Announcer sacked over spoof messages

[caitlin1214]

LONDON (Reuters) - An official announcer for London's Tube system has been sacked after making spoof messages mocking American tourists, peeping Toms and sweaty commuters.


Voiceover artist Emma Clarke, 36, recorded the announcements in the same smooth tones that have warned millions of passengers to "Mind The Gap" and posted them on her Web site.

The messages include:

* "We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly."

* "Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman's chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert."

* "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."

* "Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage ... If you're female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He's probably not had sex for months."

Clarke said it was "just a bit of a laugh." But Tube operator Transport for London (TfL) failed to see the funny side and dropped her, after eight years.

"London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays," a TfL spokesman told the Evening Standard Monday.

All the recordings are at: http://www.emmaclarke.com/fun/mind-t...-announcements.



(http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/0...d_announcer_dc)

[Roo]

Darn. She had to take down the spoof announcements due to too much traffic on her site. TOO FUNNY!!!

[caitlin1214]

I can't wait to hear them!

[Speedy]

I caught the tail end of this on the news, and wondered what it was about. (The words about the pervert looking down the blouse.)

Shame, it was probably funny as all get out, but the English do tend to be a little stuffy (my deepest apologies to our friends across the ocean, but you are sometimes!) however, it is tasteless to impart humor into a monolouge if you are paid to only talk of "gaps" and timetables.

Shame, she sounds funny as all get out.

[HubbaWubba]

Now that's funny! Too bad the site is down.

[caitlin1214]

In the Yahoo! UK report, the Tube said her firing wasn't because of the messages, it was because she had been shirking her responsibilities to the company.

[kneehighz]

The site is up! I had no trouble listening to the clips!

[HubbaWubba]

Some of those were funny. She has a nice voice. LOL

[Liberté]

Amazing. It would've been even funnier they actually made into the metero system though!

[rubylola]

I think it is a pity she has lost her job, it seems a bit of an extreme reaction from her employers.

I don't know if this quote, attributed to London Underground, was really said by them, or made up by the Evening Standard:

Originally Posted by caitlin1214

"London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays," a TfL spokesman told the Evening Standard Monday.

But it made me laugh.