Today is the day of Bernard Manning's funeral. He will no doubt be given a great send off by the community which loved and understood him the most. In true City fan style his 'awkward-sod-ness' prevailed to the end - the more he was criticised, the more he stuck to his guns with his own unique non-comformist humour. No-one was safe from his wickedly outrageous wit, even himself.
He was also a notoriously kind, generous and loving man who did a tremendous amount of charity work, especially for his local community.
Tony Petrie wrires:-
It seems like only yesterday, me, mum and dad, sat around the old 24 inch black and white TV eagerly awaiting the weekly offering of the new programme that made us all laugh so much – The Comedians. It was half an hour of pure stand up comedy without a magician or singer in sight, just Shep’s Banjo Boys playing us in and out. I liked them all, Frank Carson (a bluff Ulsterman), Colin Crompton (a weedy northerner), Ken Goodwin (a stutterer), Charlie Williams (a black Yorkshireman), Tom O'Connor (the boy next door), Jim Bowen (a stone-faced ex-deputy headmaster), Lennie Bennett (a giggler) and Mike Reid (a cockney), but without a doubt, my favourite was Bernard Manning. Perhaps I was attracted to Manning’s familiar Manchester accent, perhaps it was the way he delivered his jokes, perhaps it was because he made jokes about Manchester United. I found out soon after that he was a big (in every sense of the word) City fan, which of course made him even easier to like. He has offended many and was labelled a racist more times than he had hot dinners, but it was a tag that he denied vociferously. In the early 70’s, every comedian sprinkled a few racist jokes into their act, none more so than Charlie Williams, but as time and society moved on, telling jokes about Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen became racist, so what chance did Manning have telling jokes about Pakistanis? The accusations didn’t stop the public attending his shows at his Embassy Club though, although it’s fair to say, if you wanted to catch Manning’s act in the last fifteen years, it was about the only place you could see him.
Back in the early eighties, when the new wave comedians were coming to the fore and the PC brigade began telling us what we could and couldn’t watch, read and listen to, Manning was invited onto some trendy discussion programme. It soon became apparent that the big man was there simply to be attacked by the interviewer and his fellow panellists. The programme may have even centred around Ben Elton’s declaration about Benny Hill being sexist as it was open season on 1970’s dinosaur comedians. Manning was outnumbered and in typical fashion made a comment saying something like “Ben Elton is about as funny as woodworm in a cripple’s crutch” His fellow guests immediately rounded on him, accusing him of making jokes at the expense of the disabled. But they missed the point. He didn’t say “Cripples are funny, aren’t they” he was saying, If you were crippled and relied on a crutch, woodworm would not be funny, exactly the point he was making about Ben Elton. He wasn’t given a chance to explain the joke. It was OK for the new left wing comedians to have a witch hunt against the older comedians, but they weren’t allowed to defend themselves. As one of only a handful of kids with a dark face at school in the late 60’s, you will have to take my word for the fact that I know what genuine racist comments are. I never found Bernard offensive, but then I used to like watching Mind Your Language too. I don’t wish to start a debate or argument as to whether Manning was or wasn’t racist/sexist/homophobic/stoutest/disableledist or any other ist as new ones are created every day, but if you are expected to either love or hate the guy, then without doubt I loved him. As a comedian, he made me laugh and no matter how big headed MUFC and their fans got in the 90’s, he was always on hand to slap them down with a good put down. It’s ironic that two of my favourite Bernard Manning jokes couldn’t be classed as offensive by any group except perhaps RAGS. The first is the one about three guys discussing how they wanted to die. The first says, "when I go, I want to die on the golf course, where I have had so many good times" The next one says, "I'd like to die making love to a beautiful woman" The third says, "When I die, I'd like to die peacefully, in my sleep, just like my dad. Not screaming and shouting, like his passengers" Then there’s the one about Paddy Crerand, if he’d had five shots at Kennedy, he’d still be alive today. (Bernard Manning 1930 – 2007, RIP)
Tony Petrie
The family have requested donations in lieu of flowers to NMGH Diabetes Centre. Further enquiries phone: Johnstone Brothers Funeral Services 0161 643 2690
He was also a notoriously kind, generous and loving man who did a tremendous amount of charity work, especially for his local community.
Tony Petrie wrires:-
It seems like only yesterday, me, mum and dad, sat around the old 24 inch black and white TV eagerly awaiting the weekly offering of the new programme that made us all laugh so much – The Comedians. It was half an hour of pure stand up comedy without a magician or singer in sight, just Shep’s Banjo Boys playing us in and out. I liked them all, Frank Carson (a bluff Ulsterman), Colin Crompton (a weedy northerner), Ken Goodwin (a stutterer), Charlie Williams (a black Yorkshireman), Tom O'Connor (the boy next door), Jim Bowen (a stone-faced ex-deputy headmaster), Lennie Bennett (a giggler) and Mike Reid (a cockney), but without a doubt, my favourite was Bernard Manning. Perhaps I was attracted to Manning’s familiar Manchester accent, perhaps it was the way he delivered his jokes, perhaps it was because he made jokes about Manchester United. I found out soon after that he was a big (in every sense of the word) City fan, which of course made him even easier to like. He has offended many and was labelled a racist more times than he had hot dinners, but it was a tag that he denied vociferously. In the early 70’s, every comedian sprinkled a few racist jokes into their act, none more so than Charlie Williams, but as time and society moved on, telling jokes about Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen became racist, so what chance did Manning have telling jokes about Pakistanis? The accusations didn’t stop the public attending his shows at his Embassy Club though, although it’s fair to say, if you wanted to catch Manning’s act in the last fifteen years, it was about the only place you could see him.
Back in the early eighties, when the new wave comedians were coming to the fore and the PC brigade began telling us what we could and couldn’t watch, read and listen to, Manning was invited onto some trendy discussion programme. It soon became apparent that the big man was there simply to be attacked by the interviewer and his fellow panellists. The programme may have even centred around Ben Elton’s declaration about Benny Hill being sexist as it was open season on 1970’s dinosaur comedians. Manning was outnumbered and in typical fashion made a comment saying something like “Ben Elton is about as funny as woodworm in a cripple’s crutch” His fellow guests immediately rounded on him, accusing him of making jokes at the expense of the disabled. But they missed the point. He didn’t say “Cripples are funny, aren’t they” he was saying, If you were crippled and relied on a crutch, woodworm would not be funny, exactly the point he was making about Ben Elton. He wasn’t given a chance to explain the joke. It was OK for the new left wing comedians to have a witch hunt against the older comedians, but they weren’t allowed to defend themselves. As one of only a handful of kids with a dark face at school in the late 60’s, you will have to take my word for the fact that I know what genuine racist comments are. I never found Bernard offensive, but then I used to like watching Mind Your Language too. I don’t wish to start a debate or argument as to whether Manning was or wasn’t racist/sexist/homophobic/stoutest/disableledist or any other ist as new ones are created every day, but if you are expected to either love or hate the guy, then without doubt I loved him. As a comedian, he made me laugh and no matter how big headed MUFC and their fans got in the 90’s, he was always on hand to slap them down with a good put down. It’s ironic that two of my favourite Bernard Manning jokes couldn’t be classed as offensive by any group except perhaps RAGS. The first is the one about three guys discussing how they wanted to die. The first says, "when I go, I want to die on the golf course, where I have had so many good times" The next one says, "I'd like to die making love to a beautiful woman" The third says, "When I die, I'd like to die peacefully, in my sleep, just like my dad. Not screaming and shouting, like his passengers" Then there’s the one about Paddy Crerand, if he’d had five shots at Kennedy, he’d still be alive today. (Bernard Manning 1930 – 2007, RIP)Tony Petrie
The family have requested donations in lieu of flowers to NMGH Diabetes Centre. Further enquiries phone: Johnstone Brothers Funeral Services 0161 643 2690
