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Britain’s Home Secretary apologizes for joke about spiking his wife’s drink with date-rape drug (edition.cnn.com)

submitted 10 months ago by BuddyTheBeefalo@lemmy.ml to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world 66 points 10 months ago

Cleverly made the joke to female guests while attending a Downing Street reception earlier this month.

Yikes! The added context makes it even worse.

[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

You just can't joke about anything anymore. The other day I went to church with my NAMBLA shirt on and the priests didn't appreciate it at all.

[-] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

The clergy have no appreciation for North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes

[-] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

Not A Moron But Lazy American? Never Ask My Brother's Legs Anything?

What are you trying to say here?!?

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"North American Man/Boy Love Association"

I had to google it... it's apparently a group that advocates for removing age of consent laws.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 4 points 10 months ago

The TV show "South Park" made this a joke with the "Marlon Brandon Lookalikes". This is how many, of a certain age range, are familiar.

[-] fox2263@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Not All Men Bugger Little aBoys

[-] WhiteHawk@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Altarboys

[-] fox2263@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Argh 😠 It was right there! 🤣

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Neutering A Mongoose Brings Legal Anguish.

[-] TheMongoose@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

Hey now

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Hey now don't dream it's over!

[-] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 56 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

He reportedly joked that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was "someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there"

"In what was always understood as a private conversation James, the Home Secretary tackling spiking, made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke - for which he apologises," a spokesperson for Cleverly said in a statement.

So a self-deprecating, incredible obvious joke, told in private to friends, has people jumping to be offended!

People really need to save their outrage for serious stuff because being outraged over something like this minimizes actually serious situations. It's like the boy who cried wolf(read: outrage).

Edit: is also fairly obvious that most of you just read the headline and popped in to be outraged. Merry Christmas!

[-] rowrowrowyourboat@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah, this is ridiculous. Imagine living in a world where you are afraid of joking because people will lose their minds.

Even if his joke was even worse than this, who cares? The people at the party would have thought, "Wow, this guy is lame," and that would have been enough of a consequence.

What kind of puritanical, pearl-clutching, and judgemental society are we creating with these outrageous reactions. Get a life people.

If you wanna hate him, hate him for actual valid reasons. Don't become a petty gossip-monger.

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[-] stephan262@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago

If the government has even the smallest modicum of dignity, he'll resign or be sacked. It's one thing to enjoy crass and offensive jokes, I certainly do, but there's a time and a place for such humour. I mean he's the Home Secretary for fucks sake! How in the world did he think that that kind of joke would go down well?

I've seen first hand the aftermath of someone's drink being spiked... It's not something I ever want to deal with again. Though I'll bet it was far worse for the unfortunate victim of it.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I mean he’s the Home Secretary for fucks sake! How in the world did he think that that kind of joke would go down well?

And this assumes it was a joke....if I were his wife, I'd be looking for a way to tell if I've been drugged or not.

[-] Lmaydev@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago

He reportedly added that the secret to a long marriage was to ensure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there.”

It 100% was a joke. Just a very inappropriate one.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Yeah,

There’s definitely a non-zero chance that he’s doing exactly that. Abusers frequently joke about abusing their partners; they see abuse largely as normal, and that’s why it’s okay to joke about it. If it plays poorly, everyone just thinks they have bad taste in jokes until the partner turns up dead.

Then it’s “we had no idea…”

It’s a glaring red flag, and it should be treated as such.

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 10 months ago

He's a total moron so I doubt he'd pull it off.

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[-] Numenor@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

According to the paper, Cleverly – a senior minister in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government – said that adding “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit.” He reportedly added that the secret to a long marriage was to ensure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there.” His comments came on the same day that Cleverly vowed to strengthen British laws on the growing epidemic of drink spiking in the UK, according to the Mirror.

[-] adam_y@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

He should have been sacked when he described Stockton -- a place ravaged by 13 years of Tory austerity -- as a 'shithole' during a televised parliamentary session.

Not for calling Stockton a shithole (I love the place but it really is a bit rough), but for being the sort of politician that is so poor at their job that they say stuff like this in front of the public.

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

looks like cleverly isn't very clever with his jokes

[-] RainfallSonata@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Neither is this comment section.

[-] HipPriest@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

God's sake. I mean... At least he's apologising? I could imagine some of our recent lot doubling down on this and refusing to give in to wokeness blah blah blah...

But yeah. I'm really trying hard to be charitable cos it's Christmas and everything. That's not really pleasant stuff to hear from the guy who is in charge of the Police (over 1,100 under investigation for sexual assault or domestic violence atm)

[-] Lophostemon@aussie.zone 8 points 10 months ago

OH HO HO HAH HAH!!! RAPE JOKES EH WOT?!?

SO TERRIBLY WITTY EH OLD CHAP?!?

MARVELLOUS I SAY, MARVELLOUS!!!

[-] EatATaco@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

He didn't make a joke about raping his wife, it was a self deprecating joke about making it so his wife wouldn't realize there are better men out there.

But good on you for being so offended by something that didn't even happen. Marvelous, I say, marvelous.

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

He makes a mean barbecue sauce, too. Really knocks you off your feet.

[-] PugJesus@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Jesus Christ.

[-] xc2215x@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Glad he apologized.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

For a dad joke he made in private with his own wife? He didn't need to apologize

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this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023

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