobic phase in his early teens. At dinner one evening we were discussing something about TV - and it was mentioned that a popular show host was gay. The teenager was visibly shocked - "Julian Clary is gay??" That camp show was one of his favourites.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 10:48 GMT Paul Shirley
Re: TBH this is claptrap
You have to wonder whether management and regulators were fully aware that children wouldn't understand any of it, or so detached from reality they couldn't understand the innuendo either ;)
Both are believable.
I remember not liking Rainbow as a youngster and refusing to watch it. Eternally grateful to the mates that reintroduced me to it as a student when i was old enough to understand.
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Tuesday 15th December 2015 09:26 GMT andyace
One minute i'm working on securing a network after the admin has been laid off. the next i'm watching Rainbow and 2 fat gentlemen that i remember from over 30 years ago.... lost in the moment, the ever surprising El Reg.
And i don't feel any more homosexual than when i woke up, wife will be pleased.
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Wednesday 16th December 2015 13:42 GMT James Anderson
If he was upset by Rainbow....
He obviously has never watched Captain Pugwash!
Not a single female character and as for Seaman Staines!
Historical note: the original script was full of Gay references which the script writers thought would be picked up and censored -- but the innocents at the BBC were ready to broadcast it "as was" until the shame faced writers fessed up at the last moment and hurriedly cleaned up the scipt.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
