'Benny Hill culture' blamed for teenage pregnancies

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 18/07/2002 | Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent

[PlanoMike]

The Government is blaming Benny Hill, the comedian famous for his sketches involving scantily-clad girls, for its failure to cut teenage pregnancies.

People's "giggly" attitude to sex - the "Benny Hill culture" - was sending out mixed messages to young people, Cathy Hamlyn, head of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit, said.

"On the one hand they are bombarded by messages through films and the media which give the impression that everyone is having sex and they should," she said. "On the other, parents have great difficulty talking about it."

Her comments came as MPs and peers demanded an urgent review of government policies for reducing schoolgirl births.

A study by Dr David Paton of Nottingham University suggested that the Government's strategy may be increasing pregnancies and abortions among teenage girls. He said his figures showed that the number of girls attending family clinics increased by 144 per cent between 1992 and 2000, while prescriptions for the morning-after pill tripled in the same period.

However, the conception rate fell by just 1.2 per cent, while sexually transmitted diseases among 16- to 19-year-old females increased by 58 per cent.

Jim Dobbin, Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, said: "This is not about the morality of abortion. It is not about the morality of distributing contraception to the very young. It is about the morality of adopting strategies when there is no clear indication as to their potential success and a considerable amount of evidence as to the damage they can do."

But a Health Department spokesman said there was more than one aspect to cutting teenage pregnancies. It included helping young people to resist pressure to have early sex, improving sex and relationship education in schools, improving access to contraceptive advice services and supporting parents in talking to their children.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there was a 2.4 per cent fall in pregnancy rates among under-18s between 1999 and 2000 but Britain still has the second highest teenage pregnancy rate in the developed world, after the United States.

Benny Hill, who died in 1992, was renowned for his risque sketches, with sex and squealing nymphets the constant theme. However, a biography claimed that he maintained a "firm distaste for sexual intercourse". His father sold condoms for a living.

[PlanoMike]

What a load of codswallop (nonsense)! Nothing like a dead scapegoat!!

[DonQ]

Let me see, a comedian who died when these teenagers were about five years old, and whose regular TV show went off the air before they were born, is somehow responsible. Is that right?!

[dinasour]

More crap from the "it takes a village" crowd.

Earth to liberals: it takes PARENTS to raise a child. If you buy your twelve-year-old thong underware and let her go out looking like a prostitute, guess what's going to happen.

[E Rocc]

People's "giggly" attitude to sex - the "Benny Hill culture" - was sending out mixed messages to young people, Cathy Hamlyn, head of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit, said.

In a related story, Winston Churchill is being blamed for sabotaging the Government's Teenage Smoking and Drinking Reduction Unit's programs.

-Eric

[Freemyland]

[widgysoft]

"ONE OF THE BEST ACTORS AND ENTERTAINERS TO EVER LIVE"

[michigander]

Benny Hill Show theme (midi)

[dinasour]

What a load of codswallop (nonsense)! Nothing like a dead scapegoat!!

You are now the official custodian of the word "codswallop" on FR. You must review a subsequent uses for correctness.

[mewzilla]

Just more proof of why the sun continues to set on what's left of the British Empire.

[FreeTally]

But a Health Department spokesman said there was more than one aspect to cutting teenage pregnancies. It included helping young people to resist pressure to have early sex,.....

Sounds fine, but wait, what do they say next?

improving sex and relationship education in schools, improving access to contraceptive advice services and supporting parents in talking to their children.

So, to lower teen prgnancies, which they claim is caused by the bombardment of sex and sexual messages, we should talk about sex and provide contraceptives even more? And what the heck is "contraceptive advice services"? Every school should have the same policy - you need "contraceptive advice", ask your parents.

Idiots.

[mewzilla]

And we can add: gammon, rot, rubbish, all my eye!, and Betty Martin, for good measure.

[bandleader]

Mega Dittos to that!Benny Hill is dead so we'll blame him!!The Blame lies with the increasingly PERMISSIVE attitude the Brits hsve embraced concerning social issues.I would say that they(The Brits) are AWASH in Moral Relativism!!!This is a country where you can't defend yourself(legally)and if you do,you can count on going to jail like farmer Tony Martin!!!!!!!!!!

[Freemyland]

I agree. If Benny Hill had such influence, there would be an outbreak of people running around slapping old bald men on top of the head.

[bandleader]

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE!!!I have a relative that worked as a costumer on Benny Hill and I'm very happy to see on my wall(I'm looking at this moment)a photo of Benny Hill bracketed by Hill's Angels!!!!It is inscribed"To Christopher,Now Will You Practice?"and signed by HIMSELF!!!!!

[Moleman]

I too am a victim of the Benny Hill culture.
I just can not resist jumping on the back of an old woman and riding he about the countryside ;-)

[Movemout]

Benny Hill is among the very best slapstick comedians the world ever produced. I remember pronouncements similar to this about the Three Stooges in their heyday. It has to be "codswallop" whatever the heck that is. Must be tangentially related to a codspiece which is a genital cover.

[Fides et Ratio]

Some favorite Benny Hill lines:

"He was born just outside Wedlock."

"We had a house in front, and she had a flat behind."

Interviewer: "Have you heard that five hundred topless sunbathers are expected at Brighton this year?"

Fred Scuttle: "If its true, it's a thousand pities."

[mewzilla]

Re: codswallop. The story has it that around 1870 an inventor named Hiram Codd patented a new type of bottle with a glass marble in its neck. Wallop, which was sold in these bottles, was a slang term for fizzy ale. Codd's wallop bcame codswallop, which is slang for baloney or hot air.

[Freemyland]

"Once I held a lovely hand
It made my sad heart sing
The loveliest hand I've ever held
Four aces and a King"

[Movemout]

Thanks for the edifying lesson, Mewzilla. Baloney and hot air were key themes in many of Benny Hill's presentations. He took Red Skelton's skits to their logical conclusions.