The mother of a child with Down's syndrome has criticised Frankie Boyle for making fun of people with her daughter's condition.
Sharon Smith told the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC Radio 5
Live that she sat in the front row close to tears when the comedian
performed a gig in Reading earlier this week.
Ms Smith, who invited the comedian to meet her five-year-old
daughter Tanzie, told the show Boyle had indulged in "horrible childish
humour".
Ms Smith wrote on her personal blog that the former Mock The Week
star had asked her why she was talking during his show - and when she
told him he tried to laugh it off.
She told Radio 5 Live: "He made fun of the way that people with
Down's syndrome speak, he made a number of references to people with
Down's syndrome dying early."
She continued: "The whole segment my heart was racing, I was very upset about it, I wanted to cry.
"I couldn't believe that someone who is as influential and famous
and supposedly clever, was going back to such out-of-date stereotypes.
"And there was no point to the humour at all, there was nothing that he was achieving in it.
"He wasn't making a point that this is an out-of-date stereotype, he
was actually using the stereotype to just basically poke fun at people
with disabilities."
Boyle's representatives did not immediately comment.
Ismail Kaji, from the charity Mencap, said: "Making fun of a person's disability is not a joke...
"I am shocked that anyone would be so aggressive and want to hurt people's feelings in this way.
"I hope that Frankie Boyle will learn a lesson from this and I think he should apologise in public to the people he has upset."
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