Outstanding comedy used to be the way to sit back, relax, have a drink while laughing with friends and family. But now-a-days it is the perfect way to get sued. It seems that people are too touchy feely and cannot take a joke as for what it is, just a joke. Cruise liners may have to consider censoring on-board comedy routines in order to protect themselves from any possible future law suits. This may be due to few passengers who felt targeted in few of the jokes in the outstanding comedy routines which landed a liner to have to go through legal suit.
According to the Guardian, an Irish man brought a civil claim against the Carnival Cruise Lines in a U.K. Court and later was settled out-of-court.
John Wolfe, the 74 year-old retired builder from Dublin complained to P&O after the worldwide cruise which him and his wife were cruising on. They were enjoying this expensive worldwide cruise aboard the Oriana five years ago and their vacation was bitterer by the two comedians who entertained passengers by telling a series of Irish jokes in their outstanding comedy routines. They found the jokes deeply offensive and disturbing, thus leaving him and his wife quite humiliated. Once they made a complaint, they were reassured that such jokes would be prohibited. The couple also received a voucher valued at £1,000, but that did not remedy the situation as the couple heard the same jokes when they took another P&O cruise later in 2008 to the Caribbean on board the Artemis. This was a final straw for the couple and they pursued the civil claim against Carnival Pls, who are the owners of P&O, under race relations legislation as well as the European Union's race directive. The case was settled before it could be heard in the Manchester Civil Justice center with allegedly a five-figure amount.
These cases are not limited to the European arena as it appears that a similar case has been reported on the other side of the world. The Australia's Sydney Morning Herald reported that a female passenger is suing P&O Cruises for sexual harassment which were made by crew members toward her on the Pacific Jewel. Apparently, the young woman, Kate Strahan, was embarrassed by the crew member who was serving as a judge during the singing competition. According to her statement, the crew member told her that he could see her underwear through her dress while she sang on the stage, as well as commented on her breasts by suggesting that she could “cougar” him any time. But the harassment did not end there, he continued to embarrass the woman by making inappropriate gestures toward an image of her projected on a screen. According to the newspaper, Ms. Strahan's husband reported that the incident caused her such stress that she had to stop working. For her damages, Ms. Strahan is asking for more than $1 million.
