Topic: Morris' targets in Brass Eye

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/mar/05/channel4.broadcasting

I've just been reading into Nicholas Owen's duping, as he was one of the characters I felt Morris rightly targeted in the Brass Eye Special. As a news anchor he is one of the people primarily responsible for blurting out whatever the autocue feeds him in the most authoritative manner possible, and therefore it was quite right to expose him as the Brockman-esque cretin many of us already suspected. I always thought Ted Maul was disturbingly like Nick Owen in the way he targets the most sensational words in a sentence and bludgeons you with them.

This is a lovely extra detail I was either unaware of or had forgotten about.

This particular case probably became overshadowed by more high profile wranglings like Follett's and Phil Collins buChannel 4 claimed that the deliberately bizarre acronyms used by the programme-makers, including "Promoting Computer Progress and Curbing Professional Cyber Portal Crime, POFTS, Clerk Pornography, COTs, Phnephnetic Coercion and Pseudoveillance Co-operates" should have alerted Owen to the fact that he was being set up.

Owen still tried to spare himself the embarrassment and failed, which to me counts as a compounded humiliation for him. Even after he was caught out he tried to become even more morally indignant. This shows what a hugely egotistical and arrogant man he is and makes his humiliation richly deserved.

It's funny though, this is a prime example of Morris' satire having a material effect. Not simply having someone say something silly but exposing someone with a claim to the moral highground to be a clueless reactionary imbecile, and even soaking up their inevitable trumped-up anger after being caught.

However his targets were scattergun and confusing. Some of his choices in Brass Eye make you wonder what point he was actually trying to make. Watching Jimmy Greaves grinning as he reads a script being held to the side of him, all the while holding a massive flourescent pill, not knowing what the fuck is going on is funny in its own way, but was that really Morris' whole point, or was he just going for whoever would fall for it? I suspect the latter. However having Bernard Manning instructing kids to 'throw it back in their face and tell them to fuck off' is clearly just 'comedy'. So there are stylistic inconsistencies that arguably make it some way short of a masterpiece, even though it's likely to be one of the closest things to a satirical masterpiece in our entire lives.

Developing that point, it's sad to see people like Lineker and Briers duped who seem basically nice people, but the effect of that makes Morris' point almost more impressive in that he's willing to be so brutal to prove it. But again, does he deserve that credit or was it just 'whoever would fall for it?'

Sorry if the thread is a bit ramshackle in terms of my thoughts. I don't think I've really considered the targets in Brass Eye beyond 'did they deserve it or not' before.

[Jackson K Pollock]

...journalist Kate Thornton...

Do they know something we don't?

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Did anyone ever suss Morris out?

[Spiteface]

I think John McCrirrick later claimed to be on to him at some point during the filming of his bit (about a crab pregnant with a human foetus, and the "Sutcliffe" stuff).  But he's a twat anyway.

I think after the special, one or two stepped forward claiming to have been approached by one of the bogus charities Morris hooked the likes of Linker with.  I seem to recall Carol Vorderman claiming this, and that she turned it down purely because she knew nothing about the "Charity".

[Harry Badger]

I'm pretty sure Eamonn Holmes was approached and sussed it out just before going to do the interview.

[Melth]

Watching Jimmy Greaves grinning as he reads a script being held to the side of him, all the while holding a massive flourescent pill, not knowing what the fuck is going on is funny in its own way, but was that really Morris' whole point, or was he just going for whoever would fall for it?

I always thought that part of the joke was that this was the most youth-oriented of the Brass Eye campaign, and yet the talking heads were all elderly or middle-aged men, and who were all surely aware that their moment of fame had gone. Bruno Brookes, for instance, had been sacked from Radio One the previous year.

[PaulTMA]

I always thought that part of the joke was that this was the most youth-oriented of the Brass Eye campaign, and yet the talking heads were all elderly or middle-aged men, and who were all surely aware that their moment of fame had gone. Bruno Brookes, for instance, had been sacked from Radio One the previous year.

To be honest, I was always mostly amused by the fact that Greaves is clearly a slow reader.

[12 Storey Crisis]

He was having a pop at rent-a-quotes who will happily pop up anywhere in the media lecturing people on subjects about which they know little.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

He was having a pop at rent-a-quotes who will happily pop up anywhere in the media lecturing people on subjects about which they know little.

Yeah, that's the starting point of it all, but there's more to it the more closely you look.

I always thought that part of the joke was that this was the most youth-oriented of the Brass Eye campaign, and yet the talking heads were all elderly or middle-aged men, and who were all surely aware that their moment of fame had gone. Bruno Brookes, for instance, had been sacked from Radio One the previous year.

This is again a very good point that I'd hardly picked up on!

[edenpop]

I always thought Bruno Brookes was in on the joke, his lines and delivery are so insincere, also had the same idea about Richard Briers.
Anyway about the idea that Brass Eye was "satire"... yes and no... mainly it was just funny. Picking on soft targets and getting them to spout some BS is just as funny as going for the heavyweights, sorry....

[Paaaaul]

I always thought Bruno Brookes was in on the joke, his lines and delivery are so insincere...

That smug insincerity was his trademark along with most of the Radio 1 DJs of that generation. He couldn't have delivered it any other way.

[Harry Badger]

I got the impression that quite a few of them were just reading the lines as a rehearsal or 'for sound levels'. Certainly some quite openly read off the script. Even allowing for that, it still beggars belief, fourteen years on, that they didn't realise it was a pisstake.