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. 

"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.

Sombre mood

It’s (nearly) my official birthday and I’m releasing a statement: ‘It’s difficult to escape a very sombre mood’ in the country.” And would you believe it, on her official birthday The Queen agreed with me.

A very sombre mood

Terrorist attacks, Jeremy Corbyn set to become the next Prime Minister, the Conservative Party imploding just as we’re about to commit Brexit, Al Quds day tomorrow and the BBC whipping up more and more indignation and fury with its wall-to-wall coverage of those increasingly familiar days-of-rage, sparked off (sorry) by the Grenfell Tower inferno. It’s all part and parcel of living in this country don’t you know, and we’ll just have to get used to it.

As if all that wasn’t sombre enough, on top of that the BBC aired a programme last night featuring a whole load of those really annoying people who always, always laugh at nothing. You know them. They’re the ones about whom you’re thinking ‘why are you laughing like that, you moron’.

Where do they get these people?    Are they real? Like, actually sitting in the audience, laughing at swearing? Or are they spliced in at a later date?

That must be it. I think I know how they do it. Frankie Boyle and clebs from the BBC’s favourite pool of same-olds perform their tedious Theresa May / Donald Trump routines in front of the green background. Then the technical department splices in the laughing audience, which was actually filmed watching people falling down on  “You’ve been Framed”. They do this to make Frankie Boyle look amusing.

Unfortunately things turned out more sombre than ever. Is Frankie Boyle Susan’s brother? Can he sing or anything?

Frankie Boyle’s New World Order is the title of the programme. It's an ironic title - so ironic it's not. Wearing an oddly retro suit and waistcoat combo that made him look portly and awkward Mr. Boyle poured his little heart out. What was wrong with him? It seems that he had a bottled-up stream of resentment against Theresa May and Donald Trump he needed to offload, and the BBC generously gave him a safe space to do so. Sara Pascoe and Katherine Ryan made one or two predictable quips and the diversity quota came in the form of the finger-wagging Mona Chalabi and that American who appeared (mysteriously) on Question Time last week.

“It’s amazing to thunk that that’s the best election result that we could’ve hoped fur. The Conservatuves formung a co-ulushuon with the poluticul wung of the auld testimunt” He said. Oh how they laughed.

All the ire was directed at Theresa May / the DUP and Donald Trump. Not even a squeak about Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry, Seumas Milne, John McDonnell or Sadiq Khan, let alone the perpetrators of the three recent terrorist attacks, which, one would think would have merited at least a tad of ire.

Sombre mood indeed.

Frankie Boyle’s emollient autopsy

Did anyone hear Jonathan Dimbleby on Any Questions repeating that infamous Michael Flynn quote “Fear of Muslims is rational” with a tone of abject incredulity? 

These people cling on to their favourite soundbites for dear life and flog them to death.  Is Jonathan Dimbleby the last man standing who refuses to consider the possibility that saying “fear of Muslims is rational” has a smidgeon of credibility? Rhetorical question. We know he isn’t.

********

You know the feeling. Your kids (or someone else’s) are behaving appallingly, but doing it with such wit and creativity that you struggle to suppress a giggle, but you’re obliged not to laugh so as not to undermine your authority such as it is.

I watched Frankie Boyle’s American Autopsy. I don’t know why; let’s say morbid curiosity and ordinary curiosity rolled into one. 

Well,  I’m not immune to the humour in Frankie Boyle’s imaginative phraseology, while simultaneously marvelling at how someone so sharp can be so dumb. 

Some of the btl comments on Youtube indicate that it didn’t go down terribly well, but we know what Youtube comments are like. I mention it mainly because people are wondering why the BBC has ‘let him back’.

Unconnected with this particular programme, someone on the BBC mentioned ‘gritty’ comedy, and I guess gritty is the new edgy.

Of course Frankie is a white dude and, I gather, a father. A bit jowly these days too, one disadvantage on top of another.

He started with a monologue about Trump’s appearance and general unsuitability for office and made a few derogatory comments about America. Then he threw in something disparaging about Hillary Clinton and brought on his guests.  

The predictable and unoriginal banter was par for the course, livened up a bit by a contribution from Richard Osman (2.01 m.)

I found Osman’s excessive height rather comforting, as it gave his (mildly) dissenting view extra heft.   

Speaking as someone with a 'nasty little voice  “Goin’ peep peep peep’” I can only say I need some huge people on my side.

Richard Osman 2.01m

Frankie Boyle and his friends have certainly noticed a hell of a lot of bad stuff about America. Bad stuff about Donald Trump, bad stuff about Hillary Clinton, bad stuff about politics and all kinds of bad stuff about racism, misogyny, fascism etc etc. But they haven’t noticed anything whatsoever  about Islam. 

That’s gritty only in the  sense of ‘irritating if it gets in your eye’. As humour, this was feeble and kind of emollient. Think of people oleaginously soothing each other’s preconceived prejudices.

I think I’d prefer edgy, if I could find any.