Public Shaming Fail (Baby Booted From Show)

I wouldn’t normally talk about this sort of stuff, but it’s all over the news. It was front page on Australia’s biggest news website news.com.au. Even our ABC got in on the action and ran a piece about gig etiquette after American comedian Arj Barker ejected an Aussie mother and her crying baby. Obviously, this is indeed a First World problem. Sudan civil war: Starvation and death; Potential all-out war in the Middle East; Breastfeeding mother ‘humiliated’ after asked to leave Melbourne comedy show. It didn’t take us long to get over the terrorist attack, did it?Show more

So what happened? Arj Barker was performing his show in front of a large crowd in Melbourne on Saturday night when he was distracted by a noisy baby. He made a few jokes about the baby, then he eventually said, “I speak baby and it said ‘take me outside’”, which he repeated. Then he just directly asked the mother, Trish Faranda, and her seven-month-old child to leave, in which she did, as well as 10 or 12 other people – mostly women and mothers – who joined her in walking out of the theatre in solidarity.

Of course, people jumped online trying to shame Arj Barker for daring to kick out an innocent breastfeeding mother: “Arj Barker should be ashamed for evicting breastfeeding mum”. “Let’s not give this sad, pathetic joke of a comedian a platform to speak from and instead just relegate him to the land of washed up, stale and forgotten comedians.” A bit harsh, isn’t it?

The mother actually went on multiple TV shows to explain what happened. In her A Current Affair interview, ironically, Ms Faranda’s baby became unsettled and viewers struggled to hear what she or the interviewer were saying. The Project, of course, took the side of the mother, “Arj Barker Backlash – Mum and Baby Kicked Out”. But of course, what happened during the interview? The baby started crying, with the interviewer asking the mother, “Maybe she can go to dad just for a quick second?”. Perhaps the name of the segment should have been renamed, “Baby Booted off Naarm Television Show as Host Gets Frustrated With Incessant Crying”. Naarm is the Indigenous name for Melbourne, didn’t you know? “Using the indigenous name Naarm instead of Melbourne is a way to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and to show respect for their culture and heritage.”

Anyway, the point is: “How dare Arj Barker kick a crying child out of a comedy show?”, but also, “Can you ditch the baby for this interview? It’s pretty bloody annoying!” That pretty much sums up The Project in my opinion.

The mother seemed to have learnt a lesson in her next interview on the morning TV show Sunrise and didn’t bring her baby. “Mother Breaks Her Silence”, they said. She’s been nothing but talking about it ever since! What silence are they referring to here? She told the interviewer, “He used his position on that stage, and his microphone, to really intimidate me.” I know, it’s the crime of the century.

One of the lady’s relatives sent out a number of inflammatory tweets directed towards Mr Barker: “With all of the hatred and violence women are faced with, among the countless atrocities happening within the world today, I ask you to simply take a long, hard look at yourself.”

Despite all the controversy, Mr Barker refused to back down. He said, “”The show is strictly aged 15+ as clearly stated on the ticket site. She had an infant with her. The baby was disrupting my performance. On behalf of the other 700 people who paid to see the gig, I politely told her the baby couldn’t stay. She thought I was kidding, which made the exchange a bit awkward. I felt bad about the whole situation and stated this on the night more than once. I offered her a refund. Theatre staff should not have seated a baby in my audience in the first place. In that theatre, sound travels, you can hear the drop of a pin. It doesn’t take much to distract an audience, and I’ve worked on these jokes and there’s timing and there’s pauses, and it’s just not going to work with the baby. I made the decision, it wasn’t easy, it was really awkward for me. I said ‘I’m really sorry but the baby can’t stay’.”

Regarding the breastfeeding, he said, “I could just make out a woman holding a baby, I had zero idea if she was breastfeeding – nor would that have been a factor, because I don’t have any problem with that.”

Anyway, despite the media’s attempt to label Barker as some sort of evil misogynist, it seems to have backfired somewhat, because I think most reasonable people think that he wasn’t in the wrong here. Perhaps they thought they could cancel him, but thank goodness he’s not giving in.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn