"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.

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.