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"Ricky Gervais has remained defiant against a considerable weight of criticism about his use of the word &amp;quot;mong&amp;quot; on Twitter. Gervais has frequently used the term since returning to Twitter, while also posting pictures of himself gurning for close-up camera shots. Despite the use of the unusual pictures, Gervais has insisted that &amp;quot;mong&amp;quot; no longer had a connection to its original meaning, a derogatory term for people with Down&amp;#039;s Syndrome.  &amp;quot;The word mong means Down&amp;#039;s Syndrome about as much as the word gay means happy,&amp;quot; said Gervais. Comic and writer Richard Herring was one of the first people to question Gervais&amp;#039;s attitude to the subject in a blog post earlier this week. The debate about the word has continued in various blogs and Gervais&amp;#039;s Twitter followers have mocked Herring for his critique. Gervais has told his fans on Twitter and his blog that a large amount of criticism of him has come from jealous comedy acts. However, his detractors have pointed out that the debate and Gervais&amp;#039;s return to Twitter has coincided with the start of his new BBC Two series Life&amp;#039;s Too Short. Nicola Clark, a disability rights campaigner, wrote in The Guardian: &amp;quot;If a word referencing disability is applied to mean something ugly, foolish, unpleasant or weird, then it is an abusive epithet promoting a stereotype. &amp;quot;Reclaiming a word to lessen its power is a right only available to those to whom the abuse is directed. Disabled people can reclaim the word but a non-disabled man using the word in an abusive way will not be reaping the whirlwind of hatred. &amp;quot;The best comment on the issue remains Herring&amp;#039;s, whose Twitter feed is full of abuse \u00E2\u20AC\u201C and praise \u00E2\u20AC\u201C for making a stand. He said, &amp;#039;Just a thought, but if you think mong only means idiot, why not just use the word idiot?&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  Frank Buckley, of Down Syndrome Education International, commented: &amp;quot;Most would consider [the word] as offensive as comparable terms of abuse referring to racial background or sexual orientation.&amp;quot; Penny Green, director of the Down&amp;#039;s Heart Group charity, added: &amp;quot;I refute his suggestion that the word has changed its meaning. We come across people every day who still think the term applies to people with Down&amp;#039;s.  &amp;quot;His actions have proved incredibly upsetting and distressing to families of disabled children, as we&amp;#039;ve seen on Twitter and our own forums. Ricky is telling everyone it&amp;#039;s acceptable to use this derogatory term.&amp;quot; Tom Chivers, assistant comment editor at the Daily Telegraph, said: &amp;quot;Louis CK recently, a splendid American comic who discusses the use of really offensive terms, like &amp;#039;f****t&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;nigger&amp;#039;, with wit and insight.  &amp;quot;But Gervais isn&amp;#039;t using the word cleverly, to make a point, as far as I can see: he&amp;#039;s just using it, in the knowledge people will be offended, and then mocking the people who are for being politically correct or behind the times. &amp;quot;No-one is saying it should be made illegal to say it. No-one is saying Gervais should be prosecuted. But they - we - are saying that he should be a little bit ashamed of himself for being cruel, for being a playground bully on a grand scale.&amp;quot;  BBC 6 Music DJ Lauren Laverne commented on Twitter: &amp;quot;What comic point or power does [the word &amp;#039;mong&amp;#039;] have, if not that? If it really means nothing, why bother?&amp;quot; Gervais has also been criticised for retweeting a message from a follower on the social networking site, who claimed that they had been hounded by supporters of Herring. The follower had previously claimed that they were &amp;quot;howling&amp;quot; with laughter at the number of comments about a person &amp;quot;in a wheelchair drooling cos he was a mong&amp;quot; [sic].  Writing on his official blog, Gervais insisted that he wasn&amp;#039;t doing anything wrong and that people were failing to grasp the change in the meaning of the word. &amp;quot;I love how me using &amp;quot;mong&amp;quot; to mean &amp;quot;div&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;gimp&amp;quot; (and explaining that 20 times) has become...&amp;#039;Ricky Gervais abuses Down&amp;#039;s Syndrome children&amp;#039;,&amp;quot; he wrote. &amp;quot;I also love how everyone is trying to get in on it too. We&amp;#039;ll definitely see some comedians on daytime telly discussing how terrible I am, then mentioning their upcoming gig that&amp;#039;s not selling. Good luck to them though. &amp;quot;And that&amp;#039;s another thing. All these people saying it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;disgusting&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;ban him from the telly&amp;quot;... They never liked me anyway. They couldn&amp;#039;t have or they would understand.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Ricky Gervais blasted by Richard Herring for calling people &amp;quot;mongs&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/comedy/news/a346603/ricky-gervais-remains-defiant-over-use-of-word-mong/>