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Tim Davie Appointed BBC Director General

(June 2020)

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JA
james-2001
Jonwo posted:
Personally, I don't see the likes of The Mash Report, Mock the Week or HIGNFY being axed.


Just forced into booking more right wing pundits.
HO
House
There simply aren’t that many overtly right wing comedians on the circuit. I can see this leading to more ‘funny’ pundits, journalists and commentators from the right being added to panels that should really be reserved for comedians, and then not being funny or not getting laughs because they’re not funny (because they’re not comedians) and they or someone else getting in a strop when they’re not invited back (or blaming the bbc for picking such a left wing studio audience).

That, and shows being encourage to avoid politics all together.
MA
Markymark
House posted:
There simply aren’t that many overtly right wing comedians on the circuit. I can see this leading to more ‘funny’ pundits, journalists and commentators from the right being added to panels that should really be reserved for comedians, and then not being funny or not getting laughs because they’re not funny (because they’re not comedians) and they or someone else getting in a strop when they’re not invited back (or blaming the bbc for picking such a left wing studio audience).

That, and shows being encourage to avoid politics all together.


You actually don't need to be 'political' to be funny or satirical about politicians. In fact it probably helps if you're not
NL
Ne1L C
House posted:
There simply aren’t that many overtly right wing comedians on the circuit. I can see this leading to more ‘funny’ pundits, journalists and commentators from the right being added to panels that should really be reserved for comedians, and then not being funny or not getting laughs because they’re not funny (because they’re not comedians) and they or someone else getting in a strop when they’re not invited back (or blaming the bbc for picking such a left wing studio audience).

That, and shows being encourage to avoid politics all together.


You actually don't need to be 'political' to be funny or satirical about politicians. In fact it probably helps if you're not



Being apolitical when taking the rise out of politicians can not just be advantageous it can make the comedy stand out more. In the mid 1960s as part of a comeback Frankie Howerd whilst appearing on That Was The Week That Was did a skit about the the then Chancellor Reginald Maudling and it was regarded as pivotal in his return:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLk4g3TL6Rk
BR
Brekkie
Jonwo posted:
Personally, I don't see the likes of The Mash Report, Mock the Week or HIGNFY being axed.

No, although arguably in the case of the last two, and perhaps even all three, their past their sell by dates anyway. That's nothing to do with them being "Left wing" - and of the three I'd only say The Mash Report is, and even then it's people getting confused between being "left wing" and holding the government to account.

I think one thing that has changed is the programmes attack the issue more than the personality. The likes of Spitting Image and the various impressionist shows went after character traits rather than political issues, but now it is the actions of the politicians that are targetted for humour.
NL
Ne1L C
Jonwo posted:
Personally, I don't see the likes of The Mash Report, Mock the Week or HIGNFY being axed.

No, although arguably in the case of the last two, and perhaps even all three, their past their sell by dates anyway. That's nothing to do with them being "Left wing" - and of the three I'd only say The Mash Report is, and even then it's people getting confused between being "left wing" and holding the government to account.

I think one thing that has changed is the programmes attack the issue more than the personality. The likes of Spitting Image and the various impressionist shows went after character traits rather than political issues, but now it is the actions of the politicians that are targetted for humour.


The problem I see is that a lot of people are mentally conflating politics and government, that they think they are two sides of the same coin. That's entirely understandable (I have an A-Level in "politics" but the full title was "Politics and Government") and what has happened (again from my view) is that the government itself is being taken as shorthand for politics.

That to me is wrong. It should be the policies themselves that should be the target of Mock The Week etc. When the politicians themselves are targeted then it switches from legitimate (albeit humourous) criticism to personal attacks. That's bullying. One example was the former Chief Secretary to The Treasury David Laws who resigned from the role after 17 days following a report by the Daily Telegraph that he had been making claims of £40,000 living expenses whilst renting rooms at a property owned by his lover James Lundie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Laws#Expenses_scandal,_resignation_and_suspension_from_Parliament

Now while this is out of the scope of this discussion it does show a worrying trend that the media as a whole and yes, television specifically have dramatically overstepped their mark in probing into private lives. Yes many politicians are world-class s***s but they are human.
BR
Brekkie
Ah, the days when politicians would resign when they did something wrong. I miss those.
IS
Inspector Sands
Jonwo posted:
Personally, I don't see the likes of The Mash Report, Mock the Week or HIGNFY being axed.

No, although arguably in the case of the last two, and perhaps even all three, their past their sell by dates anyway. That's nothing to do with them being "Left wing" - and of the three I'd only say The Mash Report is, and even then it's people getting confused between being "left wing" and holding the government to account.

Absolutely, and the reason why there's more jokes about the Government is because they're the Government, they're making the decisions and sometimes making the mistakes. Topical comedies do absolutely joke about everyone, but in these times with political animals living in bubbles it's not enough. In the run up to the last election programmes like The News Quiz and HIGNFY were doing at least 5 minutes on what the Tories got up to that week and about the same 5 minutes on what Labour had done.... but you wouldn't have known that if you had just listened to the whinging on social media. According Twitter they were unfairly attacking Corbyn every week and the BBC was anti-Labour.
It's cognitive bias - if the programme isn't expressing someone's opinion then to them it's biased.


The other thing this is about I suspect is a culture wars thing - the idea among some people that representation is left wing. If there's a comedian on that is from a minority then that is 'left wing bias'. If an advert has a mixed race couple or a sitcom or drama has a disabled person in it then again to some that's 'left wing bias'.
BR
Brekkie
Well seems some people on social media now think this news will mean that famously right wing comedy Little Britain will be saved.
NL
Ne1L C
Jonwo posted:
Personally, I don't see the likes of The Mash Report, Mock the Week or HIGNFY being axed.

No, although arguably in the case of the last two, and perhaps even all three, their past their sell by dates anyway. That's nothing to do with them being "Left wing" - and of the three I'd only say The Mash Report is, and even then it's people getting confused between being "left wing" and holding the government to account.

Absolutely, and the reason why there's more jokes about the Government is because they're the Government, they're making the decisions and sometimes making the mistakes. Topical comedies do absolutely joke about everyone, but in these times with political animals living in bubbles it's not enough. In the run up to the last election programmes like The News Quiz and HIGNFY were doing at least 5 minutes on what the Tories got up to that week and about the same 5 minutes on what Labour had done.... but you wouldn't have known that if you had just listened to the whinging on social media. According Twitter they were unfairly attacking Corbyn every week and the BBC was anti-Labour.
It's cognitive bias - if the programme isn't expressing someone's opinion then to them it's biased.


The other thing this is about I suspect is a culture wars thing - the idea among some people that representation is left wing. If there's a comedian on that is from a minority then that is 'left wing bias'. If an advert has a mixed race couple or a sitcom or drama has a disabled person in it then again to some that's 'left wing bias'.


Which is not only wrong but potentially very dangerous. I don't watch HIGNFY but I can imagine how the "twitterati" would be livid. Well here's a newsflash. Twitter is NOT the media.
JO
johnnyboy Founding member
What a surprise. Another white man in a suit.


It's disgusting.

They should ban white men from running anything. It's inherently racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic (delete as applicable).
WL
W1LL
I do find it funny how some right wingers are trying to portray HIGNFY as some form of communist propaganda.

It’s certainly not like our current Conservative Prime Minister has ever hosted the programme (multiple times).

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