ROCK'S JOKE NOT FUNNY, BUT ALSO NOT UNCOMMON
Someone called Chris Rock told an unfunny joke at the Oscars about the bald head of actor Will Smith's wife.
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Peter Smith ("Medical issues are nothing to joke about", The Daily Advertiser, April 1) asserts that joking about "health and medical problems is not the least bit humorous in any way shape or form".
That's a confusing claim given that the footage shows Smith, himself, roaring with laughter at that very joke moments before presumably noticing his wife's silent, stony face, and his subsequent assault on the unfunny comedian.
Perhaps also deserving of a good pummeling are all the producers of movies involving people who die suddenly (surely the ultimate "medical problem") and whose corpses need then to be hidden by hapless friends. There's a Fawlty Towers episode that provides an excellent (and very funny!) example. Let's line them all up and let Will Smith give them a good slapping for the "insult" they offer not just to the dead but to anyone who has ever grieved!
Peter Smith might also count the bald-head jokes on Are You Being Served or Seinfeld and look up a comedy called An Everlasting Piece about two wig salesmen in Northern Ireland. Looking to boost sales they luck upon an English soldier suffering from PTSD-induced alopecia who says that there are others like him who all need wigs - a potential goldmine.
To its credit, the movie then exposes the horrific extent of the damage to dozens of boyish recruits called-up to fight a dirty war that's understood by none of them and one in which alopecia is just one side effect of much deeper trauma.
Rebel Wilson's utterly tasteless joke at the BAFTA's about how "we all come from the bush" was far more insulting (to everyone who has a mother for starters) - but she didn't get or deserve a slap across the face for it.
Robert T Walker, Wagga
GOVERNMENT'S STROKE OF LUCK
In October 2020 the NSW Legislative Assembly appointed a Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control.
The committee aims to criminalise "patterns of abusive behaviour designed to exercise domination and control".
It's fortunate for the NSW government that this legislation is yet to be introduced because COVID-19 vaccines mandates for health, aged care, education and emergency workers is coercive control.
Christopher Kanck, Lake Albert
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PROUD AUNT 'HAVING A BRAG'
I was delighted to see the coverage of the recent Tolland Open cycling event ("Eather wins a second Tolland road crown", The Daily Advertiser, March 14).
As you will gather, I am a very proud great aunt to Cameron Rogers, of Canberra (who finished third). For a number of years, Cameron and brother Luke have ridden cycling events in Wagga Wagga.
Cameron is the 17-year-old son of Peter and Raeleigh (Tennant) Rogers. Peter, Dean and Richard Rogers all rode the Tour de France. Raleigh was born in Wagga Wagga, she represented Australia in triathlon.
Cameron, like Wagga cyclist Bronte Stewart, will travel with their teams to Belgium later in the year.
Yes, I am having a brag.
Bernice Campbell, Wagga
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