Cleese and co's Oscar Pistorius jokes way beyond the pale

Cutting Edge Comedy of the Week: The award goes to John Cleese for this tweet: “Oscar’s defence will be that he was absolutely…

Cutting Edge Comedy of the Week: The award goes to John Cleese for this tweet: “Oscar’s defence will be that he was absolutely legless at the time.”

After the mother of all backlashes (for example, “John Cleese broke a twitter silence to make a Pistorius joke. My 11-year-old self, the one who fell in love with Fawlty Towers, is crying”), the Monty Python old boy (sort of) apologised.

“Sorry if the last tweet was a bit naughty.”

Followed by: “Explanation required: Someone made the comment. I said, yeah, we should tweet that – sarcastically. Misunderstood.”

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Someone else’s fault, then.

Brave.

Reeva Steenkamp’s family, you’d imagine, failed to see the rib-tickling side of it all. But a chap by the “name” of Sammy Sneeze reckons the woman’s murder is a hoot – now, seriously, available on Amazon, his e-book: Gun Runner: 101 Tasteless Oscar Pistorius Jokes.

Endless gags about missing legs, dead blondes and such like.

But sure, how could you not laugh at the murder of a young woman by an Olympian? Comedy gold.

Stay classy, Amazon.

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Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times