New Year Nish & Frankie

 

Other than talk and issue pleasant-sounding declarations of intent, I wonder what Tim Davie has actually done to tackle bias at the BBC? 

The Mail on Sunday suggests not much on the issue of bias in BBC comedy at least.

It really is striking that at the very moment when the UK finally, fully left the EU - 11pm on New Year's Eve - the BBC gave us The Graham Norton Show, which featured Nish Kumar insulting Nigel Farage (‘not technically a man, just a sack of meat brought to life by a witch’s curse’) and attacking Brexit. 

Meanwhile, Frankie Boyle compares Brexit to cancer on his own New Year's Day BBC show. (‘Having Brexit at the end of a year like this is like finding out your cancer has spread to the walls of your house.’)

What's happened to Frankie Boyle over the years is akin to what happened in the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Frankie has castrated himself and become a eunuch at the court of the BBC, living a live of comfort and influence in exchange for his testicles. 

The Sunday Papers

 

The Crook O'Lune (near Morecambe)

The Sunday papers have arrived on my laptop, so here's a selection of today's top stories:

1. Charles Moore isn't going to be the next BBC chairman

The Sunday Times reports that Charles Moore has ruled himself out of running for BBC chairman on "personal" grounds. He's not even applying. Unfortunately. Incidentally, John Simpson isn't impressed with the way the paper has covered this:

Last week's Sunday Times reported that Boris Johnson wanted Charles Moore to be the chairman of the BBC. Today, in a much less prominent story, it says Moore has ruled himself out, on personal grounds.'

The Sunday Times is behaving like the BBC there. 

2. BBC journalist Martin Bashir "misled" Diana’s brother to secure bombshell interview

So claims The Sunday Times. The paper alleges that Martin Bashir, now the BBC's religious affairs correspondent, "obtained the scoop under a false pretext and by using fake bank statements". It says the allegations "will raise difficult questions for the BBC" as the Corporation conducted its own internal investigation at the time and cleared itself. The BBC says Mr Bashir is "unwell and unable to respond" but has issued a statement reiterating its defence of his behaviour. 

3. Camilla Long on BBC Four's Black Classical Music

In her Sunday Times review column, Camilla Long notes that the presenters (Sir Lenny Henry and Suzie Klein) had "to keep reminding us what dreadful victims these talented people were":

At the end of nearly every scene, there would be a ceremonial confronting of the material, in which they demanded to know from various guests, and I paraphrase, “Why isn’t he more famous? Who were the racists who suppressed his cantatas? You began to think, why don’t they just let the music speak for itself? But as it went on you realised, it wasn’t about the music at all.

True.

4. The BBC tells off Dame Jenni Murray one last time

After her swift, post-BBC attack on the BBC in yesterday's Daily Mail, the Sunday Telegraph quotes the BBC's official response. It's a final dig at the opinionated former Woman's Hour presenter:

We wish Jenni well in her new career as a columnist but the public will understand the importance of impartiality whilst working at the BBC.

5. Michael Gove on Frankie Boyle's New World Order

The Mail on Sunday has an interview with Michael Gove. Here's what he says about Frankie Boyle's New World Order:

You have a group of comedians who engage in a 30-minute seminar informed by Marxist ideas and they think jokes about 'killing whitey' are worth the licence fee, then you have to ask a question. And the question is, why should it be the case that people in Middlesbrough and Mansfield should pay out of their salaries so that Oxbridge graduates can trash their values in that way?

A good question.

"Within audience expectations"

 

Talking of BBC U-turns and weasel words...

As Charlie noted on the open thread, this was the BBC's official response to criticism of the '(we do) want to Kill Whitey' "joke" on Frankie Boyle's New World Order:

Frankie Boyle's New World Order was shown after 10pm and its content is within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established.

As Cue Bono added,  "Yeah, as we all know a white comedian talking about killing black people would also be perfectly acceptable after 10pm".

Meanwhile, here's a short conversation on the matter (via Twitter). 

If you recall, I quoted comedian Konstantin Kisin the other day saying, "I am a huge fan of the BBC (or at least what it could be) and I will never criticise a comedian for trying an edgy joke but how is anyone supposed to defend the producer who thought this should go out? Insane." 

This is what happened next:

Daliso Chaponda: Who is this who has taken over Konstantin Kisin's account? Didn't the real Konstantin do a half hour interview about how freedom of speech is a fundamental principle under threat?  Wasn't he on Good Morning Britain saying people shouldn't take jokes literally.

Konstantin Kisin: Hi Daliso, not sure how my tweet can be read as anything other "she has every right to make the joke, I don't think the BBC should have put it out". This was the conclusion that most sensible people came to with Jo Brand, who I defended if you remember.

KillWhiteygate (continued)

 

As far as KillWhiteygate goes, comedian Konstantin Kisin lays the blame nearer to where I think I think it should lie: 

I am a huge fan of the BBC (or at least what it could be) and I will never criticise a comedian for trying an edgy joke but how is anyone supposed to defend the producer who thought this should go out? Insane.

If you look at the programme's credits though, it lists three Executive Producers: Ruth Phillips, Peter Holmes and Christopher Barbour.

It also names the production company behind the programme: Zeppotron. 

I smell degrees of separation.

Are Ruth, Peter and Christopher independent of the BBC? 

If they're not independent of the BBC, this is their responsibility. 

If they merely work for Zeppotron and are independent of the BBC, who at the BBC ultimately signs these Zeppotron programme off? 

And who in particular signed signed this edition of the programme off? 

The answer should, of course, be clear and obvious. And if I'm missing something and you know what it is please let me know.

Frankie?

*******

For fact fans, Zeppotron is also responsible for providing Nish Kumar's The Mash Report to the BBC

Which prompt the obvious question: Is Zeppotron named after the unfunny Marx brother?

In fairness to Gummotron though, I see that another programme they provide the BBC with is Would I Lie To You?, which has been pretty funny over the years. And they also do Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe and Channel 4's 8 Out of 10 Cats (and its Does Countdown sibling). Cue Jimmy Carr laughing.

BBC Comedy Strikes Again (The 'Kill Whitey' Edition)

Sophie 'Kill Whitey' Duker

 

If you missed what Andrew Lawrence was referring to there, it was this week's Frankie Boyle's New World Order. 

This rib-ticking section, where comedian Sophie Duker talked a load of jargon-filled, sub-Marxist, factually-false drivel and everyone else nodded along like nodding dogs with necks made out of spring, has provoked a mass of adverse criticism: 

Frankie Boyle: Do you ever read James Baldwin, Sophie? 

Sophie Duker: I have read some James Baldwin and what I find striking every time that I sort of interact with that idea of white power and black power is that those myths you were talking about, those capitalist myths, are so prevalent today, they're so real today, like the myths we have about black power, like black power, there is still a world where Africa was never colonised, was never pillaged for its resources, like white power is Trump Tower, like these things are put against each other, but when we say we want to kill Whitey, we don't really mean we can to kill Whitey really...We do...[laughter]...but when we say we want to kill Whitey it's a capitalist...

Jamali Maddix: Not today! 

Sophie Duker: Not today! 

Jamali Maddix: We've got to finish the show.

Sophie Duker: But when people react to people saying well white privilege, whiteness is a capitalist structure, it benefits itself...

Dane Baptiste: Absolutely!

Sarah Pascoe: (nodding in apparent agreement) Hmm.

Sophie Duker: It hurts white people, it hurts non-black people, it hurts black people, but still this kind of fear of a black alternative and its these sort of rhetorics battled against each other, these extreme capitalist rhetorics of supremacy. 

Ah, BBC comedy! 

Here's a very small flavour of the reaction:

• The absolute state of BBC comedy.
• This is from BBC Comedy's New World Order. I’m not sure how this is ‘comedy’. I’m not sure why our cash is paying for it. I’m not sure why the BBC isn’t challenging those determined to do all that they can to divide us with this hateful wordsoup of divisive dross.
• This is horrible. It's not just unfunny, it's incoherent nonsensical Marxist gobbledegook. The white contributors nodding along supportively as this woman jokes about killing people who look like them is just plain sick.
• Go tell your jokes about killing whitey to the young mother and her partner who had her jaw shot off guarding a transit station in Compton a few days ago. The BBC must have a no tolerance policy on ALL forms of racism.
• The BBC is obliged by the terms of its Charter to encourage social cohesion. Instead they use licence fee payers’ money to make this.

"Totally impartial BBC2 Late night satirical chat show, don't forget to tune in"

 

Here's the brilliant and funny Andrew Lawrence channelling Frankie Boyle:

(Warning: Contains the odd swear word, or two).

Totally impartial BBC2 Late night satirical chat show, don't forget to tune in. pic.twitter.com/wO0VNd8P4r

— Andrew Lawrence, next show: Bognor 14th October (@andrewlawrence) September 16, 2020

Coming to a Boyle

If you missed Frankie Boyle's New World Order: 2019 here's a selection of the jokes:

• Donald Trump will be running in 2020, sadly not from a pack of dogs.
• Boris Johnson: a man who looks like Hitler's DNA had been injected into a panna cotta.
• [On Prince Andrew]: The rapist formerly known as Prince. 

Twitter has divided between those who say Frankie's no longer funny and those who say that those saying Frankie's no longer funny are a bunch of right-wing snowflakes. 

I'm sure the BBC will be commissioning another series from him in 2020. Happy New Year!

From Frankie's joke book

For those who missed Frankie Boyle's New World Order this week (all of you?), here's a sample of his jokes. Enjoy! (Or not):

• Piers Morgan has said that Donald Trump has asked him to interview him in the White House, so Al-Qaeda, if you're watching, pop that one in the diary. 
• Nigel Farage launched his new Brexit party for the EU elections and one of the candidates is Annunziata Rees-Mogg, Jacob Rees-Mogg's sister. Annunziata, a spell Harry Potter would say to deport the Windrush generation. 
• The Lib Dems are also gearing up for the EU elections, led by Vince Cable, who has been putting up a spirited opposition to death. 
• The British tabloids are getting ready for the birth of Meghan Markle's first baby. It won't be the first multiracial royal baby, but it will be the first one that' a mix between two human races. 
• In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected. I always think that Benjamin Netanyahu looks like the star of a 5-part docudrama about a game show host who is accused of necrophilia. Say what you like about him, say what you like about Netanyahu. I think his re-election will reduce the number of Palestinians who hate Israel, admittedly by reducing the number of Palestinians.

Frankie Boyle says the BBC edited out his criticisms of Israel

Frankie Boyle was on the receiving end of plenty of Corbynista fury for devoting half of his latest programme to discussing antisemitism in the Labour Party. He's a sell-out apparently, and George Galloway even swore at him on Twitter. 

The other half of the programme was given over to the Royal Wedding, and Frankie wasn't exactly polite about the Royal Family. 

He later quipped about the reaction (on Twitter):

New World Order on player. We talk about The Labour Party and The Royal Wedding. Had a lot of complaints about not showing sufficient respect to our natural leaders, but the Royalists have been fine.

This further tweet is intriguing though:

There were, of course, various jokes in this weeks’s New World Order monologue about the situation in Gaza, and about Israel being an Apartheid state. Edited out for reasons nobody has yet explained to me, despite assurances to the contrary.  

Of course, the same people are now accusing the BBC of being a pro-Israel propagandist.

The BBC could have edited his anti-Israel bits out because of reasons of time. Short show, lots of guests.