An open letter to @mrtonymartin.

Dear Tony,
Over the years, you and I have shared a lot of things in common. We’ve both been annoyed by incorrect aspect ratio, laughed at obscure things, and been sacked by Triple M, just to name a few. I’ve watched all your television shows with keen interest, watched Bad Eggs at the cinema, and purchased it not once, but a second time after the little lugs that hold the booklet in the DVD case broke off. Sure the second time I bought it, it was cheaper to buy the DVD than it was to buy a replacement case, but I still did it. I’ve read both your books, and recommended them to many people. I’ve listened to all your radio shows, and tracked down the podcast of any appearances you have done on shows right through out the country. In other words, I’m a fan.

But I don’t follow you on twitter…, because you blocked me.

Now this happened about a week ago, after a late night tweet from you, which a few people found offensive, but to my knowledge, I was the only one to reply to you voicing a concern. I didn’t get offensive in any way, I merely pointed out that as a comedian of your standing, as someone people look up to (if you like it or not, it’s the price of fame) , your tweet was offensive.

I’m sure you remember the tweet, it was in regards to a recent Australian television show, which had had male and female versions made. So as a comedy tweet, you decided to fire off a cheap shot.

The problem was, the tweet was offensive to a minority group of the community, that daily faces discrimination, violence, offensive remarks, and are treated as second class citizens, simply because they are who they are. What your tweet did, was normalise, for people who follow you on twitter, treating a minority with disrespect.

In short, it wasn’t what was said, but the ramifications of what was said. My reply to you on twitter, was merely pointing out you had been offensive, and that it would be nice if you were not offensive.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like a good joke, but what you wrote wasn’t even close to a good joke. It was the kind of thing a bigot would say to other bigots while half drunk, and trying to impress someone not worth impressing.

It was an error, not a big one, but an error none the less, and I just mentioned it as such. For this, you blocked me. I can understand that you would get a lot of people who for some reason or another don’t like you, but I do like you, I am a fan.

So here is the deal I’m offering. How about you unblock me so I can keep following you, and we leave it at that. If not, well, so be it. At the end of the day, you were at least informed about being offensive, and hopefully it won’t happen again. If not, well hopefully others who read the tweets realised that what they might have thought was ok, was nothing but belittling and offensive.

I look forward to following you again.
Regards,
@agreencow