Have They Got Jokes for Aaron Bastani?

 

Simon Evans, funny and sartorially sharp

For fans of Twitter chats, here's an interesting one this afternoon featuring Simon Evans - one of the few right-leaning comedians (along with Geoff Norcott) to retain a toehold in BBC comedy.

It was sparked by an impartiality-free non-joke from the HIGNFY Twitter feed.

The thread also features arch-Corbynista Aaron Bastani telling it straight!

And if you're wondering, Marcus is also a comedian:

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Have I Got News For You: So that’s 30 years then, but if Paul Dacre and Charles Moore take those jobs we’re unlikely to see another five, and nor is the BBC.

Aaron Bastani: As some of my favourite left wing comedians appear on your show I really hope it isn’t cut, as some argue it should have been 15 years ago. It’s a very left wing show, and I’m worried that’s why the Tories want it gone!

Zulu_Alpha: You don't think there's an issue with the BBC only producing left wing comedy?

Marcus James: No. This is a tired manufactured dichotomy.  Most comedy is anti-Establishment.  The Venn diagram between AE and left-wing is a big overlap, but they have a number of AE figures from the Right too (JHB, Henning When {sic}, Simon Evans, etc). Trump is AE - but he is definitely not left.

Simon Evans: Forgive my untagged intrusion, but as a matter of friendly interest, how often do you think I might have been on HIGNFY? Just a rough guess, over the last 25 years that I've been a professional comedian.

Marcus James: No apology needed, I did namecheck you after all. Guessing by this intervention, the answer is going to be not many / none; although to be fair I watch / listen to both HIGNFY and The News Quiz regularly, so there might be a bit of mental cross-pollination on my part. To be fair to the wider argument being made though, the accusation is being levelled at the BBC generally, of which The News Quiz is part, and you have to concede you are a regular on that show. incidentally, I think it would be helpful if people were more specific by what they mean as a "right wing comedian".  Do they want right-of-centre such as yourself and Henning, or do they just mean you can't tell jokes about mother-in-laws and minorities? Because I would hope we can all agree that certain types of humour associated with the "right" are probably never coming back to mainstream TV / radio; and, to be fair, with probable good reason!

Simon Evans: I think it's fair to distinguish between a high profile TV show and a popular radio comedy. You have of course guessed correctly - I have never been on the show. I don't know how often Henning has but if he is the representative of half the British electorate, that's a bit odd? As a conceded regular on The News Quiz, btw, how often do you think I have been on this year, so far?

Marcus James: Not many?  Genuine questions back though, in good faith, Do you feel you are invited on less because of your political position? Do you not think this is largely self-selecting? (simply more people who get into stand-up / comedy, are left leaning / liberal generally?) 

Simon Evans: I think in the last few years, and it being a topical show, they mean comedians who find the likes of Corbyn, Joe Biden and indeed AC Grayling, Change UK and Femi Sorry as at least as deserving of mockery as anyone on the right.

Marcus James: No argument from me there.

Simon Evans: Anyway, it would be unseemly to over do it, good chat, and I hope to see you from the other side of the screen one of these days!

Simon Evans: Sorry, missed this... [reacting to Marcus's "genuine questions" reply] ...I have been on once. But it will be twice, soon! I don't resent or complain about frequency, only occasionally take issue when I am presented as proof that the few RW comedians there are, like me, get invited on all the time.

"SHOCKED & NAUSEATED"

The World This Weekend today featured a turn by comedian Simon Evans that mocked all sides, but among the 'all sides' being mocked was one Jeremy Corbyn. 

Here's Simon's joke:

The only visual clue to character that jarred on the ITV debate was the odd angle at which he wore his glasses, suggesting he had taken the stage immediately after a brief tussle. Many viewers also noticed that one of the lenses of his glasses appeared to have a special coating, perhaps to enable him to see into the future - though, if so, it appears to have been in stalled back-to-front.

Yes, it's a wonky glasses joke and not exactly the kind of joke that's going to cause sides to split and result in laughter's ambulance being called, but wbo could complain about it?

Well, some people did.  

Enter, on Twitter, one of the platform's most regular (far-left) critics of the BBC, Clare Hepworth OBE:

SHOCKED & NAUSEATED at Simon Evans on Radio 4's The World This Weekend mocking Jeremy Corbyn's slight problem with his left eye & the special lens in his spectacles.

This folks - is the level to which the BBC Commentariat have descended.

It wasn't even *satire* - it was cruel & malicious.

Among Clare OBE's 36,000 followers the consensus can be easily summed up with one random tweet:

Simon Evans at the BBC's World This Weekend is the lowest of the low & should be sacked for mocking Jeremy in this manner. This is a form of disability discrimination & he should be ashamed & sacked!

Lots of talk of BBC bias and the BBC being corrupted followed.

Complaints from both sides!

Recommendation Time

"How YOU doin'?"

Simon Evans, the only right-wing comedian in the BBC Radio 4 village (and, no, unlike Daffyd from Little Britain, he's probably not imagining that!), has a new series of Simon Evans Goes to Market going out at the moment on Radio 4. It's not your run-of-the-mill, predictable BBC comedy show. I came away having laughed a bit and having learned a lot, this week about the big social media corporations. It was genuinely illuminating. Very good!

I'd also like to recommend this week's The Infinite Monkey Cage on 'The Secret Life of Birds'. (Forget your 'hatred' of Brian Cox and Robin Ince please!). Yes, the 'secret life' turned out to be mainly the 'sex life', but this programme is so valuable for giving voice to some wonderful scientists. This week it was the University of Sheffield's Professor Tim Birkhead, who did himself great credit, especially for his bit on male ducks - particularly the Argentine lake duck (a veritable Peronist duck if ever I've heard one)..

I'll summarise:

Not many bird species have a penis, but male ducks (including the mallard) have. Their penis isn't like ours though. It's a spiral, explosive structure powered by lymph rather than blood. The male Argentine lake duck (about a foot in length) has an 18-inch penis. The female duck has a complex vagina to match - at the most extreme, three side branches and a very vigorous spiral. The female's vagina spirals in the opposite direction to the male's spiralling penis. If a female is forced upon (raped) she can close her ovary duct and send the male's penis off down a blind alley.

One for Jane Gravy that!