"I haven’t slept in fünfzehn jahren"

The Brexitcast cast

I must admit that I've never listened to the BBC's Brexitcast podcast but it apparently goes something like this:

In which Craig yaps on about Jake (and BBC comedy) again

Yake Japp's Media Circus (courtesy of Seurat)

Having listened to the first two episodes of Jake Yapp's Media Circus - a newish BBC Radio 4 6.30 comedy - I came to the conclusion that it needs a much sharper script. 

Its satire, for the most part, has all the bite of a toothless Yorkshire terrier. 

Maybe Rod Liddle (or Richard Littlejohn) could help out with the next series?

*******

Does that sound mean? I didn't mean it to. So here's me being almost nice:

My favourite joke from the first two episodes fell in the 'it's funny cos it's true' category.

It concerned Radio 4's The Listening Project - the BBC's  years long project in partnership with the British Library that might prove to be a remarkable document in a hundred years time but "right now" is "a bit rubbish". "

"I feel they have to broadcast it a bit just to justify doing it," said Jake. And I know how he feels about that.

And then came the line that made me laugh:

Alfred Hitchcock said, "What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?", and The Listening Project sounds like all the bits that got cut out. 

Doesn't it just!

*******

This week's episode, however, saw Our Jake popping in a set of novelty false teeth and taking some proper nips at a few heels.

His subject was....wait for it!....newspaper columnists.

Aha! Are you thinking what I think you think I'm thinking?

That it's a Radio 4 comedy show, so it will inevitably be lazy and predictable and just bang on and on about how evil and racist Katie Hopkins is?

Well, I wouldn't blame you for thinking what I think you think I'm thinking because that's precisely what bog-standard Radio 4 comedy would do and do do. They know it's expecting of them, targets-wise, and they dutifully oblige. The studio audience goes along with it and a second series becomes a possibility. It requires no effort and entails little risk. It's straight onto the BBC comedy gravy train - and the BBC comedy gravy train is a darn sight more luxurious than any Northern Rail gravy train. 

Well, as regular readers will know, I expect better from Our Jake. So I hoped for plenty of digs at eminently mockable Guardian/Independent types like Owen, Polly, Gary, Yasmin and Afua, and maybe even - if he were being especially bold - Stewart Lee. (Imagine!)

Well, more fool me! Alas, Jake Yapp has turned into a fully-fledged Radio 4 comedy lickspittle!

(Can lickspittles fledge? I'll have to email Chris Packham about that). 

Yes, he really did make Katie Hopkins the show's main target and come back to attacking her again and again and he even made unequivocal jokes about her being a racist.

And he even slagged off poor old Richard Littlejohn - and how lazy and predictable is that? Even every other living Radio 4 comedian has finally moved on from Richard Littlejohn, so Jake was being somewhat 'retro' there, taking his audience back in time to The News Quiz circa 2006.  

Jake's other targets? Donald Trump, Sarah Champion, Kevin Myers, Michael Gove, Kirstie Allsop. Boris Johnson, Sarah Vine, Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson...and Jeremy Corbyn. 

Ah yes! Big Bad Boris was second only unto Katie in being the central object of Jake's satirical desire. He'd been mean about the EU in his columns and that was a bad thing. (The show was obviously recorded before Letterboxgate.)

The presence of Sarah Champion MP's name on the roll of dishonour there is very intriguing. Her newspaper piece about Pakistani grooming gangs must have struck R Jake as not being a good thing. 

And he even slid into saying that free speech isn't a good thing either, as the likes of Katie Hopkins (and Sarah Champion presumably) have got us where we are today. 

Hmm. I think it's now past the time when I can still reasonably hope that Jake might be different from the rest.

He's obviously not. He's become an identikit BBC Radio 4 comedian, loving Big Brother like the rest of them - and willing to stamp a boot forever on the face of easy targets with the 'best' of them.

Please excuse me while I wipe my eyes and blow my nose. Sniff. I'm so disappointed. Sniff. I hoped for so much more from Jake. He's become a bog-standard, predictable, go-for-the-easy-targets BBC Radio 4 comedian. Sniff. Sniff. Blow.

Paging Dr. Rod Liddle. Emergency surgery to BBC programme's script needed urgently. Please go to 6.30 on Tuesday on Radio 4 as soon as you can. 

On Radio 4 Comedy

Sioned Wiliam

Sioned Wiliam, Radio 4's Commissioning Editor for Comedy, is no mean comedienne herself - at least if her Feedback interview with Roger Bolton today is anything to go by. 

I laughed and laughed and laughed.

She played the part of a parody version of a BBC editor responding to charges of bias and denying everything, but so badly that she ended up making a complete dunderhead of 'herself'. 

She was absolutely brilliant. It's the best satire I've heard on Radio 4 in a long while and her performance couldn't be bettered. I almost believed she was 'for real'. 

Seriously, Sioned should be given her own Radio 4 series. (And, being Radio 4's Commissioning Editor for Comedy, if she can't commission herself, who can?). She has a great catchphrase too - "I don't think I agree". 

Roger Bolton made for a wonderful straight man here too. [And a genuine 'all credit to him' for his probing today].

Here's part of the script:

Roger Bolton: Well, let's turn to a political issue. It couldn't be more controversial at the moment. Sue Cooper wrote to us about Brexit.

Sue Cooper: I have to say that I am deeply disappointed by the way News Quiz has taken a very left wing and anti-Brexit stance. It used to be funny but it is now very biased. And when they start off arrogantly treating those who voted Leave as though they are completely stupid I reach for the 'Off' switch'.

Roger Bolton: Do you think Sue has a point?

Sioned Wiliam: Well, I don't agree that it's coming from one position. We have a range of political voices on...

Roger Bolton: [interrupting] Oh no. If you listen to it consistently....I am not taking sides, but it is clear that the majority of jokes are broadly anti-Brexit.

Sioned Wiliam: I don't think I agree. I mean, actually, if you look at the last series. There were three episodes in which Brexit didn't feature at all....

Roger Bolton: [interrupting] No, but when Brexit is raised, on the whole, most people's view would be that the majority of jokes are, if you, like opposed, as it were, against Brexiteers.

Sioned Wiliam: I don't think I do agree....

And on it went, and....

....News just in...news just in...news just in...

I've been informed by sources close to the BBC that this was not satire. 

It was a real interview. Sioned Wiliam was actually being serious and not - repeat not - engaging in comedy gold after all. 

I'm in shock, and will need to take a break to recover.

That girl, and that former BBC sports reporter who became head of the F.A.

After getting over my disappointment I decided, being a blogger about BBC bias, to put Sioned's Panglossian statements to the test by listening to tonight's The Now Show (which Roger and Sioned moved onto later). 

And, guess what? There were plenty of anti-Brexit jokes from Steve 'n' Hugh but not a single pro-Brexit joke/anti-EU joke. 

Not one. 

Listen for yourselves. Not one pro-Brexit joke and lots of anti-Brexit jokes. (The first five minutes will suffice if you're pressed for time).

And except for one mild dig at Jeremy Corbyn - later 'balanced' by a segment seriously citing his views on austerity and then running with a series of vaguely-anti-austerity gags - the targets were utterly predictable: Trump, Mrs May, Boris, the DUP, Nigel Farage, Brexit, Greggs. (Even Mugabe and Kim Jong-un got off lightly in comparison, Yes, really, they did!). 

Now that I know that Sioned wasn't just pretending to be a completely idiotic BBC high-up, I'm becoming seriously worried about her. 

If she genuinely believes that programmes like The Now Show and The News Quiz are 'balanced' because they invite on people like Hugo Rifkind and Danny Finkelstein, who she went on to name in her defence - despite both of them having voted for us to remain in the EU - then she is seriously delusional. 

Maybe she needs a few months off. May I suggest that she use her presumably huge BBC salary to book into Morecambe's magnificent Midland Hotel and partake of the sea air and the spectacular Lakeland views for several weeks.

She's clearly in need of it. (And I'll buy her a large glass of wine).

The very picture of smug Radio 4 comedy?

And as for The Now Show itself, good grief! Please hire a vet to put me to sleep before I ever listen to it again. 

The new 'talent' really needs to try harder. The old 'talent' is tired. 

And Jake - Mr Jake Yapp - please stop lowering yourself. 

You used to mock The Now Show...

...and then you 'self-censored' that bit of your famous Radio 4 satire when Radio 4 granted you your own one-off...

...and now, garlic and stake readied, you've become a The Now Show regular, simply pandering to the Radio 4 studio audience types . (Sell out!)

I don't blame you actually. Why not? Grab the loot from the BBC licence fee payer and get the BBC Pension Fund lawyers to help you stash most of it in a Caribbean tax haven.

That's my advice, and you'd be wise to take it.


P.S. The Daily Mail has a write-up about this today. 

Angst

Regular readers of this blog might recall that I'm a fan of comedian Jake Yapp, defending him against all comers.

If you don't remember Jake, he's the guy behind this very funny take on Radio 4:

Well, Radio 4 has now given him his own series and he started his pilot show by gave the BBC studio audience an abbreviated version of that very routine. 

Interestingly, he dropped his open mockery of Jane Garvey, a gay-themed Woman's Hour drama and Radio 4 comedy, especially The Now Show - the latter perhaps wisely as he started (very occasionally) appearing on The Now Show soon after his original skit!!

Still funny though. 

And straight after came his declaration to "make a difference" through his new show, because:

Two million people are going to hear this. Two million really important people. Radio 4 listeners. People who cut things out of The Guardian and give them to relatives. World changers!

That made me laugh.

And he duly raged about the evils of TV advertising, which turned out to be non-political observational comedy....

....perfect!....

....except that I never laughed once thereafter, other than at this antique Will Rogers quote: 

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

I so wanted to like this.

(Question to self: Why did I post this? I like Jake. I want him to succeed. But I didn't find his show funny. Should I have kept this to myself? Yes.)

Why don't you switch off the TV ?

A couple of days ago Craig included the following observation in his smorgasbord post: 

 “In a questionable editorial decision, this morning's Today chose to invite in comedian Jake Yapp to mock ITV for switching off all their channels this morning in a Team GB-related stunt to encourage children to go out and do some exercise... The BBC mocking ITV for doing something noble doesn't strike me as being very...er...noble on the part of the BBC. The one upside is that Jake, as ever, was funny. I like Jake. He does all the voices:”  

Over on the Spectator, ‘Steerpike’ has posted something about Mr. Yapp too, but rather than picking up on the ‘questionable editorial decision’ made by the BBC to mock ITV for switching itself off to encourage couch potatoes to “do something less boring instead” (like sport) -  Steerpike has chosen instead to criticise Jake Yapp for sneering at the working class. 

 I’m with Craig on this one. I thought Yapp’s little sketch was okay. Not hilarious, but …okay. It would be nice if Mr. Yapp did one about the BBC one day (for balance) - but we’ve had “Harry and Paul’s Story of the Twos’ so we should be happy with that.

 

Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos [couchtripper] by couchtripper

All comedians seem to range from left-leaning to hard-line leftie. The more lefty the jokes, the harder it is for non-believers to see the funny side. When a leftie comedian does their thing, even if it’s funny, non-lefties won’t crack. “Not funny” they insist, sucking a lemon.

Much as I loathe Jeremy Hardy’s bizarre anti-Israel / antisemitic politics, I have to admit that when he steers clear of that topic he can be funny. Actually, on second thoughts, that’s pushing it a bit. I used that extreme example to illustrate my point, because his slap-you-in-the-face anti-Israel ‘jokes’ are a real antidote to laughter. 

Another example of the above is Frankie Boyle. I think if he was on my side, I probably would laugh, but as it is, no. His rapier-like wit is more rapier than wit. Well, there is wit, but when the ‘joke’ hinges on a falsehood it ceases to be amusing.

Here’s another example. Many ‘critics of the left’ detest Jo Brand. She used to make one feel uncomfortable rather than amused by shocking the audience with her self-deprecating, rude, too-much-information patter. But Jo Brand’s material has matured; it’s still self-deprecating but no longer obsessively gynaecological. 

Her co-authored sitcom with Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine “Getting On” was a mini masterpiece. (though I didn’t think her solo spin-off was up to scratch) 

Now when I see her chairing HIGNFY, I give her the benefit of the doubt. If she amuses me, despite golliwog-gate, I don’t try not to laugh.

Anyway before I go off on a lengthy list of drearily unfunny leftie comedians, which would probably contradict the point I set out to make, let me return to the reason I started to write this. What was it again? Oh yes.

Look at the comments below Steerpike’s article. They’ve veered away from the topic, as usual, and settled upon a generalised outpouring of criticism of the BBC.

It seems that the BBC’s bias is recognised by huge numbers of people. You see it everywhere. On both right and left-wing media. From the OMG Daily Mail to… even the Guardian.

BBC staff will soon be the only ones who are unaware of their elephantine bias. That’s the employed ones. They do have a habit of ‘discovering’ it when they leave.  


Gatecrash (from Craig): I agree with Sue (to paraphrase a famous pair of unfunny comedians). 

Those comments at the Spectator ought to give the BBC pause (but won't). 

More and more people are angry at the BBC - from the Corbynistas and the SNP on one side to all the many-and-various 'people like us' on the other.

The old 'complaints from both sides' no longer washes either. Both sides are firing from different sides at the same place (loathe as they might be to admit it): the place where the BBC sits.

And the BBC doesn't sit where many of us/they sit. It (generally-speaking) sits with people other than us/them, somewhere on the socially-liberal, strongly pro-EU, economically-centrist, politically left-leaning, pro-modern-Establishment spectrum between Ken Clarke and Owen Smith.

Still, here's more Jake Yapp (another one for Mr. Steerpike?)...