I Don't Get What's Funny

[dave50]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2743795/That-s-not-meant-Mortifying-moment-Good-Morning-Britain-studio-dissolved-giggles-Downton-actor-took-Susanna-Reid-s-innocent-question-wrong-way.html
Can someone please explain what was so funny?

[ummmm]

//You must have had to beat off a lot of American men to get this part//

A slight suggestion that he had to do quite a few hand jobs to get the part.

[Hopkirk]

I watched it and didn't get it either.

I felt sorry for Susanna

[murraymints]

it's rooooood !

[jno]

how risqué. I didn't see it but she doesn't look too mortified in the photo.

[pixie373]

His reaction was quite funny. Seeing other people giggling usually makes me laugh. A bit childish, but he wasn't expecting her to say that!

[bibblebub]

schoolboy humour - so, not to everyone's taste

[dunnitall]

I didn't know either Dave, talk about times changing, the phrase to me means getting there in spite of the opposition or words similar....seems even innocent words and phrases years ago are becoming 'rude'. Similarly to me, being stoned meant drunk now a completely different meaning I've been told! Yoiks!

[weecalf]

Problem I think is people want to use different terms for actions that the original words were not meant to mean .Just like these panel shows the people are encouraged to laugh at what so called comedians say not even getting the joke .The English language is getting corrupted by these actions .Is either sex related or racist relate and it time it stopped .

[Old_Geezer]

The expression "beat the meat" has been around for a long time.

[Quizmonster]

Or beating the bishop.

[sandyRoe]

Or spanking the monkey. I confess, until recently I thought that was a reference to cruelty to animals.

[Cloverjo]

I've never heard "beat off" used in that way. "Beat the bishop", yes, but that's a bit different.

[naomi24]

I don't get what's funny either - except people.

[kvalidir]

Transatlantic language- it's not that funny- mildly amusing at best, but I imagine it was nerves of the interview.

[Obiter]

More an American expression than UK. Incidentally it's 'bashing the bishop', not beating.

[VHG]

Reminds me of the story about a group of people talking about the Grand Canyon on TV (or maybe the radio).

They were discussing if you could get down to the bottom of canyon.

One person said, "yes, I believe you can go down on a donkey"

To which the whole group broke out into giggles and could not talk for a few minutes.

[Butterbun]

I didn't see what was so funny either, and I've never heard that phrase before.

[Peter Pedant]

There is a programme of all these gaffs

a sort of gaffy 'It'll be all right on the night'
Clearly this should be the sort of thing for you to avoid

There is a tradition of having to sleep with the director to get a part on a film and this is replayed in a few scenes in 'Klute'
Darryl F Zanuck ( a director ) was so "good" at this and kept keep-sakes ( dirty boy !) that one starlet threw her bra at him and said here that is what you want !

weird I know for us men....

[Peter Pedant]

Oh and when Mick Jagger was asked how he got a lead part in the sixties film Performance as the Jongleur - ( one critic commented that at least he didnt walk into any furniture when he spoke his lines ) Mick answered
wer I slept with the director dinn' I ?

[P-Kasso]

"Beat off" is another word for Masturbate.

Now read that bit again where and substitute 'masturbate' for 'beat off' in the question interviewer Susanna Reid asks actor Dan Stevens...

"Did you have to beat off a lot of American men to get this part?"

Hollywood is known for its strange practices. Hohum.