Wednesday 20 February 2013

Urban Dictionary's post angers Kirkcaldy MSP

WHAT do the “inbred psychopaths” of Kirkcaldy make of Urban Dictionary?

The American website Urban Dictionary’s definition of Kirkcaldy was branded as “disgusting” last week by local MSPs, but is it accurate to an extent?

The website, which describes itself as “the dictionary you wrote” caused controversy when it characterised local Kirkcaldy people as “contorted and inbred psychopaths.”
The Links Market is one of the busiest times for the town

Perhaps a tad harsh.

Local MSP David Torrance certainly thinks so anyway. Despite the post clearly being a bit tongue-in-cheek...clearly...Torrance still finds the description highly offensive.

“I’m absolutely disgusted by the comments on this website,” he said. “At the end of the day, people reading that will have in their minds an impression of what this town is and I’m really annoyed by what’s on there.”

I thought he would be proud to represent such constituents who enjoy, as described on the website, “heroin, alcoholism, pregnancy, begging and aggressive homophobia and racism.”

Similar to Wikipedia, posts are submitted by the public and not the actual website. The post goes on to ingeniously insult the town.

“It is situated along the rusted trolley-ridden coastline of the county of Fife in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Scotland.”

I’m sure everyone appreciates them sugar-coating it, as much as I do.

What do the local people think of it? Do they agree with the description on the website, or do they part on the side of the MSPs?

Town's local college
16-year-old Lauren Brown, a Kirkcaldy resident, thinks the post is true to an extent.

“Some of it is true, and let’s face it, pretty funny. The real problem with Fife is there are no jobs and the place looks dull. Someone needs to do something about it.”

When asked to describe the town in three words, she went with, “boring, dull and grey.” Slightly better than “contorted, inbred and psychopaths.”

Lauren Richardson, 19, who is a student in Kirkcaldy, chooses to see the humours side of the site’s post.

“I think it’ hilarious, I definitely agree with parts of it. Perhaps theses MSPs should take a walk around Kirkcaldy and actually see what it’s like.”

She said this whilst shooting up and sexting her cousin, coincidently.

Not everyone sees the funny side, though. Brian Jones, 37, thinks the exact opposite of the town. 

“Kirkcaldy is a peaceful town. It is also a very important part of Scotland’s history.”

Michelle McShane is also a student from Kirkcaldy, she agrees with Brian and that the town clearly isn’t as bad as made out.

“I think Kirkcaldy is a nice place to live, it has great shops and I love the beach. The post on Urban Dictionary was inaccurate and offensive."

Ravenscraig offers some stunning sights
Kirkcaldy does have some beautiful scenery and parks available for the town’s residents. I obviously don’t agree with the post, hence why I took a sarcastic tone whilst discussing it. Whatever you make of the post, I think it should be remembered that it is up there for a joke and exaggerates to make each description funnier. The humour was clearly lost on Mr Torrance.

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