A Proper Joey

‘WE are not unkind, cruel or prejudiced against the handicapped, but we must wonder why it is that Joey is called Joey?

”How you doin’?”

Is it mere coincidence that Matt LeBlanc’s character from the Friends TV show - now appearing in his own faltering sitcom ‘Joey’ - shares a name with Joey Deacon?

Those of you of a certain vintage will recall the name Joey with a mixed sense of pride and shame.

Joey Deacon was the biggest thing to come out of Blue Peter since that elephant did a poo live on air and Shep refused to get down.

Joey’s cerebral palsy educated 1980s youth in how hard life is for the disabled while giving them a great way of taking the piss out of their playground chums.

And then after a break of some years, along cam Joey Tribbiani, who, like his namesake, was not at ease with the world around him.

And like our own Joey, the cruel and inhumane chuckled at his stupid ways, his inability to hold a conversation and his mad rolling eyes.

And then this Joey got his own TV series.

And after the brief time at the top, the show began to slide to such a position that now the only people who tune into watch Joey are those who would feel guilty and bigoted if they stopped doing so and those others too weak or ill to turn the TV off.’

Posted: 1st, November 2004 | In: Media Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink