Where is UK satire?

[Quincey]

Have I Got News For You will always go for a joke about fluff instead of satirising the powerful. Rory Brenner and the one surviving John aren't on telly. Where is the satire about U-Turn May's government? We've just got Private Eye.

[chocky909]

The Last Fucking Leg?

[TheManOne]

On HBO.

[gatchamandave]

The NOW Show ?

[Black_Bart]

The VOTE NOW show!

[Glebe]

[tag]Up your arse.[/tag]

[NoSleep]

Why are you asking satire?

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Government funded satire?

[BeardFaceMan]

I got off the bus yesterday and I was furious because I noticed some chewing gum stuck to my arse. That's all the British sat-ire you're gonna get.

[thenoise]

You're looking at it.

[notjosh]

I was going to stop using these threads to relentlessly plug the show I work on (to generally lukewarm reception), but as this was only tweeted a couple of days ago it's too good an opportunity to pass up:




Not my words, folks. The words of Top Gear magazine.

[Steven]

Satire?

Shat-ire more like.

Satire.

[MattD]

If Jonathan Pie is the standard of satire in this country - merely shouting, effing and blinding and stating the bleeding obvious - then it really is in the gutter.

[mobias]

I read recently that The Daily Mash is getting its own TV series. Can't remember which channel its going to be on. It'll quite possibly be middle of the road shit. The Onion News Network was really good when it was at its height, before its budget was slashed.

[imitationleather]

I read recently that The Daily Mash is getting its own TV series. Can't remember which channel its going to be on. It'll quite possibly be middle of the road shit. The Onion News Network was really good when it was at its height, before its budget was slashed.

Just Googled and it's called The Mash Report and will be on BBC2. On the occasions I read The Daily Mash it seems to have got a lot better in the past couple of years and is far, far funnier than almost every other spoof news site, but I dunno how well it will translate to a TV show. It depends on how they pitch it I guess. Will it be about real stuff that's happened or all fake kerrazee stories?

[mobias]

I agree about it having an upturn in quality. I presume they hired more writers. Trouble is they don't develop their ideas the way the Onion did when it was at its best. I can find myself bursting out laughing at a Daily Mash headline only to find the accompanying story a bit shit and a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Really no idea what the TV show will be like. If they can play it utterly straight with high production values, like the Onion News Network did, then it could be really good. It'll inevitably be compared to the Day Today, which is obviously quite a high benchmark to hit. There is definitely room though for a new satirical news show but they have to get the tone right. I just hope they can be as daring as The Day Today was back in the mid nineties. Its on the BBC though....

[imitationleather]

I must admit that I very rarely read the actual articles because they more often than not are just padding for the headline. I expect pretty much everyone does that because after a few times you realise that the joke is all in the title. As you say it's not like The Onion (or Clickhole, which is what I prefer) where they actually explore their ideas and develop them beyond the initial laugh. That's why I imagine the TV show needs to be quite different, because it can't just be a load of one-liners. Well, it can. But it'd be a nightmare to write and probably watch.

[mobias]

Clickhole is way better than what the Onion is these days. Even though I think there's been a bit of a down turn of late in the quality of Clickhole. With all these satirical sites they do seem to be have very definite peaks and troughs. With the Onion its been quite well documented over the years as known writers have come and gone and in fact entire writing teams have walked out on them, but theres been various take overs of the website. I don't know who owns it and runs it now.

I presume the Daily Mash is still run by the two Scottish journalists that started it in Glasgow?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Just Googled and it's called The Mash Report and will be on BBC2. On the occasions I read The Daily Mash it seems to have got a lot better in the past couple of years and is far, far funnier than almost every other spoof news site, but I dunno how well it will translate to a TV show. It depends on how they pitch it I guess. Will it be about real stuff that's happened or all fake kerrazee stories?

What's selling it for me is it has Nish Kumar on it, he's been good on the things I've heard him on.

The good British satire is seemingly audio only News Quiz, The Bugle (although that's international now, I suppose), Breaking the News.

[Tony Yeboah]

Unspun with Matt Forde.

[asids]

If Jonathan Pie is the standard of satire in this country - merely shouting, effing and blinding and stating the bleeding obvious - then it really is in the gutter.

I was shocked when I saw people praising Jonathan Pie on here. I don't even think you can call it "satire", it's just a guy ranting his views to the camera. I mean, it's alright when you agree with him, but I remember he had a couple of videos where he talked rubbish and I realised this was just a guy "telling it like it is" like many others on YouTube. I don't know how that passes for satire.

[Bazooka]

Two words: Newzoids

[Autopsy Turvey]

Unspun with Matt Forde.

Ironic that he called it 'Unspun', then did a pathetic toadying soft-soap interview with Tony Blair while wedged up his lower colon.

[olliebean]

Matt Forde is too much of an insider (I believe he used to work for the Labour Party in Westminster) to give his guests a hard time. He's also "a committed Blairite," according to his Wikipedia page, so he was hardly going to lay into his icon.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Certainly, but 'Unspun' implies some sort of urge to move beyond trivialities and biases, to question the approved line and uncover hidden truths. So, calling it 'Unspun' is itself spin. I was going to ask, can a 'committed Blairite' be a satirist, then I thought, probably most of them are, they're just not as honest about it.

[Petey Pate]

UK satire has a gaping Vic Berger shaped hole.  Why isn't anyone doing what he does here?  I wish he would work his magic on footage of Theresa May, just imagine what he could do with this:

Theresa May mauled for 'dementia tax' U-turn

[TheManOne]

Matt Forde is too much of an insider (I believe he used to work for the Labour Party in Westminster) to give his guests a hard time. He's also "a committed Blairite," according to his Wikipedia page, so he was hardly going to lay into his icon.

Yeah. It's 100% establishment. Utterly pointless.

[MuteBanana]

Marks and Gran have said ITV are scared of showing a potential New Statesman spin off called Son of B'stard.

[pish]

What's that, Mr Jeremy Corbyn? You think a hard Brexit's inevitable if you're left in this position?
Mr Jeremy Corbyn! You are an inanimate irrelevance. But with a potential erection. Made of cloth.

What's that, Mr Jeremy Corbyn? You want to ban the "Happy Mondays" because of what happened last Monday?
From now on, you don't like Mondays?
Mr Jeremy Corbyn! You are an opportunist plush prat. From the past.

What's that, Mr Jeremy Corbyn? You're ready to whip Trump's orange ass?
Mr Jeremy Corbyn! You are an unelectable lump of linen. A linen loser.

What's that, Mr Jeremy Corbyn? When you re-nationalise BT you'll bring back Buzby?
One for the teenagers, there. What's that? You'll bring back Buzby because you like his yellow ass?
Mr Jeremy Corbyn! You are a knitted nomark. A nostalgic nobody, there. Again, from the past.

What's that, Mr Jeremy Corbyn? Diane Abbott could be the new Edwina Currie?
What's that? As long as she doesn't count her chickens?
Mr Jeremy Corbyn! You are an unfocused fur ball. Full of fluff.

[NoSleep]

Is the world ready for impressions of Eis Nein?