Have They Got Bias For Us

In what must surely be the least surprising report into BBC bias ever produced, the Campaign for Common Sense analysed comedy programmes on BBC One, BBC Two and Radio 4 throughout November and found - across 364 slots - and found that 74% of the slots were occupied by comedians “with publicly pronounced Left-leaning, anti-Brexit or ‘woke’ views.”

So that's 74% of 141 comedians, with only two comedians - Geoff Norcott (of course) and Gyles Brandreth - holding openly expressed pro-Brexit or Conservative sympathies. 

Even DG Tim Davie has acknowledged that BBC comedy has a problem in this respect, so a letter outlining the findings from the CCS's director Mark Lehain won't be News For Him.. 

The Telegraph quotes Sir Robbie Gibb responding to the study:

This report starkly reveals just how much the BBC has to change to be truly in touch with the people who pay its licence fee. 

Comedy is not the exclusive preserve of the left and the BBC has a duty to reflect in its programmes the wide diversity of opinions held in this country, not just those with anti-Brexit or woke views.

But the real punchline here is the statement from "a BBC spokesperson". Its glib, dismissive tone couldn't be more BBC:

We don’t analyse our comedy by comparing numbers. We judge it on it being funny, how popular it is and whether it reflects a range of different voices and views.

The BBC always says "We don’t analyse our comedy by comparing numbers" to any quantitative study that comes their way - unless it's research that comes from, say, Cardiff University and tells the BBC what they want to hear! 

And "We judge it on it being funny, how popular it is and whether it reflects a range of different voices and views" is particularly galling as the study proves that the BBC's judgement is faulty and that BBC comedy barely even begins to reflect a range of different voices and views.

Well done to the Campaign for Common Sense for trying to prove the obvious, but the BBC have had a couple of decades of honing their responses to the kind of two-sentence brush-off quoted above and they were never going to get a respectful hearing from the BBC. 

***********

And then there's Nish Kumar....

As Charlie notes on the open thread, the Telegraph article recalls the following:

On a past episode of BBC Two’s The Mash Report, Nish Kumar referred to the BBC’s impartiality guidelines as a requirement to provide “a platform for widely-discredited views because the licence fee dictates we should pander to weirdos”.

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.

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!

Rod on Jo

Jo Brand, not being carted off to prison

Rod Liddle is, as so often, on form today in The Sunday Times. He takes the line that the BBC shouldn't have sacked Jo Brand, "the Clare Balding of comedy", because "we all knew Brand was making a joke" and because "the suggestion that people might douse Farage in battery acid is an absurdity". He believes that "viciousness is a crucial element of comedy" and that if you "start punishing comedians for viciousness...you’ll have much, much better comedians, such as Stewart Lee, in the dock."

We have to get ourselves away from this hyper-liberal sensitivity, this insistence that words by themselves should be samizdat. We have to value context and nuance. That the police are now involved [or were] is another absurdity. What Brand said was a joke, and intended as such, and she should not be sacked.

But...he also takes the line that the BBC should have sacked Jo Brand:

But still, the BBC should sack her. By its own lights. Because it does not agree with any of the stuff I’ve written above. It signs up to the whole panoply of liberal idiocy, the whole rank, totalitarian caboodle. Had Brand made that joke about Syrian refugees or Anna Soubry, she’d be gone by now.  

Yet because it was about Farage — who has suffered myriad violent assaults — BBC bosses take a more lenient view. Like Brand herself, and the odious Frankie Boyle, they are hypocrites. Sack Jeremy Clarkson, Danny Baker, Carol Thatcher — but not Brand. Liberal double standards — a joke funnier than anything she’s come up with in 30 years.

Have I Got Something For BBC Comedians To Joke About For You

Oh dear, the Labour Party sent this tweet our earlier today:

Unfortunately, today isn't St George's Day, so - after lots of people pointed that out to them - they deleted the tweet.

That's becoming something of a habit. The other day, the Labour Party sent out a tweet to mark Passover:

Unfortunately, loaves of bread (as shown on their tweet) are not eaten by Jews during Passover, as lots of people pointed out to them. Labour deleted that tweet too.

Oh the fun Ian Hislop and Paul Merton and Frankie Boyle and Miles Jupp and Mark Steel are going to have with this on the BBC this week!...

Or not.

And BBC Trending is surely going to make hay with this.

Or not.

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.

"You need to say Isis aren't *devout* Muslims"

Oh, this is priceless! 

One of the most BBCish of BBC comedians (while he was there), Russell Howard, wrote an achingly right-on joke for his BBC programme Good News about the IS-supporting fanatical Muslim terrorists who murderously attacked Paris in 2015 which made the very familiar BBC point that they weren't real Muslims. 

This highly dubious platitude apparently went down well with the BBC studio audience but, alas, the BBC objected and demanded the joke be re-recorded. 

Russell quotes the BBC as telling him, "You need to say Isis aren't *devout* Muslims". (An equally dubious platitude).

And he obliged - though he's still evidently sore about it.

I think we're well beyond merely being In Wonderland or even Through the Looking Glass here.

And who's Tweedledum and who's Tweedledee in this strange BBC tale?

Another post featuring Andrew Neil

Hope he's not going to get told off by the BBC for this one as well, as he's only telling it like it is:

He also calls The Mash Report "thirty minutes of self satisfied, self adulatory, unchallenged left wing propaganda" and says The Now Show is "contrived ideological commentary" - and he's not wrong there either. 

Here's the whole exchange:

Simon Pinsa: I would be happy if the BBC were just impartial. When was the last time they had a right wing comedian on the BBC?

legalclaret: Geoff Norcott on the Mash Report last Friday.

Andrew Neil: For three minutes out of thirty minutes of self satisfied, self adulatory, unchallenged left wing propaganda. It’s hardly balance. Could never happen on a politics show. Except this has become a politics show.

Marchal: Like HIGNFY and The Last Leg the show exists so that audiences can applaud themselves at how clever and progressive they are.

Dave P: HIGNFY is on its last legs. Never heard of The Last Leg.

jeff: I've only managed to watch some moments of each but, incredibly, I'd say it was more left wing. It's hard to imagine how broadcasters get away with the continuous overt propaganda.

Andrew Neil: When it comes to so called comedy the BBC has long given up on balance, on radio and tv. Nobody seems to care. And I don’t want right wing comedy, whatever that is. I’d just like comedy. Which is in really short supply. On tv and radio.

Louise Rowntree: Or is it just that liberals are wittier than... illiberals?

Andrew Neil: If you think Mash or The Now Show is funny as opposed to contrived ideological commentary then we have a different sense of humour. Jon Stewart in US was left wing but also intelligent and so funny. Loved it. Mash a pathetic imitation.

Stuart Baggs: You simply do not look hard enough for comedy. In fact it’s clear you don’t look at all. You should look at BBC Sounds. There are absolute amazing non political comedies on there. It’s a shame you make such ignorant comments from within the BBC to be honest. Shocking in fact.

Andrew Neil: I have BBC Sounds. Interesting you don’t name a single show. Give me one. That will make me laugh out loud. I use BBC Sounds to listen to the Goon show and Round the Horne. Brilliant. Anything more a la mode.

Light entertainment

Me

Nothing to do with BBC bias really (well not much), but I read a couple of comments at Biased BBC this afternoon concerning the dastardly anti-Brexit activities of "My Lord Matlock Brown". 

I scratched my brains for a while, having never heard of him, and then Googled around and found it was actually the infamous Lord Malloch Brown, of Gordon Brown Era 'fame'. (Oh, I remember that bounder all too well!). 

My well-scratched brain then set about thinking how that particular Freudian slip on the B-BBC commenter's part might have come about.

So, Kelly Holmes-like, I donned my deerstalker, reached for my magnifying glass, called Nigel Bruce (rather than Martin Freeman any day), and set out (over 1500 m) in hot pursuit of the answer. 

I recalled that Mark Steel's latest (very funny) episode of Mark Steel's in Town came from Matlock/Matlock Spa, and it all then became elementary. 

Yes, that B-BBCer must have heard that very edition of Mark Steel's in Town, and it must still be fresh in his mind. 

I further deduced that that B-BBC commenter must be a closet Mark Steel fan - though I bet he'd never dare admit that at Biased BBC!

I myself have been open about my Mark Steel enthusiasm here before (despite deep differences with the old commie politically), so I'm not afraid (he says with an over-cocky flourish of his violin bow) to confess that my deduction as to the B-BBCer's likely thought processes were based on having listened to that very episode myself. 

(I recommend it, if you've not heard it. Yes, Mark labours the main joke a bit, but it's worth labouring). 

My ulterior motive for mentioning all of this was merely to add to the festive jollity of this pre-Christmas/mid-Hanukkak weekend, by posting (purely in the interest of disinterested blogging, and because it made me laugh a lot) a classic ITBB distillation of a Twitter thread which Mark Steel himself described as "so funny" today. 

It's a list of 'curses' on someone (a politician) who the Tweeter really doesn't like. 

Given that the BBC Radio 4 comedian who is recommending it is a Radio 4 comedian, I bet you can (if you think about it for while) quickly guess just who the particular politician in question is likely to be. 

Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, see if you can guess it right!

(The answer is here: Answer!)

Mark, Man of Steel (Stalin?)

Ignore that if (like me) you rather like that particular politician and just enjoy the 'curses':

• I hope his boiler breaks down.
• I hope he loses his car key, and getting it replaced is a costly bureaucratic nightmare.
• I hope the delivery he was waiting for arrives when he's at the sorting office picking up the delivery he missed two days ago.
• I hope his favourite pub gets turned into a Zizzi.
• I hope his bank makes him change his online banking password to something he'll never remember, and he has to go through a needlessly complicated reset password procedure every time he tries to log on.
• I hope he goes to a toilet in a shopping centre, has a shit, then realises there's no toilet paper.
• I hope he puts a washload on, forgets about it for two days, and when he finally opens the machine all his clothes have attained a permanently damp smell.
• I hope he has to spend a day repeatedly going back to B&Q.
• I hope he gets home hungry, puts a ready meal in the oven while he has a shower, then comes back downstairs 25 minutes later to find he didn't turn the oven on.
• I hope the chip in his passport breaks, so he has to stand in a queue every time rather than going through the e-gates.
• I hope he drops his phone in the urinal, leading to it only working intermittently, but being fine when he takes it into the phone shop to see if he can replace it for free under contract.
• I hope he gets a cotton bud stuck in his ear while trying to dewax it, then has to explain it to a nurse who keeps saying: "You do know it specifically says not to do that on the box, don't you?"
• I hope he spills a glass of red wine on his carpet, then when frantically trying to clean it, knocks the table, sending the rest of the bottle onto another bit of the carpet.
• I hope, while wrapping presents, he slightly misjudges the amount of wrapping paper needed, and has to start over again. Then, when there's one present left, to run out of wrapping paper.
• I hope he's horrifically hungover and gets stuck in traffic with a really chatty taxi driver who just won't take the hint.
• I hope Windows 10 does a massive update on his computer when he's trying to print out tickets at the last minute.
• I hope he's away for bin day after Christmas, and his neighbours don't put his bin out for him.
• I hope his favourite Quality Street is discontinued.
• I hope his hotel room has really inadequate curtains, and there's a streetlamp directly outside.
• I hope there's a little icon at the top of his phone, indicating that he has new messages, but he never has any new messages and doesn't know how to make the icon go away.
• I hope he has to wait in all day for an electrician, and when the electrician finally arrives, he doesn't have the part needed and it's too late to go and buy one.
• I hope he loses the pub quiz by one point, following an answer that is technically correct, but the quizmaster won't allow it because it's not what he's got written down.
• I hope he changes mobile phone service provider to save £5 a month, then realises the reception is really poor in all but the least used room in his house.
• I hope he orders a lot of furniture from John Lewis that he thinks will be delivered ready-assembled, but actually requires a whole weekend of flat pack self-assembly.
• I hope he cuts his lawnmower cable while mowing the lawn, spends £75 on getting an electrician to repair it, then immediately cuts it again in a different place within three minutes of restarting lawnmowing duties.
• I hope he gets a document that's slightly too big for the drawer in the filing cabinet it belongs in, meaning he has to change his entire filing system to accommodate it.
• I hope his credit card company blocks his card as a precautionary measure every time he tries to use it abroad, even though he repeatedly tells them he spends a lot of time abroad for work.
• I hope all the chargers for his electrical devices require slightly different connections.
• I hope the alarm on his phone has failed to go off on at least two occasions, so that he's now eternally paranoid about it not working, and can never get to sleep when he's got an early start the next day.
• I hope all supermarkets remove his favourite sandwich from their Meal Deal.
• I hope every time he fills in a passport application form, he absent-mindedly puts the current year instead of his year of birth, then has to go back to the Post Office the next day to get another form.
• I hope that when he's using the self-service checkouts at the supermarket, he always has just one item that requires age verification, and that it always takes him at least five minutes to catch the attention of a member of staff.
• I hope he orders pizza over the internet, then has to phone 45 minutes later when it hasn't arrived, and the local Domino's branch clearly missed the order coming through.
• I hope he goes to the zoo and all the good animals are asleep inside where he can't see them.
• I hope every hotel he stays in signs him up to their marketing email list, despite insisting they won't when he gives them his email address.

Twitter rant made flesh

People who are infuriated by the fact that the BBC bombards the airwaves with lefty comedians usually say they don’t find them at all funny either. 

I have to admit that although real wit has to be based on truth and reality, (otherwise it falls flat and is truly infuriating) some of the folk whose politics we love to hate can be funny with it. Well, I think so. 

One exception; skits and jokes predicated on the assumption that Israel is an evil, baby-killing rogue state.  Jeremy Hardy specialises in these. His natural ability for comedic wit and humour is tainted by his open and rabid pro-Palestine activism. Unfunny, racist and ignorant.

I do like people being silly. Alan Davies, for one, used to make me laugh.   Andy Parsons sometimes comes out with something enigmatic and funny. Bill Bailey raised a smile, once upon a time if I remember rightly. (Or was I thinking of someone else?)

I watch lefty comedians with an open mind, taking my approach from the BBC’s “political views left behind” Twitter policy. I hope to be entertained by the likes of, say, Robert Webb, although his political views are just about the opposite of mine. Which brings me to David Mitchell. 

Brendan O’Neil has written a cracking piece in the Telegraph about the ubiquitous Mr Victoria Coren, which I commend to this house. What also interested me was the below-the-line responses. Heated, they are. Lefties are infuriated by the article and non-lefties are infuriated by the lefties. 

Here’s a taste of Brendan's article:

“I’m more interested in what has happened to Mitchell himself during the Peep Show years.He’s metamorphosed from a side-eyeing, witty observer of the weirdness of 21st-century life into a faux-outraged railer against anyone who doesn’t share his outlook.”

“Whether it’s in his fittingly named Soapbox videos for the Guardian or in his hectoring monologues on the dire and mercifully short-lived 10 O’Clock Live, his delivery has lost its early warmth and sweet uncertainty and is now all shouty sermonising. It’s like being stuck in a lift with a drunk polytechnic lecturer. He’s a Twitter rant made flesh.”

Is Omid Djalili a Mountain-out-of-a-Molehill made flesh? Incidentally, you can understand why witty comedians are given a platform to opine on serious matters. Their wit implies intelligence. Weird, or what? 

Commenter Hugh_Oxford (who also said, earlier in the thread: “Ah, Marcus Brigstocke. The pied piper of the wilfully ignorant. Or is that Jeremy Hardy?”) had a good rant. I hope he won’t mind me reproducing it here in full. He got a right old hammering for it of course.

"There does seem to be this danger of confusing light entertainers, comic actors and comedians. David Mitchell is a great comic actor. He's a passable light entertainer. But he isn't much of a comedian.Comedians provide insight and tell deep truths. Chris Rock and Amy Schumer in the US, eviscerating and exposing liberal values and contradictions, are great comedians.But because (with a couple of exceptions) comedy is based on deep truths, it's become impossible in the UK. That's because the truth has become a crime. A real comedian would be confronting the absurdities of multiculturalism, Islamisation, our own demographic annihilation, Sweden's suicide, the madness of transgenderism and "same-sex marriage", the hypocrisy of pro-abortionists calling for the abolition of Trident, and so on, and so forth. But the culture of fear and censorship is now so high, these matters cannot be discussed.And it would be hard to make comedy out of these anyway, because living in a dying society isn't funny, and it's hard to create absurdity in a society that is beyond parody. We ARE living in a very dark Monty Python sketch.That's why we are stuck for "comedy" with inane cretins and vapid, tepid, trite leftwing parrots like "Jeremy Hardy", "Sue Perkins" and "Arfur Smith". People whose contribution to the world of actual comedy could be written on a pinhead in four foot letters, whose actual purpose is to provide a background noise and a mild distraction from the appalling reality of the world we now live in."