Ryan Bridge: Have we lost our Kiwi sense of humour?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Complaints, backlash, outrage, divisive, sad, there's been strong reaction to the Tui billboards poking fun at old Polkinghorne – who’s not guilty of killing his wife, by the way.

The billboards read, if you haven't seen them: "Back to being a respectable meth smoking, sex worker loving doctor then. Yeah right.”

It's quite good. It's not breaking any rules, and I say good on them for getting back to this.

We need good humour to cut through the crap that seems to proliferate our society at the moment.

Kiwis are straight talkers, we love taking the micky out of people, we're not mean generally.

I think we've lost our ability to laugh together and these billboards, while pitched by some as divisive, I think will actually do the opposite. They should bring us closer together.

I was heartened to hear the DB Marketing Director's statement which he gave to the papers. He said: “While we haven't set out to offend anyone, we are happy to push the boundaries and say the things that we've all been thinking.”

Great. We need to talk about how we really feel because when we share it, especially with humour, we connect with one another as a society. We grow closer together and we are less divided.

Long may the Tui billboards last.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.