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Al Porter- second chances

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,485 ✭✭✭✭briany


    First time I ever heard of Al Porter was on the RTE 2 New Comedy Awards. I thought he was brutal. His whole thing of being unrelentingly camp and rude didn't make for particularly sophisticated comedy, and it was actually Sean Nolan who won it in the end, and I don't think that Sean has done hardly a thing in TV since. But we live in country where thousands upon thousands of people howl away at Mrs. Brown and allowed Crystal Swing to make a living, so in terms of numbers, it's those who don't enjoy Al Porter who are the freaks.



  • Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭Beefcake82


    Has he actually admitted to doing groping? I understand there has been no conviction, correct me if i am wrong on that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,631 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    Id love to ask the people who go to his shows, if he did what he did to your son, brother, husband etc would you be cool with that?

    Do they think he is innocent or do they just not care what he did? 🤔



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,631 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    Dont forget rubbish like Killinaskully, damo and ivor, bridget and eamon.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,939 ✭✭✭Gusser09


    Yeah. He didnt deny it.

    Needs to be asked straight out. Did yoy touch lads cocks without consent.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,485 ✭✭✭✭briany


    Killinaskully was OK. It was at least a bracket above the other sitcoms you mentioned. I may be biased, however, because I really love the original character Dan is based on from D'Mother.

    "Up again a wall in the middle of a field..."




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,810 ✭✭✭Dazler97


    I forgot what he did ,what was it ????? Edit : never-mind , his career is finished doesn't matter who it was it's a career killer , he's a dope and you blame the younger you all ya want but you can't undo what you did etc



  • Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭Beefcake82


    Well if thats the case, then the question i would ask people who say give him a second chance is......

    Would you give Bill Cosby, Jimmy Saville, Rolph Harris, Graham O'Dwyer, Larry Murphy, any of these guys a second chance?

    Because if the answer if no then why does Porter deserve a second chance.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,150 ✭✭✭✭suvigirl




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭riddles


    Before the kerfuffle started he was just someone RTE inexplicably chose to consider talented and inflict on its listeners / viewers. I haven't met anyone who found his offering entertaining.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,530 ✭✭✭corcaigh07


    We get it, you don't like him, you've made your points multiple times.

    He's back in Vicar Street on the 5th of November, tickets are sold out on Ticketmaster. Your anecdotal evidence of "a hundred at it" is very likely to be incorrect.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,804 ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    Remember though he is/was pure gold for RTÉ a few years ago because of the overbearing campness he exudes.

    Now if he did a reverse Michael Jackson, and darkened his skin, and also became trans, he would hit the trifecta of RTÉ boxes to be ticked, and have a well paid career for the rest of his days regardless of any past indiscretions…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,939 ✭✭✭Gusser09




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,530 ✭✭✭corcaigh07


    I don't but it don't change the fact that you are blinded and begging him to be finished etc when the indicators seem to suggest his comeback is in motion.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,580 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    Again why are people so quick to associate him with RTE?

    He spent very little time at RTE and it was a long time ago as a side kick to Colum Hayes.

    Most of his work was with Today FM where he had his own lunchtime show.

    Most of his TV work was with TV3.

    But I suppose people's hatred for both him and RTE makes it easy to get mixed up



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,847 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    The answer is no.

    (go back and review the cases against the list you provided)



  • Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭Beefcake82


    I do not need to review the other cases, i am fully aware of them. My point is sexual assault no matter the degree of attack, is wrong and i do not believe anyone deserves a second chance if they have done that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,580 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    Absolutely not, there is no way it would happen.

    But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that had his alleged victims been women, Porter would not get the same hatred here as he does.

    And I'll use three recent enough examples to show why I think that.

    Remember the Ulster rugby rape case. The men involved were found not guilty after a trial, and around here there was a huge backlash towards the accusor (a woman), everything from she was drunk and she should not have gotten into the situation, to she should be charged with a false rape allegation for ruining the careers of these guys.

    A few years later there was a rape case in Cork (I think) where a man got a very long sentence for sexually assaulting a girl that admitted she was very drunk. Again the same opinions, it was a harsh sentence, she should have known better etc.

    Finally the more recent case of Rory Gallagher the former Derry football manager who had to step down over domestic abuse allegations. He had never been convinced but there was a lot of rumours, and there was a fair share of opinion around here that because he was never convicted of anything there was no more to be said about it.

    But Porter gets none of the "benefit of the doubt" that the men in the three examples above got.

    Why ?

    I think it's because he's a annoying, gay, camp, so called comedian, and not a strong macho mans man like the rugby or GAA men, and the victims are not drunk girls that should know better, so men don't see him as deserving of any benefit of the doubt.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,133 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    The point, of course, is that apart from Jimmy Saville, all the people you mention were convicted for their crimes, and two of them (Larry Murphy and Graham Dwyer) for crimes in a very, very different league to the allegations against Porter. It's fairly safe to say that Saville would certainly have been convicted had he lived to see a trial. Multiple posthumous investigations into him confirmed his crimes and how they were covered up and ignored during his lifetime.

    Like it or not, Porter was not convicted of the allegations against him (for whatever reason). To be very clear, this is not defending, merely pointing out the material difference between him and them, which seriously calls into question the validity of your comparison between him and them.

    If you were to give a list of people accused of sexual assault that were not convicted, then your point would indeed have merit.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭Become Death


    Thats a lot of assumptions there.

    For what it's worth, I think you are 100% wrong.

    The overwhelming majority of men have no tolerance for people who sexually assault people.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,580 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    Just read the comments on the threads about the ulster rugby players, the rape in Cork or the Rory Gallagher thread.

    You'll find lots of victim blaming of women in them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭Become Death


    I have read two of the three threads (no interest in GAA so missed that one).

    You could argue that the victims in the Rugby players situation were the rugby players themselves.

    I think the term victim blaming is misused quite a bit. Obviously, sometimes it's a valid description of what happens, but I have seen it used when people mention that someone has some sort of responsibility for their own actions in order to ensure that they don't put themselves in harms way (not excusing the other persons behaviour in any way).

    I think in the case of Al Porter, he used his clout in the comedy circuit for his own gratification. I don't even think he did it as a sexual act, but more of a power play just because he could.

    Yes he never has been charged with anything, but he has more or less admitted his inappropriate behaviour in interviews afterwards.

    I think the fact that he is a camp homosexual man has given him more leeway than if he wasn't.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,150 ✭✭✭✭suvigirl


    Think your point has just been proved @Fr Tod Umptious



  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭Become Death




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,150 ✭✭✭✭suvigirl


    Really? Can you point out what your point was and how I proved it?

    Thanks



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  • Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭Become Death


    Sure thing.

    Your comment that I quoted had a heavy implication that I was a person who engaged in victim blaming and/or that I in some way only not giving the "benefit of the doubt" to Al Porter because he was a camp gay man.

    Which proves my point that victim blaming is often misused or that people are misconstruing criticism of Al Porter as some sort of homophobia. My post did not do any of that, but you seem to have read it as if it did.

    If that was not what your "Think your point has just been proved @Fr Tod Umptious", quote meant, then please explain.

    Thanks



  • Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭Beefcake82


    If you actually read all my posts from this thread you will see i asked about the conviction status and if he admitted committing these acts. As for the others their conviction status, who they attacked is not relevant, only the fact they have committed these acts and anyone else who does so does not deserve a second chance.

    I am curious if there are others, why the case was dropped, why Porter has no publicly stated if he did or did not do these things. If he has not then he is entitled to resume his career without having to look over his shoulder. The ambiguity around weather he done these things is probably why people have so many questions about him.

    If he was falsely accused then the accuser deserves to be prosecuted and Porter should have been afforded the right to anonymity unless convicted and victim waved their right to privacy.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,603 ✭✭✭✭gmisk




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,457 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    Hes still not funny.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,102 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Before I clicked on the link I said it will be a woe is me, mental health goon fest… and it is…

    problem with Al is he’s a pretty unfunny comedian. Playing hugely on his character, the outrageous, gay, camp, bitchy eccentric….but in reality he’s a bit of a creep and who has in fairness more baggage than a fully loaded 747….but one curiously who seems to be at great ease… attracting free publicity and column inches quite easily in fairness which I find very very odd indeed. And despite everything he’s had a pretty easy and fairly tame ride from much of the press…especially as of late….there almost now looks like a concerted effort to rebuild him amongst the ideals of success and respectability…by that same press who will no doubt benefit from the ‘comeback’…

    there is something unbelievably off about the chap I find…not just his past behaviours, indiscretions and general seediness….



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,847 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    Obviously I haven't seen his schtick for years.

    Perhaps he has improved with age.

    Anyway I'll suspend judgement for now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,237 ✭✭✭hoodie6029


    This sums it up perfectly.

    Who is this guy? There must be a hundred other hopefuls out there dying for just 5 mins on national radio and they put this creep on. He obviously has good connections.

    A lot of echoes of Jimmy Saville treatment here. Clive James summed up Saville, in what seems a tame quote now, ‘he was a man well disguised, who would have thought a man who looked so weird was a weirdo.’

    Porter leans into this goofy/camp persona to be non-threatening and innocent when he is far from it. A predator and vile individual.

    This is water. Inspiring speech by David Foster Wallace https://youtu.be/DCbGM4mqEVw?si=GS5uDvegp6Er1EOG



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 239 ✭✭AmpMan


    There was one where he was bragging about tearing some young lads arse open.

    Rotten bastard



  • Registered Users Posts: 17 Herxules


    He looks like a ventriloquists dummy





  • Registered Users Posts: 17 Herxules


    On one hand what he did was sick but on the other hand is it possible people can change? I think it is possible, he's had punishment in the form of his career not being where it would be otherwise.

    That being said, not sure how his comedy works nowadays. His shtick was basically "I'm gay, any chance of a blowy Ryan?"

    Anyone remember the video going around at the time of all the news, the one where there's a gig and he just runs around the stage naked with his cock bouncing around the place?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,918 ✭✭✭✭Beechwoodspark


    Whatever about adults paying for his brand of sub missus brown “tits, fanny, mickey and arse” smut that went out of fashion around 1969...

    It is absolutely crazy that a Christmas pantomime aimed at children think it is “ok” to have this Kavanagh guy anywhere near it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,505 ✭✭✭PokeHerKing


    Boards is not real life tbf.

    Paddy Jackson had to lave Ireland to continue earning a living and he was never selected for the national team again.

    Even though he was found not guilty.

    Compare that to Porter who's being paraded around by our national broadcaster.

    I think it's quite obvious who is getting the better treatment.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,918 ✭✭✭✭Beechwoodspark


    The BBC do not promote the hell out of the likes of Roy Chubby Brown, or Jethro , or Mike Reid (all ultra “blue” comics) yet RTÉ cannot get enough of Porter/Kavanagh?

    Is it the gay camp angle?

    If it was straight tits and fanny smut would Miriam and co be so enthusiastic ???



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 88,568 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,631 ✭✭✭pgj2015


    creep 🤮



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,237 ✭✭✭hoodie6029


    ‘Al was not fired from any of his jobs, and he never faced any charges regarding the allegations. Instead he chose to walk away.’

    It was either that or be sacked. It’s not like he’d have been on the air while dismissal was taking place.

    Who are that agents that keep getting these guys work? There must be a hundred other people who’ll do that panto job.

    The article should’ve read ‘Al, not his real name, is also well known to have issues understanding consent, to put it mildly. Make sure to bring the kids along to this show!’



    This is water. Inspiring speech by David Foster Wallace https://youtu.be/DCbGM4mqEVw?si=GS5uDvegp6Er1EOG



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