Don’t even think of being sympathetic to John Humphrys. He is not interested.
The former Mastermind presenter, 79, couldn’t have been more direct in his requests during an interview on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday.
Humphrys launched into a passionate rage when speaking to broadcasters Charlotte Hawkins and Robert Rinder during a debate on whether we had lost respect for our elderly.
‘I’m still learning,’ he began. ‘I am nearly 80 and I am still learning, and I want that not to be respected but to be acknowledged.
‘I do not want to be put in a different category and I absolutely positively do not want compassion. What for? What have I done to deserve compassion?’
Humphrys continued: ‘I’m as fit as anybody, I have just come in now from having my early morning run, I’m up at 6am every morning having a run, and so on and so on and so on. I’m as fit as a fiddle.
‘I have no need, thank you very much, for compassion. I’m still working as hard as ive ever worked… I want nobody’s compassion.’
So, under no circumstances are we to give any compassion to Humphrys, understood?
The presenter’s rant didn’t go unnoticed by viewers at home, with many taken aback by his desire.
‘John Humphries doesn’t realise that being an old fart doesn’t get you respect!!!!’ one pointed out.
Another clearly wasn’t too impressed, writing: ‘No disrespect, John, but p*ss off you whinging old fart!’
Humphries’ comments came just days after he wrote a column for The Telegraph which was headlined ‘We used to respect our elders – whatever happened to that?’
In the piece, he wrote: ‘I fear the consequences of artificial intelligence. Young people don’t. I believe that when machines become more intelligent than humans they (or their programmers) pose an existential threat to humanity. Young people laugh at that notion and perhaps they should.
‘The problem is that if they are wrong and we scaredy cats are right, by then it will be too late. It’s one of the many reasons why respect between the generations matters. And that’s in short supply.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.
