Frankie Boyle's Paralympics joke is certainly causing a stir! The controversial comedian has been peppering his Twitter feed with jokes about the Paralympics and, naturally, has been offending people along the way. One joke that Frankie Boyle made referred to the Saudi Arabian team as "mainly thieves," referring to the criminals having their hands removed. When he was criticised, he simply said "I'll be joking about Paralympics same way I joked about the Olympics. That's my job yo."
Boyle was later called out by the former Paralympic athlete (and current TV sports presenter) Tanni Grey-Thompson when he said "Nobody thinks it's a good thing to laugh at the disabled. But it is a genuine problem that we're not allowed to laugh with the disabled." Whilst she may not have disagreed with the sentiment, Tanni did request that he considered his terminology and requested that he used the phrase "disabled people" rather than "the disabled." He had previously defended himself by saying "Why not read the Paralympic jokes on my timeline and make your own mind up? Celebratory, non discriminatory, pretty funny."
Of course, this is not the first time that Boyle has got people's backs up with his close-to-the-bone humour. In 2009, the jokes that he made about the swimmer Rebecca Adlington on Mock The Week were deemed inappropriate by the Bbc Trust. The glamour model and TV personality Katie Price also reported him to Ofcom for jokes that he made about her, the following year.