This video on Gordon Ramsay’s TikTok page has courted controversy because he is seen larking around at a farm selecting an innocent and charming lamb for the slaughter. And he rubs his hands in glee at the thought of eating a delicious lamb. He comments on how “yummy” the lamb will be when cooked and on his plate at dinner time.
He said:
“I’m going to eat you! Yummy yum yum. Which one’s going in the oven first?”
He then points out a lamb and said, “You!” He then climbs into the pen and surveys the group of innocent lambs ready to grab one. He captioned the post, “The lamb sauce was still not found in the making of this video”. This is a reference to a 2006 scene from his series ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ in which he asked a contestant for lamb sauce.
It’s hard to know from an article that I’m reading on IBT to what people object. It’s impossible to object to him selecting a lamb to slaughter because that happens millions of times every year and no one complains about it. It is the way we live and it is part of farming but I guess when you see it in action like this it becomes a bit too raw if you’ll pardon the pun.
I think we can object to one aspect of the video which is that he larks around when making the selection. This is a serious business. This is killing a charming creature. I don’t think it is the place and time to make a joke of it. Other than that, I can’t see a problem logically. I don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of slaughtering lambs. I don’t eat lamb. I don’t eat meat other than a bit of chicken and fish.
But the news headlines state that some people were outraged by the video while others can see the humour in it. And it is no doubt meant to be humorous. I’m sure that Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t do anything like this unless he thought that it was humorous and entertained people. It is just a very difficult line to tread between bad and good taste.
It would seem that perhaps more than 50% of the public find this video in bad taste but that is a guess because this figure has not been quoted anywhere.
Here are a couple of pertinent comments on TikTok:
“People hating him and biting on their double cheeseburger at the same time”
“I’ll send this to all of my vegan friends😂😂😂😂”
Perhaps it is fair to say that this video will offend vegans and vegetarians but not meat eaters. And it might offend people who are sensitive to animal welfare but they are open to criticism themselves because there are double standards at play here. People who eat a lot of meat never see the abattoirs but when they see this kind of innocent humour which is in bad taste, perhaps, they don’t like it. That’s double standards.
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