THE HENRY FORD SCHOOL OF COMEDY


The end of year “topical news quizzes” featuring the BBC cabal of rancid venomous left wing “comedians is also a major threat to festive good health. I caught a bit of the News Quiz I think it was, with Jeremy Hardy – that quintessential BBC personification of what is deemed “funny” – raging about the Conservatives and the Lib-Dems. The sheer hatred that spews forth from Hardy and his ilk seems to send the selected audiences into paroxysms of laughter which tells us all we need to know about them. But IF there was a comedian who mercilessly mocked Labour, who relentlessly attacked Obama, who verbally assaulted the EU, who patronised gays and who taunted Islam, I wonder how many invites would be received from the BBC?  BBC humour is from the Henry Ford school of comedy, you can have anyone you want so long as it is left.

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53 Responses to THE HENRY FORD SCHOOL OF COMEDY

  1. 1327 says:

    Prehaps its the time of year but sometimes you do have to feel sorry for Hardy. He has been doing the same act since 1985 (which wasn’t any good back then) and no one except for a few SWP’ies in the Beeb think he is the slightest bit funny. So with no other work left he appears on the same Radio 4 shows year in year out telling the same jokes. He is living on borrowed time and must know it.

       2 likes

    • Daedalus says:

      I first saw Jeremy Hardy in Newcastle with my wife to be, at the Gulbenkian Studio Theater in the mid 80’s, he was quite funny.  Went to see him again when he came to Huddersfield a couple of years ago. I know it was the end of the tour; but he was crap and still coming out with Thatcher jokes, I wanted to leave at the interval but the wife persuaded me to stay as we had paid good money for the tickets.  I felt like I had just wasted 3 hours of my life.  He is still the same on the weekend radio 4 quiz programs.  Why does he hate Mrs Thatcher so much, she seems to be the one who has provided his living for years.

      Daedalus

         2 likes

  2. ltwf1964 says:

    he’s a mong

    much in the same vein as the other humourless fuktards the BBC keep wheeling out masquerading as “comedians”

    it’s pathetic

    and way beyond satire

       1 likes

  3. Barry says:

    What’s worse is that the law seems to be on their side. The left, as represented by the BBC, gets to decide which ‘minorities’ are entitled to legal protection and which ones are not.

       2 likes

  4. Charlie says:

    Can we have a poll for the biggest beeboid tosser of the year? I know there are a lot to choose from.

    Jeremy Hardy should have been on Martins  “ BBC Twat of the year Poll ”    He could have won.

       1 likes

  5. AndyUk06 says:

    The BBC are not content with not showing old school comedians but have also launched extraordinary attacks on old school comedians. Anyone who hadn’t lived through the 1970s and 80s will often come away with the idea that TV back then was full of fat oafish comics, “attacking people” for their ethnic origins or their gender. The BBC will often claim that it is a culture of “sexism and racism” they are dstroying.  
     
    But who are these foul neo-fascist funnymen? The BBC will not say. Quite possibly because they never really existed. What actually happened is that a lot of good comedians from working class backgrounds were driven off TV and replaced by people like Alan Davies: privately educated, middle class ‘rebels’ who impose their values on the medium, pretty much killing off comedy.  
     
    Benny Hill was one such victim of this purge  – wrongly denounced as a “sexist”.  The brilliant Les Dawson was dropped by the BBC at the height of his popularity on suspicion of being old hat. The hugely successful Comedians series – including the great black comic Charlie Williams – which was seen as the breeding ground of the “sexist” mother-in-law joke. Though you wouldn’t expect Davies or Rory Bremner (educated expensively at Clifton Hall School and Wellington College respectively) to realise that rather than being a groundless stereotype, mother-in-law gags grew out of the need through poverty, for newly-weds to live with the brides’ parents.  
     
    ‘Alternative’ comedy’s targets have included the “sexist” Carry On films (now reassessed and permissible again). Even the Two Ronnies were mocked by Oxbridge old boys Smith and Jones. Pretty much any established comedian was automatically suspected of thought crime and written off. In fact, only two mainstream comics did ‘racial’ material live – Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson. These were targets because they were working class Tories.  Anyone who has seen Davies’ act would know that he is an exceptionally gifted observational comic: bright, filthy, and absolutely non-PC. Racist? Not at all. The Independent once praised Davidson as the “true face of alternative comedy” concluding that Jim’s “brilliant comedy catches our national identity all too well.”  
     
    Strangely both he and Manning managed to stay on TV into the Noughties – Bernard until he died, Jim until the tedious “homophobic” incident. Jim isn’t homophobic either. But you wouldn’t expect BBC pseudo-intellectuals to be conversant with the widespread use of insult in working class banter.

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    • 1327 says:

      Facscinating post Andy ! Thinking about it I don’t think I have ever seen Jim Davidson tell a joke on the TV in recent years or seen more than about 5 seconds of his act. We are told he is a bad person but we aren’t allowed to see why this is for ourselves.

         1 likes

    • Guest says:

      I think your argument would have far more power if it were more accurate. For example, both Benny Hill and The Comedians were broadcast on ITV, so to include their cancellation in an anti-BBC diatribe is a bit silly.

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Woah, diatribe and sillyness monitor alert!

        Yet again, with a plain strewn to the horizon with the rotting corpses of BBC bias, a vulture swoops in with… two corrections… and the impossible to resist snarks to get an extra 1/2 pint of shandy from the glee club pot tonight. 

        Whilst factual accuracy does indeed round out an argument more, and should be corrected, such ‘errors’ are hardly terminal in this case, forming but a small fraction of the overall point. Assuming they are indeed errors.

        I have to say I too thought Benny was an ITV performer exclusively, but a quick gander on Google gets one to…

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Hill

        He remained mostly with the BBC through to 1968, except for a few sojourns with ITV station ATV between 1957 and 1960 and again in 1967.’

        Maybe one is confusing the person with one of his shows?

        But yes indeed, more accuracy would indeed help the credibility of many professional, vastly, if uniquely, funded broadcast entities to be sure.

        Rather highlighted by those on this little, free, unfunded (on any basis) forum getting it right a lot more than Aunty’s finest manage.

        Maybe its because those here are less constrained by trying to squeeze what is all the time into what some think things ‘should be’?

           1 likes

      • AndyUk06 says:

        Thanks Guest Who, was about the counter with pretty much what you said, but you beat me to it.  The point being that Benny Hill was/is being aired on BBC America with much success, but not in the UK. Why?  Point taken about the comedians, but it is still a 100% relevant means of describing the joyless BBC mindset. 

        The fact remains that the painfully PC and po-faced BBC has been unable to come up with any decent comedy in over 10 years.  Early Doors and Gavin & Stacey are OK, but hardly in the same league as Steptoe, Only Fool & Horses, Porridge, Till Death Us Do Part et al.

        Roger & Val, Rev, Grandma’s House? Do me a favour. Pathetic, played-out piffle compared to the classics listed above.

           1 likes

    • Daniel Smith says:

      Superb Post Andy! One of the worst evils which the BBC has ever committed is killing off mainstream comedy, something which was done for purely ideological reasons ie the hatred of white middle class suburbanites carried out by white middle class suburbanites. They deliberately cancelled popular sitcoms such as the bland but inoffensive Terry And June devoting their time effort and money on unpopular by ‘edgy’ shows.
      The result is after 25 years of this, there are no longer any comedy shows on BBC TV before the watershed, ‘comedy’ is now latenight, and is characterised by malice, sickness and perversion.
      I was struck, over the Christmas period, that the only suitable festive family comedy programmes were from the 70s. The new Walliams/Lucas programme transmitted at 10 pm. Watching an old Are you being served, although hardly a good episode, gave me the biggest belly laughs I had over the season.
      Although a huge audience exists for mainstream family comedy, the BBC has no intentions of reviving it, only making the odd thing now and again to keep up appearances. Commercial channels do not have the resources to fund what might be an expensive flop. Most people want to get in from work, put their feet up and have a laugh, but all they get from the BBC television is miserable formulaic soaps,  cookery programmes and dumbed down documentaries.

         2 likes

    • Dez says:

      Andy you seem to be rather confused:

       

      “The brilliant Les Dawson was dropped by the BBC at the height of his popularity on suspicion of being old hat.”

       

      Les Dawson was on BBC1 prime-time once a week till three years before his death in 1993. Likewise, Benny Hill had his own show until poor health made it impossible for him to continue.  

       

      They weren’t “purged” – they died.

       

      ITV re-broadcast some of the Benny Hill shows several years ago. If there was still an audience for it they’d repeat it some more (re: advertising revenue). There isn’t; so they don’t.

       

      “The hugely successful Comedians series….” was popular for a few years in the 70’s and then dropped purely because it wasn’t popular anymore.

       

      “Though you wouldn’t expect Davies or Rory Bremner (educated expensively at Clifton Hall School and Wellington College respectively) to realise that rather than being a groundless stereotype, mother-in-law gags grew out of the need through poverty, for newly-weds to live with the brides’ parents. ”

       

      Yeah right; that will explain the hundreds of father-in-law jokes going around at the time duh.

       

      “‘Alternative’ comedy’s targets have included the “sexist” Carry On films (now reassessed and permissible again).”

       

      The Carry On films have been repeated endlessly and without interruption on TV since the dawn of time; so what are you complaining about?

       

      “Even the Two Ronnies were mocked by Oxbridge old boys Smith and Jones.”

       

      OH MY GOD, THE HORROR.

       

      Would this be The Two Ronnies repeated endlessly and without interruption on TV since the dawn of time? 

       

      “The Independent once praised Davidson as the ‘true face of alternative comedy’…”

       

      Yes, according to an opinion piece by Terence Blacker; Cambridge old boy, “educated expensively at Wellington College”! Hahahahaha!

       

      The last time I remember seeing Jim Davidson on TV was when the BBC showed one of his live shows. He told a joke I first heard twenty years ago (parking/penis size). That’s why he’s not on TV anymore. The unpleasant behaviour on Hell’s Kitchen was just the last nail in his comedy coffin.

       


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      • hippiepooter says:

        Dez (Scott) wrote: >>Likewise, Benny Hill had his own show until poor health made it impossible for him to continue.    
        They weren’t “purged” – they died.<<

        Utterly wrong.  Michael Grade, then Head of ITV, prided himself on Benny Hill being pulled for his ‘sexism’.

        >> last time I remember seeing Jim Davidson on TV was when the BBC showed one of his live shows. He told a joke I first heard twenty years ago (parking/penis size). That’s why he’s not on TV anymore.<<

        Yeah, right.

        >>The unpleasant behaviour on Hell’s Kitchen was just the last nail in his comedy coffin.<<

        No, it provided the excuse BBC correctnicks needed to exclude him permanently.  Hitherto there has always been a strong cabal at the BBC deeply unhappy that an unabashed working class Tory like Jim Davidson should have even an ounce of airtime.  Davidson himself has publically quoted one BBC exec as stating “It will be a cold day in Hell before Jim Davidson is on the BBC”.

        Lets face it Scott, you typify BBC bias.  You dont want anyone to be on the BBC whose politics you dont like.

           1 likes

        • Guest says:

          Hippiepooter – I see we should add “everybody who disagrees is of course the same person posting under multiple identities” to your ever-growing list of inaccurate misconceptions.

          Unless, of course, you judge others on your own behaviour. How many names do you post under?

             0 likes

        • Dez says:

          “>>…They weren’t “purged” – they died.<<  

          Utterly wrong.”

          The last “Benny Hill Show” was 1991. Benny Hill died in 1992.

          “Michael Grade, then Head of ITV, prided himself on Benny Hill being pulled for his ‘sexism’.”

          Erm, Michael Grade wasn’t “Head of ITV” at the time; he was Chief Executive of Channel 4 from 1987 to 1997.

             0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Sorry Dez, I can’t count anyone agreeing with you. The precise sentiment of Andy’s post is a dagger in the heart of hated BBC leftwing “comedy” You can’t nitpick your way out of it. It resonates in a way you don’t.

           0 likes

  6. AndyUk06 says:

    You’ve actually got me thinking on this, albeit in a restricted post-alcohol way…

    I’ve often wondered why the likes of Benny Hill were sidelined, while the Pythons (say) are still revered to this day. It has be all about class, surely. Benny went to a bog standard comp in Hampshire, while the Pythons, who let’s face it were not that funny, were bona fide Oxbridge types.

    I remember the sanctimonious Ben Elton denouncing Benny Hill, in his predictably shallow way, as a “dirty old man”. Actually it was always the blokes in that show that were the losers- walking into lamposts, getting bald heads slapped, chased by angry women etc.   I defy anyone not to laugh at any of the Chow Mein the Chinaman sketches!

    Benny Hill’s still pulls in the punters wherever it is broadcast. It was no. 1 on BBC America in 2005, though the BBC has shied away from repeating any of the shows here. Apparently there is too much “stigma” attached to his name. So what about David Walliams and Matt Lucas portaying elderly ladies  as puking incontinents? Or Mitchell and Webb’s sketches that involve punching and killing women? All have been broadcast withouit protest.

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  7. RGH says:

    This reads like an editorial straight out of Izvestia (or Cuba’s La Prensa)…the corruption of Lulas Workers Party, the personal vanity purchases (aircraft) and extensive trips abroad to every green, socialist occasion, make him a hero to the BBC coterie, but the bribery of the mass electorate (with its own money a la Brown) will be paid for in economic events within a very few years.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12103312

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  8. sue says:

    I absent-mindedly flicked over to BBC3 yesterday, during one of their “100 best” roundups. It was about excruciating celebrity moments, or annoying celebrities, or some such. They put these programmes on all the time when there’s nothing better to do –  they can’t get the staff.

    They show a clip of something a celebrity has said or done, and various people comment, the idea being (I think) that these people represent you and I, and say more wittily and entertainingly what we are all thinking.

    However, the people who commented were much more annoying than the celebrities, and much uglier and possibly less witty, though both celebrities and commenters were equally obscure and no-one could ever have heard of any of them. Surely.

    Why am I telling you this? Oh yes, because a caption came on the screen each time someone said their bit, identifying the speaker.
    Ninety nine percent of them were described as : Comedian.

    Can anyone be called a comedian? I think so. From now on when anyone asks me what I do, that’s what I’m saying I am.
    It may have a whiff of sarcasm if I can get away with it.

       1 likes

    • thespecialone says:

      Yep saw a bit of that. I have to agree that I had never heard or seen any of the ‘comedian’ commentors on that programme.  I cannot even remember their names now.  I bet though that the majority, if not all of them, were from privately educated schools then university.  They would have ticked the boxes for being ‘right on’ and their ‘comedy’ routines are ‘edgy’ (ie anti-Tory).

         0 likes

    • Techno Mystic says:

      I used to enjoy those programmes and their contributors but the banking crash changed my mood and I can’t watch them now, they seem too smug and complacent.

      What we need in this country is some biting post-crash satire, but where is it?  Production companies for all the channels seem to be well behind the curve now.  The most biting satire is the Daily Mash site.  Perhaps they will eventually move into TV.

      I don’t even watch Peep Show anymore because it is just obsessed with trivialities (yes, I know that one is on Channel 4).

         0 likes

    • Timothy Montague-Mason says:

      The unbelievably talentless Russell Howard and Marcus Brigstocke have managed to become classed as ‘comedians’ with help from the BBC, so yes, any (left-winger) can become a ‘comedian’ at the BBC. 

         0 likes

    • Daniel Smith says:

      I think that may have been ‘the most annoying people of the year’ narrated -apparently without irony- by talentless cokehead Richard Bacon, who in a better era would be relegated to making the sandwiches (Richard? Bacon!). It is astonishing that in absence of making real comedy the BBC can put together stuff like this which consisted to 2 parts, each being 2 and a half hours long! That’s 5 hours of some members of the media elite sneering at other members of the media elite.

         0 likes

  9. DP111 says:

    On topic on the loathsome BBC

    Here is a BBC Youtube of the recent bombing of a church in Egypt..

    http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2011/01/egypt-suicide-bombing-of-christian.html

    Note the neutral tone of the BBC reporter. She also states that Egypt is plagued by “sectarian” violence, thus blaming both sides for the Bombing.

    Then we have the BBC reporter in Egypt who states that the identity of the bomber is unknown- it could be a Christian or even a Buddhist, he notes.

       0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:

      What obscene reporting from the BBC.  The problem is, the British public are drip fed such despicable but subtle reporting on behalf of our Jihad enemy that most of the public are inured from spotting it.  The poison just keeps on seeping in their minds that if Christians are attacked its because they’re bad and they deserve to suffer for blaming Muslims.  Evil.

         0 likes

      • Wally Greeninker says:

        Its also interesting that the BBC haven’t bothered to include Friday’s bombing of a Christian church in Abuja (in their short radio news broadcasts, anyway). Presumably they think the British public can only take one murderous attack, by Muslims on Christians, per day.

           0 likes

        • Wally Greeninker says:

          Sorry, but the Nigerian attack was actually on a barracks beer garden where people were celebrating New Year ( so presumably devout Muslims were unlikely to be victims.) It follows bombings, and  two attacks on Xian churches, killing 38 people, in Nigeria on Xmas Eve.

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  10. John Anderson says:

    My kids were fortunate enough to see both Les Dawson and Ken Dodd in local pantos – many years ago now,  but they still remember the total commitment to comedy,  to making the whole audience laugh out loud.  Including an extra hour at the end by Doddy. 

    Today’s BBC “comedians” don’t give a fig about the wider audience.  And the BBC does not give a fig about its talentless line-up insulting the views of much of the audience week in, week out.

       0 likes

    • Reconstruct says:

      I was lucky enough to see Les Dawson in his pomp at the Scarborough Winter Gardens. 

      To this day, the funniest hours of my life. 

         0 likes

  11. hippiepooter says:

    I remember Hardy once commenting on the News Quiz to chortles that you can tell if someone belongs to the Tory Party because they’re all ugly.  Unfortunately, noone on the opposing team cared to give the obvious rejoinder ‘Are you a member?’

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  12. Chuffer says:

    And this is why I’m such a fan of QI. True, it, too, occasionally strays into lefty political mode, but for the vast majoprity of the time, the ‘contestants’ have to prove themselves on topics other than ‘Thatch’. I’ve seen Jeremy Hardy on it a couple of times, and he’s completely stumped. Up against intelligent comedians like Rory McGrath, Dara O’Braiaiaiaian, Griff R Jones, he has a terrified bleak stare in his eyes. Jo Brand has the same look – “Oh God, I’m supposed to show some wit!” I’m longing for the day that Ben Elton is invited on, and makes an utter arse of himslef.

       0 likes

    • john smith says:

      Brand is another one whos misanderist humour peppered with rude words leaves me cold.

         0 likes

  13. john smith says:

    Talking of comedians who is that young chap who appears on Have I Got News For You now? Shortish, sneers alot, says rudes like 9 year old, always banging on about the Coalltion like he talking from a propoganda script?

    Only ask because I can’t abide the programme and can’t be bothered to stop and watch it to the end.

       0 likes

  14. Demon1001 says:

    Does anyone here remember the Saturday Night Armistice, which then became the Friday Night Armistice?  It was the only satire programme I remember the BBC putting out which attacked the left as much as the right.  It featured Armando Ianucci.

    I’ve always thought it lacked many series, unlike some of the relentlesssly left-wing “comedies”, so I checked on Wikipedia and apparently the third series (and only one aired after 1997) went out in January 1998.  There was a Christmas Armistice and New Year Armistice that went out 1998 and January 1 1999, but the series planned for 1999 was scrapped.  I’ve often wondered, nay assumed, that The Leader, Blair, or his Rohm-type character, Campbell, put pressure on the BBC to not make any more.

       0 likes

    • Dez says:

      “I’ve often wondered, nay assumed, that The Leader, Blair, or his Rohm-type character, Campbell, put pressure on the BBC to not make any more.”

      Don’t be ridiculous. BBC’s “The Thick of It” (written by Armando Ianucci) was one of the best TV comedies of recent years and scathing attack on the politics of Blair and Campbell.

         0 likes

      • Demon1001 says:

        True Dezzie, I had forgotten about that, but either it was so well hidden in the schedules or it’s because I rarely watch BBC “comedy” now that I’ve only seen a couple of episodes. I also assume that this was not pulled because Campbell had lost a lot of his influence to the Brownians by the time it went out.

        So we have two comedies that pull apart Labour as much as the Conservatives, but many more which are virtual Labour PPBs.  And you call that balanced?

           0 likes

      • matthew rowe says:

        Well as the left wing comedy school of 97 have never forgiven Blair for his changes to the labour party or his wars they consider him a outcast from the ranks and fair game same with dumbell, it’s revenge for being a bad socialist AS Iannucci say himself=
        ‘A turning point came in the autumn of 1996, when Iannucci went to Blackpool with Steve Coogan to do an Alan-Partridge-interviews-Tony-Blair skit at the Labour party conference. After reading the script for ten minutes and running some of the jokes past Peter Mandelson, Blair did the routine perfectly. “I just thought, ‘That’s frightening,’”  “he’s an actor”! also given the wall to wall attacks on Thatcher/Tories/Clegg across all BBC comedy the word balance is very misplaced!

           0 likes

      • john says:

        Dez :
        If you think the BBC’s “The Thick of It” was one of the best TV comedies of recent years, then you are the greatest comedian the BBC hasn’t used in recent years.
        If a one dimensional, one joke and repugnantly toned show amused you – then fine !

        I notice you did not comment on it’s world wide success though.

        The reason it was aired on the BBC is simple, the real left-wing of the Labour Party working within the BBC were only too happy to accommodate it because it was having a go at pseudo “Tory Tony.”

        Go on Dez !  Post your rebuttle and give us all a good laugh to start 2011 with !

           0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Dez, I thought it was about the nature of all “politics” in a media-fuelled world. So you think it was an attack on Blair and Campell? You must have been watching a different programme. Armando Ionucci is a left wing wing Scot. I gave up reading his Audacity of Hype when the lefty rants wouldn’t stop.

           0 likes

  15. Roger Shrubber says:

    So the BBC which employed the same Jeremy Hardy et al during the Banking fuck up, and the shenanigans beforehand, like the Iraq stuff.. are now biased because they employ Hardy et al to take the piss out of Cleggy, Compo and Call Me Dave?

    It’s not just BBC3 that employs countless unfunny unknown (for a reason) comedians in round-up/clip shows. Try a few Channel4 or Channel5 roundup shows. I had the misfortune to catch a bit of a C5 clip ‘best of 2010’ show. Bill Hicks, they most certainly weren’t!

    Today’s comedians seem to be finding a reasonable market off the backs of Apollo/News Quiz/Mock the Week. I see Roy Chubby Brown had a new DVD out, as well as those featured on these hated BBC shows. Maybe this ‘wider’ audience don’t include those determined to see bias whatever the reason. 

    Fox News is just SO Left Wing, don’t you think?

       0 likes

    • Demon1001 says:

      What have C4, C5 or Fox got to do with what the BBC broadcasts?  Are they funded in the unique way that the BBC is?  Are taxpayers forced to pay if they want to watch any television channel?

      I can’t talk about C5 or Fox’s comedy output as I rarely watch them.  C4 has always been renowned for being left-wing but at least I’m not forced to pay them through a tax.

         1 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Channel 4 does have taxpayer funding, no?  It also has a duty to impartiality, like all broadcasting stations.

           1 likes

        • Guest says:

          No – it’s advertising funded. Its analogue TV spectrum was “gifted”, that is it didn’t have to pay for access to the tansmitter network, which can be regarded as a net subsidy. With the transition to digital, C4 has to pay for carriage on Sky, cable and (I think but am not sure) Freeview.

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      • Daniel Smith says:

        Ch4 maybe leftwing (particularly the news) but I’ve seen much more diverse (in the true sense) broadcasting there than on the BBC.

           2 likes

      • Little Black Sambo says:

        <i>C4 has always been renowned for being left-wing but at least I’m not forced to pay them through a tax.</i>
        You don’t have to pay them, but you do have to pay the BBC before you can watch them.

           2 likes

  16. barrenga says:

    When you refer to ‘the selected audiences’ what do you mean?

    It seems tickets are free, any one can apply, and they are selected by randowm draw:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/shows/news_quiz_2011

    Or do they test you to see if you only laugh at left wing jokes before they let you in?

       1 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Self selected.  Who else would wish to sit and watch such bilge, even if free?

         1 likes

    • Sprocket says:

      Yes, in fact!  A good friend (and lapsed lefty) tells of the times that he and fellow “activists” were advised by their “leaders” when an “audience participation” programme was happening – as it might be “Question Time” or “Any Questions?” – and they would apply for audience tickets whereby to add their cat-calls to the general cacophony.

         2 likes

  17. Roger C says:

    I see that Guido has flagged this up.

       1 likes

  18. DWMF says:

    I have to say it’s an elegant explanation for the piles of dross output (purporting to be comedy) on Radio 4 in the early evening.

    I think the introduction of some good right-wing comics would improve Mock the Week immeasurably.

       1 likes

  19. NotaSheep says:

    I caught ‘Mob Rule’ on 5Live this morning. The NOW Show’s John Holmes sneering at the middle classes and especially the stupidity of Daily Mail readers; all Daily Mail readers being racist bigots in BBC ‘comedy’ land – not a mention of Guardian readers of course!

       2 likes

  20. Sprocket says:

    But surely, friends, for out and out Beeb Tosserdom no one, repeat no one, can top Marcus Brigstocke!  This creep takes ‘unfunny’ to spectacular new depths.  In my book, the degree of political correctness – and by definition lack of humour – is to be gauged by the amount of laughter garnered on programmes such as The News Quiz or The Now Show.

       2 likes