You are here: Home » Be Smart » News on Toast: Circle jerks Yumi & George offend the nation

News on Toast: Circle jerks Yumi & George offend the nation

Written by
March 1, 2012
Be Smart, News & Views
13 Comments

Outrage as ‘The Circle’ hosts attack a war hero on air, a new plan for kids to leave school earlier and Apple branches out with the iPad3: The morning’s hot topics in bite-sized pieces just right for dunking.

———

 Circle jerks Yumi and George commit career suicide

Yumi Stynes and George Negus

Coming to a careers expo near you: Yumi and George's Career Suicide 101.

So, who’s going to see Yumi Stynes’ and George Negus’ new show at the Mebourne Comedy Festival this year? It’s called “How to piss off an entire nation in 30 seconds” – they gave it a trial run yesterday on their Channel 10 talk show, The Circle, to rather mixed reviews.

If you didn’t see it, you’ve probably heard about it by now: The duo have faced an intense public backlash after they made offensive on-air remarks about Victoria Cross winner Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, labelling him stupid and “a dud root” for reasons that escape pretty much everyone.

In response to a photograph of the muscle-bound war hero in a swimming pool, Stynes said: “He’s going to dive down to the bottom of the pool to see if his brain is there.”

“I’m sure he’s a really good bloke… but that sort of bloke, you wonder if they’re not up to it in the sack,” Negus later quipped, prompting Stynes to ask: “Are you saying he could be a dud root?”

Negus also made a facile joke labelling Cpl Roberts-Smith a bloodthirsty murderer, suggesting he could pick up women with the line: “By the way, I kill people for a living.”

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

As anyone with half a working neuron in their brain could have predicted, the backlash was massive and instantaneous, with talkback radio and The Circle‘s own Facebook page flooded with angry comments.

Stynes and Negus have since apologised, saying the comments were meant to be “tongue-in-cheek” jokes. Jokes based on the HILARIOUS stereotype of good looking men being stupid and bad in bed. HA HA HA, RIGHT?

I’m not part of the “SACK THEM!” brigade that always seems to spring up in the wake of these sorts of media indiscretions, as it’s fairly obvious neither Stynes nor Negus was being malicious, just terribly misguided. God knows why they thought it would be funny to joke about Australia’s most decorated digger. They deserve every bit of flak they get.

I do find it interesting, however, that much of the vitriole over this has been directed at Stynes rather than Negus, a veteran journo of more than 30 years who, frankly, should have known better. Why is that, do you think?

>> A dumb joke or a sackable offence – what’s your view?

———

Aussie schools to join Euro timezone

Primary school student

A new proposal could see the traditional school day changed to "European" hours.

Thanks to those pretentious tourism ads in which pretty people eat cheese and drink wine while prancing about in fields and chasing big balls of wool down trendy looking alleyways, we’re all aware that Victoria likes to think it’s actually France. Now it seems New South Wales is also getting in on the act with a controversial new plan to take on “European” school hours.

The Daily Telegraph reports one NSW primary school is considering altering the traditional 9am to 3pm school day to start an hour earlier and finish at 1.15pm, saying the earlier times “make better use of children’s brain function”.

If it did so, it would be a first for the state’s government primary schools and could set a precedent for the rest of the nation. A poll on the DT website shows more than 62 per cent of readers are against the idea, and I think I can understand why.

Not having children myself I can’t say this with any sort of authority, but I would have thought it might be quite nice to be able to bundle one’s kids off for an entire day while you get on with say, your own life. Am I wrong? Having to pick them up at lunchtime and entertain them for the rest of the afternoon, not to mention try and fit that in around a normal working day, sounds like it might be somewhat tricky.

In any case, I seem to remember it being 8.30am to 3.30pm when I was at school – what’s this 9am to 3pm business? We’ve already lost an hour somewhere, and now they want to kick them out even earlier?

Clearly there’s a bunch of teachers behind this, rubbing their hands with glee and counting up all the extra hours of free time they’ll have.

>> Do you like the idea of European school hours? What would you do with your kids if they got out of school at 1.15pm?

———

Apple announces another piece of plastic that does stuff, everyone faints from excitement

Is the new iPad 3 on the way?

Apple sent out this invitation yesterday - but what's it for?

If you heard a strange WHOOSHing noise at around lunchtime yesterday, don’t be alarmed – it was just the sound of millions of techno geeks collectively gasping in shock as Apple announced the launch of the iPad 3.

Well, OK, they didn’t ACTUALLY announce the launch. They did what Apple always does, which is to announce “an event”, which the media then dissects for days until all possible outcomes have been extrapolated and everyone is thoroughly bored of the whole thing.

Common consensus is that the “invitation only event” to be held in San Francisco on March 7 will be to announce the company’s much anticipated iPad 3 (because the iPad 2 came out a whole 12 months ago, so we’re all, like, SO totally bored with it already).

As wonderful as I’m sure it will be for the world to spend millions of dollars on yet another piece of plastic that does stuff that’s only marginally different from the last piece of plastic that does stuff, I’m loathe to write anything nice about Apple in the wake of recent revelations that:

  • They employ children via their largest supplier, Chinese manufacturer Foxconn;
  • Foxconn’s workers often suffer debilitating injuries from spending up to 70 hours a week assembling iProducts, sometimes unable to sit down, for a pay of just $22 a day; and
  • Foxconn workers are suiciding with such regularity, the company has erected nets outside windows to stop people jumping to their deaths.

Pip wrote a piece about all of this here.

Personally, I find it hard to get excited about a new piece of tech when I know that thousands have suffered, genuinely suffered, just to get it into my hands.

>> Are you an iFan? Do the stories about Apple’s treatment of Chinese workers make you think twice about buying their products?

———

And that’s today’s News on Toast – don’t forget to rinse your plate now! Those crumbs are really hard to wash off once they’ve dried. Got something to say? Share it in the comments and I’ll respond.

  • Amanda Hirvi

    I have loved i products not having heard that prev – those facts certainly make me reconsider my choices.

    • JustbPetra

      It’s terrible, isn’t it? Somehow I think Apple’s probably not alone in this sort of thing, though.

  • CG

    I totally think Yumi and George’s comments were offensive, but if Kyle was not sacked for his ongoing list of offensive, misguided comments, then I can’t see that Yumi and George should be. I was not aware that George Negus had joined ‘The Circle’, that in itself is a bit concerning, hmmm, bit of a journalistic career slump. 

  • nekorine

    I don’t think kids having shorter hours in school that much of a big deal to be honest. I teach secondary school kids and I could already see that by lunch time they have no concentration, no motivation to do anything, even if it is a practical drama class or visual arts class, they are physically there but mentally they are gone. Teachers might have extra free time but does not mean that teachers have extra FREE me time at all, those extra times are used for marking, assessing, refining the subject curriculum, making lesson plans for the next day, usually we finish at 4-5:30.

    So making school hours shorter isn’t a bad idea, teachers are not parents and a school is not a childcare centre. I rather have my kids at their best when they are at school, giving their 100% in class than them being all drained up.  

    • Ceridwen

      I agree. Teachers would not make decisions that are educationally unsound and a lot of research would go into making such a big change. I think it is unfair and dismissive to suggest teachers would be “rubbing their hands together” for free time. It is about the best outcomes for students so it is worthwhile having a debate about school hours.

      • Petra @ JustB

        Hey Ceridwen – it was a joke, I know teachers work hard – I know several.

        • Ceridwen

           Phew. Glad to hear it!

  • family of teachers

    “Clearly there’s a bunch of teachers behind this, rubbing their hands
    with glee and counting up all the extra hours of free time they’ll have.”
    Teachers work incredibly hard, don’t make the amazingly juvenile mistake that just because  they ‘only’ have an official working day of 8.45 to 3.30 (not sure where you’re getting you “9 to 3″ information from but in Victoria this is what school hours are) that they have oodles of free time and an easy job.
    Think about it – would you think that being in control of 35 9year olds was an easy task? Or how about trying to inspire a group of 25 16 year olds that history can be interesting and worth studying?
    Then imagine you get to 3.30 after having dealt with these children or adolescents since 8.30/8.45am and you then have to attend an hour long meeting about ideas to fight for funding for your school, or take part in one of the MANY PD in-services held throughout the year even though you are a highly qualified professional, or have to meet with the parents of children and try to explain to them that no, you are not unfairly grading their lovely child’s work, as a dick and balls picture does not constitute an essay.
    And then if you’re lucky enough to get home before 6pm to look after you own children you can spend a few hours with them before having to sit down and mark homework and assignments and then prepare your classes for the next day.
    Think about this and THEN tell me how you believe that teachers sit around rubbing their hands with glee.
    Think twice before dragging a profession’s name through mud when you know nothing about their work, Petra.

    • Petra @ JustB

      Hi FOT – thanks for your comment, sorry my joke offended you. Guess Yumi and George’s gag wasn’t the only one to miss the mark! As for the 9am to 3pm hours, I got that from the Daily Telegraph story so perhaps that’s the situation in NSW.

  • Dr Ruth

    I met Ben last year at the National War Memorial just after he was presented with his VC. He was polite and charming – unlike George and Yumi, who seem to have left their brains at the bottom of a cesspool. 

    • Petra @ JustB

      Jealous. He is gorgeous.

  • Connie D

    The core or fundamental  learning at school is over by 11.30/12.00. The rest of the day is ‘padding’  two snack breaks, lunch, then a  light afternoon activities like p.e, art or music.  1.15 knock off would be favourable for teachers as this time co- incides with post lunch behaviour issues after little johnny  has just injested two jam sandwiches, an LCM a tub of yoghurt and a roll up, washed down with a chocolate milk. And comes back to class ready to pick a fight.

  • Paulannie

    Circle “ JERKS”  Yumi and George, are now on the same par as Carl Sanderlands ( no infact they are worse than him), where their mouths are bigger than their brains. No amount of apologies could possibly make up for the injustice they have performed to one of our great heroes. They should both be fired and not allowed to work back in the media in any form again.