back to article Facebook tells Viz to f**k right off

Facebook has "unpublished" the page pertaining to legendary Brit comic Viz, citing a breach of the social network's terms and community standards. Viz revealed the shock news on Twitter earlier today, prompting one fan to suggest: "Couldn't you disguise yourselves by posting child pornography or right wing nut job content?" …

Page:

  1. Dave 126

    A sad state of affairs. If only there was some sort of idiomatic reference book in which I could find a phrase that would concisely express my feelings on this matter.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Indeed. What would such a reference work be titled, I wonder?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Fitbin and the art of Facebook management.

      2. Fraggle850

        > Indeed. What would such a reference work be titled, I wonder?

        Perhaps one written by an erudite television personality of renowned vocabulary? Something like a thesaurus?

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          > Perhaps one written by an erudite television personality of renowned vocabulary?

          Mr Mellie is currently helping the police with their enquiries in relation to some historical allegations.

          1. Fraggle850

            What I wouldn't give...

            ...to be a fly on the wall in that interview room.

          2. John Smith 19 Gold badge

            "Mr Mellie is currently helping the police with their enquiries"

            He is denying any memory of meeting most of them. The rest "Looked much older than that" apparently.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      How about...

      The Facebook Files......

      aka The Definitive Reference for Politically Incorrect and Potentially Offensive Material

      And no breast-feeding moms here.... no siree bob. Just good clean, mindless postings about lolcat behavior and this morning's hangover. Apply antiseptic as needed....

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Office game

      With such a publication one can expand the knowledge of ones colleagues in a "learning at work" way. Simply email them a page, column and entry number, specifying an definition which they then have to read, comprehend and appreciate. They may express voluble surprise at what they have learned. They in turn can respond in a similar manner.

      Thus all can improve their understanding of this rich language.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This is what its coming to...

      Asses like Zuckerbag and the whole miserable bunch of corporate foam whippers will dictate what's acceptable with some bullshit small print.

      Hail the new overlards.

      Their cleansing away of your free speech is just as distasteful as their plans to cleanse away Arabs, Muslims, Russians, Mexicans, Migrants (what a fantastic word to stigmatize someone who moved from somewhere to somewhere else) and of course the increasing amounts of newly poor Americans and Europeans who refuse to return to the peasant status of their forefathers.

  2. Chika
    Happy

    If only there was some sort of idiomatic reference book in which I could find a phrase...

    Bollocks.

  3. twilkins

    And therein lies the danger of Facebook, aka, just another walled garden.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "And therein lies the danger of Facebook, aka, just another walled garden."

      Did anyone seriously believe otherwise? You can perhaps excuse naive teenagers for believing the whole hippie glorious new future without frontiers or rules schtick applied to the web & internet in general, but shame on any adult who was taken in. Companies website - companies rules. Simple.

      1. Chris Parsons
        Headmaster

        Would double-upvote for saying 'simple' instead of 'simples'!!!

    2. Geoffrey W

      If you want wall-less or, indeed, a lack of any restraint whatsoever, there's still lots of fun to be had with Usenet and IRC. Leave your inhibitions at the door.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die?

        Sadly all but dead these days.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "If you want wall-less or, indeed, a lack of any restraint whatsoever, there's still lots of fun to be had with Usenet and IRC. Leave your inhibitions at the door."

        Hmm. I wonder if Cody Ann is still about....

    3. TRT Silver badge

      The best thing about walled gardens...

      Is that it's easier to get your back up against, eh San?!

    4. Danny 14

      I guess Viz just didnt pay the 'ooptional advertising fee' that facebook asked for.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A once brilliant comic....

    That is now a shadow of it's former self.

    Send in Biffa Bacon to deal with Cedric Zuckerberg.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A once brilliant comic....

      If you really want it sorted, you'd want to send in Mutha.

      1. x 7

        Re: A once brilliant comic....

        I always preferred SMUT. Funnier, less words and more cartoons

        1. BillG
          Meh

          Re: A once brilliant comic....

          It's rare that I don't like something attempting to be comedic, I like to brag that I got my comedy chops from watching Monty Python. But when I look at Viz, I think he presently characterizes the phrase "That's not Funny, that's Stupid".

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: A once brilliant comic....

          And "Brain Damage" or "ziggy" (Anne Diamond ended that one after a joke about miscarriages).

          Everard Edbutt made the Bacons look like "heemasexes".

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            My favourite was The Pathetic Sharks.

        3. Chika

          Re: A once brilliant comic....

          SMUT, eh? Yes, I used to read that too. And Elephant Parts.

      2. Roq D. Kasba

        Re: A once brilliant comic....

        I agree that it can be somewhat uneven, but it was always hit and miss. Some of the older strips were very thin and contrived - swearing vicar, swearing postman, not really comically developed :)

        Many of the old favourites live on, and some of the slightly newer stuff like Drunken Bakers is splendid comic pathos. Profanisaurous has gone on too long, but still contains the occasional gem. Read some of the earlier comics (in the issue 30's ish range, maybe) and there wasn't really a golden age

        1. frank ly

          Re: A once brilliant comic....

          My favourite was 'Black Bag', which was a wonderful homage to 'Black Bob', from way back in the Hotspur or maybe Rover (my memory is hazy on that one).

          1. TheDataRecoverer

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            once went to a Viz party as Faithful Border Bin-liner. Buster Gonad turned up, as did a bunch of others....ahhh, happy days!!

          2. Ali Um Bongo
            Headmaster

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            *"...a wonderful homage to 'Black Bob', from way back in the Hotspur or maybe Rover (my memory is hazy on that one)..."*

            Black Bob was in The Dandy, when I was a nipper.

          3. Rol

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            Ha, yes, Black Bag, the faithful border bin liner. I'm going all gooey eyed.

          4. matthehoople

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            'Black Bob' was Dandy. My 12 year old son loves the old Beano's and Dandy's - realises that new ones are a rip off and crap so we often have fun searchign charity shops for piles of old comics. The great thing is that he will 'understand' viz strips like 'Black Bag' when I eventually introduce Viz to him. I have a huge pile in the loft, ready for his enjoyment!

            1. Fraggle850

              Re: A once brilliant comic....

              > I have a huge pile in the loft, ready for his enjoyment!

              Fnar, fnar

        2. Captain Queeg

          Re: A once brilliant comic....

          Hit and miss, yes very much so, but more or less very issue still contains some real quality.

          This month there's a "Things you will see in the Gym" double page spread. I defy anyone to read down that with a straight face.

          Likewise the day in the life of a fireman

          http://viz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/012_viz156_fireman.jpg

          or Trainspotter Situations Vacant

          http://viz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/train-spotter.jpg

          1. Fraggle850

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            Didn't they once do a strip called something like 'DC Thompson, the miserable Scottish bastard' after being taken to court for ripping off dc Thompson characters from beano and dandy?

            Mr Logic was a favourite of mine, possibly because it struck a little too close to home! El Reg should have him as an icon for excessive pedantry.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: A once brilliant comic....

              >Didn't they once do a strip called something like 'DC Thompson, the miserable Scottish bastard' after being taken to court for ripping off dc Thompson characters from beano and dandy?

              I think it was DC McThompson, from memory. Ironically, they're now doing data centres and cloud computing, so there's another IT angle. Dennis the Menace, thanks to his lack of interest in paying attention at school, now spends his time putting cardboard boxes and polystyrene into the skips out the back, and occasionally keying Walter's Merc.

          2. Ralph B

            Re: A once brilliant comic....

            Occasional gems such as this and the ever reliable Top Tips keep me subscribing.

            1. Roq D. Kasba

              Re: A once brilliant comic....

              I enjoyed Jack Black (?) And Silver cartoons - living in his 1950's Daily Mail world, solving minor 'crimes'. Beautifully drawn and astute writing with an edge. And another homage to old strips, like Black Bag

    2. Ali Um Bongo
      Thumb Up

      Re: A once brilliant comic....

      At the risk of sounding like a candidate for another magazine's "Pseuds' Corner", I've always thought that; as well as [on occasion still] being good crack, Viz as a whole is also a very good barometer of 'real' contemporary British society

      I only wish I could persuade the Arts Council to fund my learnēd thesis on the subject.

    3. Nuff Said

      Re: A once brilliant comic....

      Possibly I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate your irony, but you do realise "It's not as funny as it used to be" was a running joke in the comic itself for some time?

      1. Rol

        Re: A once brilliant comic....

        Whatever you do, don't buy a shed from the small ads.

        It has been ten years since I ordered one and all I get from customer services is "wibble, wibble"

  5. wolfetone Silver badge
    Big Brother

    We really are in 1984 aren't we?

    You can be an individual and do what you like, how you like. But it must be in a way we see fit and it must not offend a single person.

    Conformity from Facebook.

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Not really. You're not forced to be on Faecesbook. Doesn't matter to me, as I block them at the router.

    2. TheProf

      Facebook? It's society in general

      I'd be quite interested in seeing some of the websites that radicalise people and turn them into religious zealots. From what the 'news' tell us they seem to be optical heroin; one look and you're hooked.

      I can't though, because if I look for these websites I'll be investigated to the full extent of the law (and beyond!) and end up in a foul-smelling prison cell.

      You're free to think what you like as long as it's been approved first.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Facebook? It's society in general

        >seeing some of the websites that radicalise people

        For me it's any time I need to deal with a bank and have to do all that prove-your-identity / know-your-customer crap to prove that you aren't a terrorist

        1. RogerT

          Re: Facebook? It's society in general

          >For me it's any time I need to deal with a bank and have to do all that prove-your-identity / know-your-customer crap to prove that you aren't a terrorist

          I always enjoy the sport of getting organisations to prove their identity to me when they ring. Their agents always claim to have no access to the information I request. It's a great sport.

        2. Cynic_999

          Re: Facebook? It's society in general

          "

          For me it's any time I need to deal with a bank and have to do all that prove-your-identity / know-your-customer crap to prove that you aren't a terrorist

          "

          Banks could save a lot of time by simply providing the customer with a mirror. That way the customer can quickly check that it's really them and not a case of identity theft.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Conformity from Facebook."

      Newflash - Facebook isn't a public service. Its a company that wants to turn a profit and it can set any rules it likes when you use its services. More fool you if you thought otherwise.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        It's a company beholden to national regulators and is now going to have a hard time saying that it can't block hate speech / dodgy pharmaceuticals / piracy / etc

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like