Shay Given on saying Nancy “had an absolute holocaust” on BBC today

by Left-Painter-9172

23 Comments

  1. Left-Painter-9172 on

    Use the word and then claim not to know what it means. Bold move etc.

    Nice touch re: the donation though.

  2. i think it was stupid as fuck but he obviously didn’t mean to diminish the holocaust by saying it.

  3. No worries mate, and fair play on the fee donation.

    But if this is somewhat true, and you didn’t know what the holocaust is/means. Maybe stay off tv for now xoxo

  4. Fair play. Made an arse of it, owned it apologised and made a donation. Not everything needs to be a witch-hunt and cancellation event.

  5. What English speaking person in their 40s/50s wouldn’t know what Holocaust means?

    If he doesn’t know, then what on earth did he think it meant? 

    The older definitions are about being a sacrifice. So I genuinely can’t understand what he thought, it meant.

    Was he meaning Nancy was a sacrifice, for O’Neill to come back? 

  6. Own it man. I would have had more respect than trying to downplay his knowledge of it, because basically any knowledge is enough to know its not the right thing to use in that moment.

    Nothing too wrong about saying something live in the heat of the moment that you can maybe regret as a one off.

  7. Yeah insensitive move but 20 years ago it would get an eye roll or gallows laugh. Social media makes us assume the worst of everything.

    “He had a <insert bad thing>” .

  8. LibrarianAgreeable85 on

    I do believe that he’s genuinely mortified that he’s upset people to be fair – he’s never seemed like the type to be purposely edgy or anything like that

  9. When I first read a headline about this I thought he might have denied the holocaust or something even worse.

    Using “holocaust” as a generic word for bad thing is tasteless and not a good look for a commentator, but not something to go overboard about if he apologized.

  10. He’s probably heard it in the context of having a nightmare and due to a lack of education he thinks it’s a usable term. Obviously not but he’s made a mistake and it’s definitely not something they should cancel him over. 

  11. Where’s the Big Phil Scolari gif when you need it?

    I’d have just immediately ran out of the studio if I dropped a clanger like that lol

  12. Man’s mind was was reaching for a word meaning extreme slaughter, and his brain’s synapses made a social faux pas by offering up a loaded word. Anyone with reasonable common sense can tell he clearly didn’t mean to offend by it. A minor fuck-up, we all do it. Gave a sincere apology, and I think he deserves the grace of a sincere acceptance.

  13. Given the connotations attached to the word it’s obviously not a great thing to say but he’s not meant it as a comparison.

    It’s a real shame that he’s going to get a lot of heat over it, hopefully there’s no overreaction that affects his role as a pundit because he’s actually really good. You fear for him given the way the BBC are though.

  14. He honestly expecting people to believe he doesn’t fully understand what the word holocaust means?!

  15. I think he’s heard it used like that before but people trying to do a bit of shock humour and hasn’t put two and two together because he’s a footballer and footballers are traditionally fucking morons who left school at 16 and had effectively had their arse wiped for them by somebody else for the next 20 years. The whole football world is made up of people who are forever 16. Just look at Open Goal and some of their footballing pranks for that. Some if the stuff sounds funny but when you realise the pranks were done by 30 year old men and not 16 year old schoolboys it becomes a bit more pathetic.

    He’s then used it today to repeat that humour and only now he’s in actual society away from his old life does he realise how bad it sounds.

    Apologise, don’t do it again, discourage other people from using the term, make the donation and move on.

  16. Ignorance isn’t a crime and his apology appears sincere, I’d mark this one down to him just being a bit of a tit today, something we’re all capable of.