Criticism
In 2004, Kay caused controversy with a joke about murdered television presenter Jill Dando. The Sun newspaper covered the story on its front page, labelling Kay as a "sick comic".
Despite having co-written Phoenix Nights with Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice, Fitzmaurice spoke of his dissatisfaction with Kay taking sole credit when he left their names off the script book. “I can only presume they took out all the bits Dave and I wrote.” Kay was also nominated for a book prize alone. Fitzmaurice added, "The only way I can explain it is that people are affected by fame in different ways. It was basically about a lack of respect, a lack of recognition for me and Dave." Spikey also criticised Max and Paddy saying: "Hate to say it but pretty obvious, blatant, unsophisticated comedy for me. But, hey what do I know? It did very well and got nominated for a National TV award so I must be in the minority."
In 2001, there was criticism of Kay following his depiction in both That Peter Kay Thing and Phoenix Nights (series one) of a fire safety officer called Keith Lard. The character seemed to have resemblances to a real-life fire safety officer called Keith Laird. Although the similarity was dismissed as coincidental, Channel 4 were forced to offer an apology and financial compensation to Mr Laird.
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Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“A friend of mine spoke of books that are dedicated like this: “To my wife, by whose helpful criticism ...” and so on. He said the dedication should really read: “To my wife. If it had not been for her continual criticism and persistent nagging doubt as to my ability, this book would have appeared in Harper’s instead of The Hardware Age.””
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“Parents sometimes feel that if they don’t criticize their child, their child will never learn. Criticism doesn’t make people want to change; it makes them defensive.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)