BELM: "The website isn't actually what I believe. It's a joke"

We brought the belm.org.uk website to the attention of Ouch readers three weeks ago on our weblog, after having received an email from Scope making us aware that they were none too impressed at its offensive content. At the time it included the Scope logo. Shortly after posting a link to the site, however, the content was blocked and removed by the owners of the host server. After a short absence, we note that BELM is now back on the web.

On its front page, you can read 'humour' like the following:

"Can you 'Sponsor a Mong'? Can you? We need chumps generous people to provide financial assistance. For example, some mongs actually want to go to college. I say 'college', but it's really just a balloon-holding class. At best."

Some basic internet research led us to the creator of the site - Chobb Barnett - a regular contributor to the b3ta.com web community, and co-owner of a website called Fat, Drunk and Stupid. Before you choose to go and read the BELM website, please be aware that it contains language that might be considered offensive. We would not ordinarily publicise a website with this kind of content, but in this instance we have made an editorial decision that the subject is worthwhile and close to the interests of Ouch readers.

Now, you're probably asking yourself whether this Chobb bloke is a 'Benny on the Loose' or, indeed, a bit of a 'Benny tied to a tree'. We showed the BELM website to one of the geek team that makes Ouch work, and asked how long he thought it might have taken to create the site. We can only conclude that Chobb is a 'Benny tied to a tree' because it probably took him a whole weekend to make - a weekend that I'm sure you'll agree he could have spent doing something outdoors, something charitable or something worthwhile in the community.

We emailed the BELM creator asking if he'd give us a telephone interview. He declined, but said that we could conduct an interview via email. Chobb explained to us that he wanted it this way in order to construct his responses carefully and not just say any old rubbish that popped into his head. He was also keen to remain anonymous.

An email interview isn't the most satisfactory situation for a helpful and revealing exchange; it's not very interactive and can take a long time. We gave it a go anyway, and early last week started a dialogue with him.

Chobb Barnett tells us that he's 38 years old, he's from Manchester and works as an IT Systems Administrator. Of course, nothing on the web is certain. We had rather thought he was likely to be a 19 year old college student - hark at our evil stereotyping.

Ouch: Do you know any disabled people?

Chobb: No.

Ouch: Do you really find disabled people funny?

Chobb: Yes. I also think old people are funny, black people are funny, other cultures are funny, fat people are funny and gays are funny. I also think able-bodied people are funny, white people are funny, British culture is funny, thin people are funny and straights are funny. There is nothing that should be out of bounds. The BELM website is just one subject - it isn't the only thing I make fun of.

Ouch: There is little of what I'll call 'disability humour' around. Disability is a taboo oftentimes. Is this why you've picked disabled people as a source for humour?

Chobb: I don't think anything should be taboo. 'You can laugh at them but not at us' is unacceptable. Everybody is fair game.

The BELM website started out as a discussion on b3ta. I think someone mentioned their local supermarket had a lot of disabled people working there. I said something like 'Support Your Local Mong' and someone else said 'Bringing Employment to Local Mongs' . Which got a big laugh because to 'belm' is to extend one's bottom lip by protruding one's tongue to its full extension - a common 'spastic face'. I then mentioned I should do a website about that and people chipped in with ideas. Like I said, the idea was to amuse myself and the people on b3ta. As a point of reference, I did a website called 'Fat, Drunk and Stupid' where pretty much everybody cops for it ...

Ouch: The interesting thing here is that it's often where you're coming from that characterises and gives heart to a project, a bit of art or a piece of writing. I think that if a disabled person had created this website, people may have laughed and seen it as ironic Your site isn't ironic though, is it, unless I'm missing something?

Chobb: That's true; it would make a difference if I were disabled and it would be seen as ironic. Because I'm not disabled, the perception is different. Should I therefore not have done it? Yes, it's in poor taste; yes, it's puerile; yes, some people will be offended - but is that a reason not to do it?

Offensive though the website may be, we were quite surprised in the Ouch office when we discovered that the service provider, and the domain name forwarder, censored the content. We had previously thought that the internet was a relative wild frontier for anything and everything, with British Internet Service Providers refusing to block even child porn websites from users. Does disability hold a different status altogether, then? Are we untouchable?

The site is now hosted on an American server. We asked Chobb if he was surprised his site was taken down.

Chobb: I was very surprised. After reading on your site that Scope had complained, I removed the Scope logo. That is, after all, their trademark. But pulling a website because it offends you? Hell, that's disgraceful. Plenty of things offend me, but I deal with it. Imagine a world where everybody destroyed what offended them. There'd be nothing left. I'm sure there are plenty of websites that get removed in this fashion, and I suspect as our rights are eroded further there'll be a lot more.

We understand from Scope that they were very angry and upset about the site, and that they tasked a member of their technical team to chase BELM off the net. They were delighted at their success and continue to track the website now that it has gone live again.

Disabled people regularly compare their oppression with that of racism. We decided to explore this a little with Chobb:

Ouch: Would you have created a similarly humorous site about, for instance, black or Asian people?

Chobb: Good question. To the degree of BELM? Probably not. I'd see that as more of a hate website for some reason ... I genuinely don't see the hate in BELM - it's so obviously a joke. Wouldn't a hate crime web site be more like "kill disabled people!", "stop them breeding" or some website proposing eugenics? That's hate, and BELM isn't in the same league ... the website isn't actually what I believe. It's a joke.

The main reason why I wouldn't do a similar website about ethnic minorities is because I'd have to use racist words (if it were the same sort of website) and stereotypes which I personally find offensive. I am not personally offended by the word 'mong', but I am by 'nigger'. I guess I do think racism is worse than disablism. I've been on anti-fascist marches and had run-ins with the National Front, so I have strong views on racism. I know there shouldn't be any difference, but to me there is. I see more humour in someone with Down's Syndrome than someone who's black. I shouldn't, but I do.

I don't think disabled people get more bad taste humour thrown at them because they aren't important; I think it's because there is greater scope for bad taste humour than, for example, being black. The enormous range of disabilities presents greater scope for ridicule just because of the diversity of disability - the word 'disabled' covers a massive spectrum. In fact, I can't think of another group that would have the same diversity. Ask someone to list all the racist jokes they know and then all the disablist jokes. There will be more disablist jokes because there is more 'material'. There would be jokes about Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, amputation, Parkinson's Disease, Spina Bifida, etc, which would amount to a lot of jokes if you grouped them under a disabled umbrella. If you start looking at, say, just the Cerebral Palsy jokes, all of a sudden there aren't that many. How many bad taste black jokes can you think of?

Back in the Ouch office, we tried to come up with a specific joke about Spina Bifida. We failed. We then tried to come up with an arthritis joke and a Borderline Personality Disorder joke and failed here too. That's diversity for ya folks.

Chobb tells us he believes there is a world of difference between public tolerance of racist and disablist humour:

Chobb: Disabled jokes are more acceptable than racist jokes in our society. If I went to see a comic and they told a disablist joke, I expect the crowd would be less critical than if he/she told a racist joke ... personally I find Down's Syndrome jokes funnier than racist jokes. Civil rights don't come into it. It's not about me valuing the civil rights of black people over disabled people, it's about me finding disabled jokes funnier.

The website now contains a page called I find this site offensive, where Chobb sets out his views in an FAQ style. As with the rest of the website, it contains strong and offensive language, so please be warned.