So, too, with the latest brouhaha around Gareth Cliff, marketed as belonging to the fraternity of shock jocks.

When Cliff said on his radio show that "girls of 22 usually do nothing but lie on their backs with their legs open", he was roundly denounced. A petition is circulating on Facebook for him to be given the sack and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has confirmed that it has received an official complaint about him.

But who is a bona fide celebrity in today's instant-gratification, two-minute-stardom world?

Khanyi Mbau, known for her skirt lengths and weaves, is a celebrity. So is Paris Hilton, with a chihuahua in her handbag and more inherited money than brain cells. Or, at least, they were celebrities a couple of years ago, but have already been replaced by a bevy of new vacuous kids on the block.

In the world of Twitter and reality shows that focus on the obscenely stupid, should we take the utterances of Scott and Cliff seriously?

In a South African context, we cannot but take note of their comments.

Scott has since done a mea culpa and lost his radio job. That was fair because drunkenness is no excuse for bigotry. While Cliff has said there was nothing sexist about his comment on air, there is something about it that is not so funny.

South Africans take racism ultra-seriously, as the reaction to Scott shows. But when it comes to sexism, we easily wink and nudge the demeaning comments away.

And this in a country where lesbians are raped by men who feel they can correct what they believe to be sexual deviancy.

Perhaps our own little demi-gods need to remind themselves that even they can tumble off their pedestals with a bruising bump.