Saturday night, I was aghast at what a 12 year old kid said to me. I was about to do a coin trick for a table of 11, mostly kids. "Let me get my purse out." as I reach in my pocket. I look at said child, "If you see a guy who is 6 ft. tall, shaved goutee, tattoos weighs over 300 lbs and carries a purse, you know what you call him?" (Of course, I tell them the answer is SIR, or WHATEVER I TELL YOU.) This 12 year old used an insulting term that would probably get me banned from here. I froze for a minute. I don't have kids, but I'm around them often at my real job and I do have nephews this age. I really can not remember the last time I heard a kid use this insulting slang term for a homosexual man. I really thought schools were trying to teach them tolerance and all that jazz. I really thought this term had gone the way of the "N" word. A moment later, another kid smacked him in the chest. "Shut up, look at the size of this guy, he's obviously not a f****n' queer." All this language in front of their dad, who said nothing. I just went on. However, I really thought it was funny and said that this kid thought that for someone to be homosexual, he would have to be a small efiminate guy, wearing a dress and patent leather pumps. I WANTED to tell him that "No, I'm not, but I have a few friends who are. And if you still use language like that in a few years, you'll have one of those f*****s split your head open."

That is horrible!

... kids these days...

Well, you have to admit you set him up for that!

BTW, is that a doumbek you are drinking from, or are you just happy to see me?

Its right, He set the situation... BUT ANYWAY! In my times we have respect for Adults...TIMES ARE CHANGING , sometimes for good...But in this case for Bad!
Hansel!

Bill, I've been using that line for years. No one has ever said that. They may think it, but this kid had the stones to SAY it!

I am drinking champagne from the Calder Cup. The AHL trophy, won this year by my hometown team, the Hershey Bears. The team often eats where I work and brought it in. After the place was almost empty they filled it with champagne and passed it around. It's a tradition. Kinda tough to drink from though as it weighs about 20 pounds. I tried to get them to make a hot fudge sundae in it instead.

As far as I know, originally the word faggot was used to refer to a bundle of something and when homosexuals were burned (in the old times when they were considered evil) they threw faggots of dried wood on the fire and therefrom the term faggot developed as an insulting term for homosexuals.
Not that interesting though.

Pepka,

Are you sure those kids weren't the two boys from Talledega Nights?

DD

I would have asked the dad something about parenting that I probably shouldn't but would anyway.

Sounds like that's what I'd call "Parenting by Satellite Dish"

Yes nothing against the gays.Iv plenty of friends who are going to hell lol

I can see that!

There's your explanation.

It's also British slang for a cigarette, but clearly they meant it as an insult.

Is there any suggestion on how to handle this kind of situation?

Turn to the parent and ask, "Does your child always address people my size with this kind of language?"

Or "Do you encourage hate speech among your offspring?"

Then leave the restaurant and find another gig.

Seriously, the best thing to do is raise an eyebrow and say NOTHING.

You forgot to mention "doing magic tricks"...

So my step-daughter is the right age to be a huge Michael Jackson fan and was very distraught at his demise. Naturally I set-up my 12 year old grandson with a line to use when the news came on and she started weeping. (Fortunately, I was present
when he used it.) It went like this (perfectly, I might add.):

We finished dinner and went to the living room and the news came on. Believe it or not they started talking about Jackson. Sharon started weeping a little to herself and her kid says "Mom. What are you crying about?"
Sharon: "Well, MICHALE JACKSON died."
Tyler (12 year old): "WHO?"
Sharon: "MICHALE JACKSON DIED. HE IS GONE!"
Tyler: "So? HE WAS OLD!"
Sharon freaked out.

It was great, almost as though I'd scripted both of them.

But then reality steped in and shocked even ME.

The 8 year old chimed in with "So, what's all the fuss with some child-molester kickin' the bucket?"

I didn't script that and was pretty freaked that he knew that language.

whaddoyado?

Have fun!
Terry V.

Seriously!

I don't know about over there in US (I think the "politically correct" standards are higher than here in Europe, which is probably not always a good thing), but the question you asked suggested the same answer in my head, even if not the same word and the same offensive way of saying it. But the contrast between the "male" things (big guy, tattos and s.o.) and the "female" purse would raise this way of answering to a lot of people. I am astonished that this was the first time you received the answer. In the same time, I am sad that this answer was meant in an offensinve way to homosexuals.
But this kind of humor (since I am persuaded that such humor is possible if played with good taste) is very delicate, and a child probably won't have acquired the requisite finesse to handle such jokes...

I would definitely drop that line from my shows.

Jonathan.

I was just about to PM David for permission to ADD the line to my show when I realized I'm not 6 feet tall, I don't weight 300 lbs and I don't have a goatee.

If adults responded as such, and you were prepared (which you are now), you could get a lot of mileage out of it, a la Jeff Hobson.

But kids responding like that is just an indicator of outrageously poor parenting.

I imagine you switched to the old Brass Knuckle coin star from that point?

That's the type of parent that expects the schools to teach values to his kids, yet undoes it all at home. Elective sterilization should be free in the U.S. - stupid people shouldn't breed!