Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark’s use of the ‘n-word’ in an interview on New Zealand Today has ruffled feathers.
Clark’s comments were criticised by Councillor Ria Bond, who told State media outlet RNZ that it was ‘absolutely disgusting’. Others described the interview as a ‘trainwreck’.
‘It’s absolutely shocking that someone in his position as a city leader should think that he has the power to get away with calling members of society such a foul word,’ Bond said.
‘He has the personality type where he thinks he’s quite within his rights to do that.’
Another councillor, Ian Pottinger told RNZ, ‘You just don’t go there, you don’t go there at all. There’s no way out of it. You can have your own personal views, but you keep it very private. It’s a well known fact, you can’t justify the use [of that word].’
However, some commenters on social media saw it in a different light, congratulating Clark for ‘winding up the wokester Guy Williams’, and calling the mayor ‘a legend’.
– Guy (uncomedian) Williams was massively trolled. It’s hilarious
– Hilarious! Nobby is brilliant, make a great DPM one day
– This is hilarious for so many reasons. I was surprised whoever made it made public. Buy then I realized, they think Guy won the exchange.
– Well trolled Nobby 👏👏👏
– Oh man, Nobby Clark is a legend, I really miss people speaking their minds❤️
New Zealand Today is a comedy show broadcast on Three+ featuring ‘volunteer journalist’ Guy Williams who travels the country, ‘to investigate what he thinks are the most interesting stories in New Zealand today.’
WATCH: Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark winds up wokester Guy Williams… pic.twitter.com/laY9rH2Ey8
— William McGimpsey (@TheZeitgeistNZ) March 22, 2024
As a brown cis male i found this hilarious! Nobby is a legend!
Anyone who allows a single word to immediately render them a screaming, shouting, violent lunatic clearly isn’t in any sort of control over the interview (or their own intellect).
Very unprofessional behaviour indeed, but from Williams, not the mayor.
Nobby’s by far the better rcomedian and in control.
Whoever this rude, shouting loony tunes was is not going to do any good at all to the couple of councillors in the ICC who would love to get their hands on the mayoralty. They seem to forget that Nobby Clark was voted in democratically and the citizens of Invercargill are perfectly happy with him. As for Pottinger and Bond, we will remember your loyalty to our Mayor next voting year.