A Rolling Stone I think was what he was getting at....well she has, and looks better for it.

But that's the point, that's what Bruce does, he's the compere of the show, all compere's do that, it's part of the gig whether it's liked or not, it's in his remit to make a few jokes.

It wasn't about her performance, or her personal physical self....there's a difference.

Judges should judge, make the odd aside if the contestant and the occassion seems fit for it...

Are you sure that Craig's kangaroo comment wasn't aimed at Bruno's impression of a grasshopper. Someone with a video please look at it again and quote his exact words. Didn't he mention just Bruno's name, not Jo's, in that sentence?

Bruno, Craig, Brendan and Bruce were all OTT. The actual comments from Bruno and Craig are:

Bruno: " It was too skippy, you skipped through all of this, it was like a grasshopper really, I'm sorry but thats the truth"
Craig: " Don't know about grasshopper I'd say bush kangaroo actually darling-pause-I don't want to destroy your confidence my love"
Brendan flounces off
Len: "That going a bit too far"
Craig: "I don't think it is"
Len: "You don't have to be personal"

Bruce was wrong. The remarks were not personal just a bit over dramatic in the description.
It's Bruce's remarks about Ali and Brian and last week about Jo which were nasty and personal.

Bruce was definitely in the wrong.

Who does he think he is that says its ok for him to make personal comments to Ali and Jo and yet when a judge makes a comment (not directed at Jo personally) he thows a wobbler!

He's only the presenter of the show....not the headmaster!

Hi Susan,

Hopalong Cassidy used to be a well-loved big box office star. A kangaroo carries negative vibes like a donkey.

Then there was the manner of delivery. Len likes to laugh at his own exaggerations meaning everybody knows they are not to be taken seriously, and he is aged 65?

Craig delivers his verbal thrusts with finality in cold blood, his tone of voice suggesting the situation is actually more hopeless than he gives out. He laughs at the celeb.

bruce was out of order last night

time for him to go?

he is supposed to be a nasty piece of work off camera

Bruce is human: not a total ogre offstage but not a saint either.

He may have said what he did because he was left high and dry when Brendan flounced or skipped, and he had to say something. It's obvious that he finds Craig's comments generally rather harsh, and although this particular remark wasn't all that harsh as it happens, perhaps took the chance to say what he had been thinking for a long time?

The problem I have with Craig is that he delivers his verdicts as if he is sentencing the dancers for a terrible crime. I find his tone of voice can be really depressing. Not always - just most of the time. I do agree that he is mostly consistent with his marks.

PS He is probably the complete opposite off stage - a total sweetheart.

Exactly. I haven't seen much consideration given to this point.

Can't belive how many people missed the point.

He wasn't saying she danced like a Kanagroo. Both he and Bruno were saying her dance was "skippy". She was skipping along too much rather than dancing.

He was comparing her to the Kangaroo's NAME...she was Skippy.
He wasn't comparing her to a kangaroo's motion.

I think after the whole JS/Anton situations they are probably being very cautious about comments.

I have heard Craig (and the others) say worse tbh. He could have put it slightly differently but Brendan and Bruce did over react.

I agree, she was skippy but Bruno was going over the top as per usual imitating her in an exaggerated fashion and then laughing nastily. He is the one at fault if anyone is between Bruno and Craig, as Craig had hardly had chance to speak. Craig in fact seemed about to be saying something kind about not wanting to hurt Jo's feelings.

Maybe it was a set up that Brendan would walk off. It was all rather suspect last night.

Craig was possibly brought up in Australia watching 'Skippy the bush kangaroo' ( A children's TV program), hence when Bruno said 'skippy, like a grasshopper, Craig thought it would be OK to say 'more like a bush kangaroo'.

It was not as offensive as many things he has said in the past and I wouldn't class it as a 'personal' insult.

I was OK with Brendan walking off. The judges were making fun of Jo, who had danced well (probably to Brendan's delight after the way training had gone).

Bruce I would take issue with. I dont think Craig's was a personal remark. A personal remark would be to make a joke about someone's recent marriage breakup.

I don't like Bruce but I thought Bruce & Brendan's reaction was justified.

The tide definitely seems to have turned this series that personal insults are no longer unacceptable. Arlene was the main instigator of that along with Craig.

I don't think it's ok to be nasty to dancers who are less gifted - why should they be made to feel like shit just because they have less aptitude?

Contestant should be judged according to their level.

Neither grasshoppers nor kangaroos are known for their skipping motion - both of them JUMP and as Jo was not jumping neither comparison was appropriate - and there was definitely no need for Craig to wade in with an even worse insult to Jo after Bruno had already been rude.

I took it that he was saying that Jo was bigger and less elegant than a grashopper.

Either way - there was no need to compare Jo to either animal - both comments were both well off the mark, hurtful and insulting. Judges are supposed to be impartial, objective and give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism - something which Craig in particular needs to realise sooner rather than later.

I was in the audience last night and it did not look like bullying to me. Once the cameras were off the judges they were all laughing and joking, even after the 'kangeroo' moment there wasn't a reaction from Craig or Bruce once the cameras stopped filming them. A lot of it must be for effect

[quote=soulmate61;36100588]Hi Susan,

Hopalong Cassidy used to be a well-loved big box office star. A kangaroo carries negative vibes like a donkey.
QUOTE]

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was a well-loved TV star who entertained several generations of British youngsters (and probably other nationalities too).

He overcame the stereoptypical view of kangaroos as overgrown rodents destroying bushlands and cars with equal abandon. His depiction of the kangaroo as unsung, and often misunderstood ('what is it, Skip? What are you trying to tell us?') hero has not yet ben surpassed.

His slow-motion bounding across the Bush (and our TV screens) gave a grace to his movements which added a well-deserved verisimilitude to his name - Skippy.

It is a great sadness that his memory has been traduced by:

- Strictly Come Dancing judges using his name to describe less than competent dancing of the Viennese Waltz;

- new generations failing to recognise allusions to his greatness, leading to an emphasis on the 'kangaroo' part of the title of his unforgettable (as long as you'd once known it) TV series. Rather than recognising the reference to the eponymous hero;

- the sad decline of the once noble and geographical term 'the Bush' into 'nudge nudge, wink wink' 'fnarrr fnarr' double entendre.

And a belief that references to 'Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo' carry 'negative vibes.

We can only be grateful that Skip himself is not here to witness it...

Totally agree.

Makes me feel old

It was clearly a put up job from where I was sitting. (My sofa, but it's rarely wrong!)

Brendan's a bright bloke - he takes his £30k for pretty undemanding work - and I guess he knows that taking a few "insults" off the Panto Dames at either end of the judges' panel is part of the job. He even gets to do a Drama Queen stomp back to Tess for tea and sympathy.

If Brendan really was offended, he should jack in SCD and resume his career in competitions, where he can get judged by proper judges.

I took it as a reference to the motion of Jo's dance. Whilst I can see why you are taking the view that both Bruno and Craig chose the wrong creatures to use as similes, I simply don't see any suggestion that anyone meant that Jo was "bigger" or "less elegant" than a grasshopper.

(That said, when you see them in slow-motion, both grasshoppers and kangaroos look - IMO - incredibly elegant and light and flowing in their movements).

Having watched Jo's dance, I am left with an indelible memory of a slow, gentle, up and down motion.

Like my indelible memories of Skippy (the Bush Kangaroo) going to the rescue. Or natural history programme's showing us the slow motion version of a grasshopper's movements.

Jo's dance was skippy.

Any of the judges could have said that, and left it at that.

Just as they could have commented on any of the other dances in a couple of words, and left it at that.

That would certainly help the X Factor raise its ratings.

(And, I note that only one couple left during the comments.)

If I thought that Brendan had had a genuine rush of blood to the head and walked Jo off then I would grudgingly admire him but lets be honest he saw a chance to get more votes for Jo and he took it. It isn't the first time he has thrown a tantrum and I never feel they are genuine. Craig has been quite encouraging to Jo I feel since Brendans last hissy fit. I think Joe and Craig have been the ones to really get the wrath of his tongue this series. I am genuine when I say this that if Jo is really that sensitive and unconfident then maybe she shouldn't be a contestant on this show. After some of the comments last night I thought the Skippy comment was quite quick and I really didn't think it was meant in a vicious way. The dance was skippy so he thought of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, who was cute!! Brendan came out on top though as he lives to dance another week, can't wait to see what he comes up with next week!!

I agree.

I'm afraid that I simply do not believe that it was anything other than 'this year's tactic'.

'Bad Boy Brendan', with his rule breaking and illegal lifts has become old hat, and fallen out of favour.

'Knight in shining armour Brendan' is however a whole new character (and I use the word advisedly).

He sweeps his lady away from the evil judges who are critcising her with all the weapons in their linguistic armoury - simile, metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration, grammatical solecisms.

Just as they assailed his previous ladies. Like Fiona Phillips, for example, who he nobly defended by telling her she'd be a 'cr*p sha*g' (allegedly).

Are there enough asterisks to allow us to tell the tale of this noble knight's derring-do and gallantry?

There certainly aren't enough to allow me to express my personal disbelief that I saw anything other than a tactic and publicity stunt last knight.

Or to disabuse me of the view that - should Jo actually be so fragile that she needs to be whisked away so dramatically (and didn't she cover her distress up well in Tess' room?!) then she is too fragile to be on the show.

Brendan is from New Zealand.

Craig is an Aussie

That's all you need to know.

Craig isn`t the only judge to have had a heated exchange with Brendan though. I remember a couple of years ago he had a fallout with Len too.

It looked blatantly to me like Bruce Forsyth trying to repair his image. He took a battering with his pro-Anton ignorance so this 'defender of the underdog' stance was, IMO, his attempt to restore some balance and look like the good guy.

I agree with whoever pointed out that his "you lost a stone" comment was worse. Taking the piss out of someone's divorce isn't the kind of gentle (read: rubbish) humour we expect of Forsyth. It was in very poor taste.

By Sunday, this incident was being used as an advert for the BBC IPlayer so I am now totally convinced that it was staged and they are jumping on the X factor bandwagon.

Audience members said that there was no animosity off camera.