As everyone else is posting it, and it is deliciously funny - and, for once, gave David Dimbleby a red face - here's that exchange on last night's Question Time:
And while I'm posting YouTube videos of embarrassing moments this week for BBC presenters, here's Evan Davis's encounter with Ann Coulter.
The social media reaction was intriguing and fell into several camps.
Those on the right fell into two groups. The first group argued essentially that Evan Davis had been pushing all manner of stupid, PC questions at Miss Coulter and that she, in turn, had effortlessly and rightly handed him his ass on a plate in response. For them Evan was clearly pushing a socially liberal agenda here, fixating on things that matter to him - such as gay rights - and on hot-button left-liberal topics (such as 'offensive' language) to the exclusion of pretty much anything else. The second group on the right said pretty much the same thing also felt the strong need too signal their own disapproval of Ann Coulter in general.
Those on the left also fell into two groups. The first complained that Evan Davis had made a complete hash of tackling that odious bigot Ann Coulter and, to their complete horror, allowed her appear to come across as completely reasonable in the light of his ineffectual questioning. The second group (containing a lot of Corbynistas and cybernats) in contrast argued that the BBC are Trump-supporting right-wing bigots themselves for giving Ann Coulter airtime in the first place.
The odd thing is that pretty much nobody (or, perhaps more accurately, absolutely nobody!) felt that Evan had done anything like a good job here. The phrase 'car crash' cropped up from time to time.
This was, as someone noted in the comments on an earlier thread, the same type of interview with a right-winger that Evan Davis conducted during the election with Nigel Farage - the one including the questions about whether Mr Farage was a fan of Paddington Bear. That also focused on 'tone' and 'language'.
It's what Evan seems to do when confronted with 'such people'. His attempts to pull it off again with Ann Coulter, however, went very badly awry, so - if you've not already seen it - please enjoy!:
It's what Evan seems to do when confronted with 'such people'. His attempts to pull it off again with Ann Coulter, however, went very badly awry, so - if you've not already seen it - please enjoy!:
But look, it's really important, this, because I think..in...in...in...*much* of Western society people would avoid making jokes that use racially disparaging words, wouldn't they? And I'm just...wondering whether you think it is *acceptable*, or (voice rising in pitch) would be *helpful* to the Trump campaign if he ramped it up and started using racist language more overtly?
ReplyDeleteBS. There goes just about every single BBC comedy panel show. You can't watch or listen to one without hearing a leftie comedian doing a mocking Chinese accent or saying something about the Germans or the French or making fat jokes or even the odd mocking African accent.
Very enjoyable. I'd not seen Ann Coulter for a long time, and always found her strident and offensive, but I really preferred her take on the topic to Evan's. (PS thanks for reminding me about that stupid Paddington Bear question...)
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