For Mash gets smash

So Susan Calman made a political remark on The News Quiz back in June accusing Mrs May of being "a coward" over abortion rights in Northern Ireland. Comedians are, of course, always making political remarks (or ranting) on The News Quiz, usually just as one-sidedly as Susan, but this one - to some surprise - actually earned the programme a rap on the knuckles from the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit. 

The ECU found against the programme on the grounds of bias against the Conservatives.

Wonder if Susan Calman's wife was puzzled about that? After all, most BBC comedy shows with a political slant must surely be flouting the 'due impartiality' rules on a very regular basis, and yet they don't get into trouble, do they? 

Take The Mash Report on BBC Two, for example, where presenter Nish Kumar delivers a Guardian editorial each week. How's that allowed? 

Incidentally, I thought this summed that programme up pretty well: "The Mash Report - a show so bad that even the canned laughter sounds halfhearted".

Brexit, Trump, Brexit, Trump...

One of Scotland's funniest performers, alongside Susan Calman 

The Times (h/t Sue) published a piece today called Who are you laughing at? The funniest faces of 2017, featuring a selection of comedians telling us what they are going to be joking about this year. 

Nearly all of the featured comedians are BBC regulars and they intend to joke about Trump and Brexit. 

Susan Calman sums the comedic consensus up: 

I have approached 2017 with some alacrity, as it’s doubtful that the new year could suck the hope from my soul in the way that 2016 did. In saying that, it’s entirely plausible that, like a river of diarrhoea, the detritus of global politics will continue to flow downwards, polluting the joy I find in simple things such as Antiques Roadshow or biscuits. 

The hot topics will be Brexit, Trump, Brexit, Trump, the weather, Trump, Corbyn, Brexit, Sturgeon, the rise of right-wing politics, Trump, impending Third World War, Putin and Trump and Brexit, lady politicians’ shoes/trousers and Kanye West. Can’t wait.

Expect her - and all the others in this dismal article - to appear all over the BBC in 2017, telling the same jokes they told in 2016, at the licence fee payer's expense.

Of course, that last paragraph - to be true to Susan C's own act - should have read: 

The hot topics will be my wife, Brexit, Trump, Brexit, Trump, my wife, the weather, my wife, Trump, Corbyn, Brexit, Sturgeon, my wife (no, not Sturgeon. She's not my wife), the rise of right-wing politics, the rise of my wife,  Trump, impending Third World War, my impending wife, Putin and Trump and Brexit and my wife, lady politicians' shoes/trousers, my wife's shoes/trousers, and Kanye West. Can’t wait.

****** 

This morning's The Week in Westminster addressed similar themes.

The programme had a centre-left presenter (Steve Richards) and three left-of-centre comedians as guests (Rory Bremner, Jan Ravens and Matt Forde), discussing satire and politics and 2017. (Very BBC Radio 4!)

It's well worth a listen though, both in its own right (as it was entertaining) and because Matt Forde - a self-declared Blairite - showed that he ought to be on the BBC more.

Why?

Because he seems to understand better than most Radio 4 comedians and BBC commissioners that, despite his own centre-left views, comedians (especially ones on the licence-fee-funded BBC) should satirise politicians of all shades, not just UKIP and Conservative ones - and ('for balance') far-left politicians like Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn. They should mock Greens, Lib Dems, Blairites, Brownites, pro-EU Tories, etc, as well.