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Basil Brush is being investigated after a complaint was made about an alleged racist joke in the puppet's BBC series.
A complaint was received by the police following a recent screening of an old episode that features the fox telling jokes about gypsies, reports Metro.
The episode, which was originally shown six years ago, features a sketch where a gypsy woman tries to sell Basil some wooden pegs.
A police spokesperson said: "We can confirm we have received a complaint about a TV show featuring Basil Brush from a member of the public in February. The complaint was logged as an incident of a racist nature."
Joseph Jones, a spokesperson for the Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network, said: "Racist abuse of black people is quite rightly no longer deemed acceptable, but when a comedian makes a joke on TV about pikeys or gypos, there's no comeback."
Did you see the offending episode? Do you think Basil should be banished from our screens?
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kill basil!
Posted by: schumphries on Tue Mar 18 07:23PM | Report abuseNO
Posted by: lauren.fenton on Tue Mar 18 07:31PM | Report abusehow stupid
Posted by: jen.maguire1 on Tue Mar 18 07:34PM | Report abuseshut the f**ck up basil isthe best if that picky in the diffrent country complains eny more he will get a mouth full of it so shuve a brick up you ass
Posted by: callumoz1998 on Tue Mar 18 07:53PM | Report abuseCertainly not. What happened 6 years ago is not relevant today. This should be freedom of speech, especially when you think most of us pay taxes etc. and gypsies do not. If they want equality they should be prepared to live like the majority of British people. Even people who come in from Poland etc. and start work have to pay their way. Why shouldn't gypsies. They take from Society and use the facilities - what do they give back in return? So far all I've seen is litter and pollution in all it's senses.
Posted by: penn986 on Tue Mar 18 08:20PM | Report abuseI think you're all mad! But at least you've all made me laugh tonight with your spelling mistakes and pikey comments. I've never been a fan of Basil Brush, but good for him (and the scriptwriter) for bothering to spend time trying to make people laugh. We should all laugh more and worry less. What goes around comes around and what is said in jest should be received that way. Bol*^#ks to Joseph Jones. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha :o)
Posted by: paul.nandhra on Tue Mar 18 08:24PM | Report abusePeople are dying every minute of every day from lack of water, food a decent place to sleep, and family to call their own. MY EXPERIENCE OF PIKEYS YES I SAID THE WORK PIKEYS ARE THEY STEAL WHAT THEY CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO BUY, THEY HAVE A RELAY SYSTEM OF TAKING FOOD DRINK TV'S ETC do I sound like I know what I'm talking about that would be a yes, as I work in retail and no matter how hard we try they still steal from us and then sell it on. SO I SAY GOOD ON YOU BASIL!!!!!
Posted by: anita.monaghan on Tue Mar 18 08:28PM | Report abuseWhat a load of old rubbish. The programme was shown six years ago. I know from experience that they are a bit slow on the uptake. I'll lay odds the complaint was from a "Pikey". If they were tax paying law abiding people I would have no complaint but as the vast majority of them pay neither tax or earn an honest living then in my view they have no right to complain.
Posted by: dodds339 on Tue Mar 18 09:16PM | Report abuseIf these people keep making complaints the comedian will die out ,you won't be able to tell any more the Engishman the irishman the scotsman jokes
Posted by: h.mc.avoy on Tue Mar 18 09:33PM | Report abuseget a life you pikey s@#$%
Posted by: simonhuntaa on Tue Mar 18 09:53PM | Report abuse