My Daughter Is Mentally Handicapped, Mr Gervais. Would You Think It Was Funny to Call HER a 'Mong'?

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Byline: by Ross Clark

RICKY GERVAIS may often act like a ten-year-old, but he's lucky he isn't one. If he were, there's no way he would have escaped punishment for calling someone a 'mong' -- the word he used to describe Susan Boyle on a late-night, one-off comedy show on Channel 4 last October.

He would have been forced to apologise, his parents would have been called into school and his name would have been added to an official education authority list along with other children deemed to have used racist, homophobic or other offensive words to describe classmates. The incident would have remained on file for the rest of his time at school.

Schools are under a statutory duty to report all incidents thought to be racist, and are encouraged to record and report all cases of bullying -- as a result of which 40,000 children a year are being placed on education authority registers for making fun of other pupils on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other grounds.

But, of course, Mr Gervais is not at primary school. He is a comedian frequently employed by TV stations including Channel 4, the BBC and Sky, as a result of which he is what broadcasters like to call a …