Little Britain removed from streaming services

[Egyptian Feast]

Urgh I was working in ladbrokes when they got a new game, an Egyptian themed one that played walk like an Egyptian on a loop. 4 of those bastards thumping away out of sync like someone failing to learn to beatmach was a fucker when I was hungover. Which was most of the time if I'm honest.

That would've been one of theirs as well. I had a load of different tasks I had to do for Ladbrokes and they were always a pain in the arse (as they were when they took over the independent bookies I worked at in the early 00s). I'd bet their shop managers didn't have the option to just cut the fucking sound on the machines as well.

Great to see the FOBT business dying on it's arse now, with COVID dealing the fatal blow.

[Urinal Cake]

I always hated Little Britain, even when I was 13 or so, but surely there's got to be some level of BS here in their reasoning. I can think of countless other sitcoms, movies, TV shows with bits that have aged equally poorly that are still up on streaming services. For instance, The Germans episode of Fawlty Towers is considered one of the most iconic sitcom episodes ever made, but it features a long exchange where The Major casually discusses the difference between "n**gers" and "wogs" when referring to Indians, followed closely by them both talking about how women have brains like Swiss cheese. We're not meant to be "laughing with them", but it's still there and it's not as if it's outright condemned.

Then again, I don't quite buy into the semantic arguments about whether we're "laughing at or with" characters, because it more often comes down to "we like this one and not this one". It strikes me as being a bit intellectually "superior"; South Park, Always Sunny and many other popular contemporary shows have far more deliberately offensive content than Little Britain did, and something like Wonder Showzen would be seen as completely unjustifiable now, but smart and cool city people like them whereas something like Little Britain is lame and broad - for commoners. As I said, I never liked Little Britain and love some of those other shows, but I think it's unfair to single one out as being objectively worse or less acceptable than the other when it seems to be based more on what we think is "good" rather than any other standard. I see the same kind of rationalizations coming from people defending Jerry Sadowitz or Cum Town; basically "I find it funny, so therefore it must be okay somehow". No one seems able to admit that they like something that's perhaps a bit "problematic", especially when that's been their go-to for tearing down something they don't enjoy.

Obviously it's up to each streaming service what they want to have on there at the end of the day, but I always bristle at this kind of (let's face it) virtue signaling. Little Britain, for better or worse, was a ubiquitously popular cultural phenomenon in the UK only 15 years ago, and there's now an official declaration from our entertainment providers that it's "unacceptable".

I agree with this. It's a bit like when the racist character says something funny racist thing but it's okay since the other characters admonish him. That being said I think racism and in particular 'black/brown/yellow' face etc as a critique has a place such as in Tropic Thunder and Peep Show showing the absurdity of method acting and black fetishism respectively.

[checkoutgirl]

Rock Profile was infinitely superior anyway.

As was Dennis Pennis Too Rude to Live. I was never a huge fan of Little Britain but there's millions of things I don't like that are politically correct but still shite. Anna Gadsby is complete and total dogshit but fine for some reason. I'm wondering where the cull will end.

Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of history but I can't shake the feeling that I should be defending the rights of comedy I don't even care for in the name of free speech.

Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of history but I can't shake the feeling that I should be defending the rights of comedy I don't even care for in the name of free speech.

Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of history but I can't shake the feeling that I should be defending the rights of comedy I don't even care for in the name of free speech.

Sorry to repeat myself but it felt right.

On another note maybe Lucas and Walliams thought they could push the envelope regarding inter generational sex, blackface, morbid obesity, vomit, transvestite, etc because both of them were gay themselves. I know for sure I've listened to Matt Lucas in multiple interviews and the issue of political correctness or lack thereof has never entered the discussion.

I'm quite fond of Lucas as a person so would be interested in his view. Walliams I would happily lob into a vat of dogshit. Funny how personal preferences regarding personality can colour a person's desires regarding such matters.

Regardless, I'll always love Lucas for George Dawes, The Quill and assorted Vic and Bob based gubbins and would be happy to fight anyone who contradicts me.

[checkoutgirl]

that some people thought all the battles were won (racism, sexism, etc), and so therefore a bit of ironic racism was absolutely fine

Maybe the zeitgeist is like an elastic band that keeps twanging between politically incorrent and politically correct until it finally rests in a middle space where nobody laughs or is happy or sad or even fancies or has sex with either gender.

[idunnosomename]

I am also of the Lucas = Good egg / Walliams = vat of dogshit school

I explain it to myself via that Lucas is so amicable he puts his all into any old hateful script a peer presents to him. but stuff like the Ting Tong sketches were fucking horrible at the time. they havent aged at all. they are as bad now as they were then

[checkoutgirl]

Blackface came up a few times in Shooting Stars, Bob Mortimer did it a few times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X1y84IZ6zo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oizYpTckDZ8

Nobody having a go at Vic and Bob but at this rate it's only a matter of time until Twitter or Netflix kicks off.

[checkoutgirl]

Yeah it was questionable enough at the time. By "times have changed" they mean people can now call them out on Twitter.

Yep.

[bgmnts]

I thought David Walliams was camp, not gay.

Anyway, Rock Profiles is amazing as is George Dawes. Lucas is alright.

[Twonty Gostelow]

either gender.

You make me sick.

[checkoutgirl]

The black face stuff on IASIP is usually about the black face and the attitudes of the people doing it. It isn't just for larks or to play a black character

Still, ban this sick filth. Let's just have the Smurphs and Cliff as the only acceptable entertainment.

[checkoutgirl]

I thought David Walliams was camp, not gay.

20% gay apparentley (not a joke).

[checkoutgirl]

You make me sick.

Throwing up in my own mouth presently.

[Ray Travez]

Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of history

I'm quite fond of Lucas as a person so would be interested in his view. Walliams I would happily lob into a vat of dogshit.

I think I can safely say you're on the right side of history.

[checkoutgirl]

bitty

That's just piss poor comedy. Let's not conflate that with whatever the fuck Twitter/Netflix is doing regarding damage limitation mode. There is no adult male sucking milk out of mother's tits lobby.

[checkoutgirl]

Yes but it is problematic within the show that Mac wants to black up.

Hopefully they ban/cancel all of Always Sunny immediately. I gave Danny DeVito some cornbread to paint my chicken coop in 1979 and the greasy bastard never did the job. He said the cornbread was poor quality but a deal is a deal.

[pigamus]

"Ting Tong Macadangdang", Jesus Christ - couldn't believe that then or now. Had management just stopped paying attention or something?

[checkoutgirl]

The whole point of IASIP, for me, is that the Gang are all awful, awful people, and we are always laughing at them for this.

Still unacceptable. Cancelled.

[checkoutgirl]

"Ting Tong Macadangdang", Jesus Christ - couldn't believe that then or now. Had management just stopped paying attention or something?

Agree about Ting Tong. Unironically. How did that fly over the radar for any length of time?

[Noodle Lizard]

With the IASIP episode (the first one anyway), I thought part of the joke was that the blackface, once revealed after so much debate, was more just weird and uneasy rather than lazily offensive like we were expecting - as in it's a pretty professional job (a la Tropic Thunder) rather than an outright offensive caricature, which tells you that Mac's conviction about it being fair to do was actually sincere. This is quickly undermined by the gag of the Juggalo kid trying to copy it. I guarantee you everyone on set was pissing themselves the whole way through, for multiple reasons.

[phatfill]

"Ting Tong Macadangdang", Jesus Christ - couldn't believe that then or now. Had management just stopped paying attention or something?

From series 3 which i believe was script edited by Richard Herring.

[Joe Oakes]

Still, ban this sick filth. Let's just have the Smurphs and Cliff as the only acceptable entertainment.

Dunno, blueface can be problematic. Plus I always felt sorry for Smurfette, being the only female in the village. Until I noticed that the cocktease always wore stilettos.

Cliff, on the other hand, is as pure as the driven snow, next to the wood chipper in Fargo.

[pigamus]

Imagine saying "times have changed" about 200 and fucking 5, the brass neck of it

[Uncle TechTip]

Will Cex do anything about the average of one shelf of Little Britain DVDs you'll find in each store?

It's ironic that the DVDs became as unwanted as the 'Paul Merton in Galton & Simpson's...' videos in that first series sketch with the hypnotist. For all its faults there were these occasional moments that i always remember people loved for going to such detail. Only the first series though.

[j_u_d_a_s]

I keep seeing the same old slippery slope arguments about erasing the past etc. By that token why isn't all of Love Thy Neighbour on netflix? Whither Curry and Chips on itunes?

I suspect a large part of the reason why some folks are against Little Britain being taken down from iPlayer and Netflix, even if they're not fans of it, is that it's forced them to re-examine their own unconscious biases a little. And that it's relatively recent, with the last proper special only going out last year, a couple of sketches just the other month and both performers still prominent in the mainstream.

I'm reminded of that It Was Alright in the 70s series that cast an eye over dodgy TV, as if everything was better now when On the Pull with Dapperlaughs was being broadcast. (the show itself was really tame stuff but hosted by a guy who joked about threatening women with a knife so he can see their breasts). We think of the Bad Racism as some distant bygone era. Little Britain started on telly 17 years ago, well within living memory. Wasn't much of a fan then meself but it not only passed by without too much of a murmur but it was absolutely huge for a while. It penetrated the national psyche where catchphrases where shared at work, Vicky Pollard become accepted shorthand for single mothers. It helped lead to that fucking Harry Hill baby song!

And so many of the same people who call for nuance, debate etc act like it's being erased from history rather than removed from a streaming platform. You can still buy all of it on itunes for £17, that's less than 2 months of Netflix. Let's keep some perspective here.

Anyway can we see Chris Lilley show some contrition for everything he's done? Yes, even Summer Heights High. Because that deserves to be wiped from the face of the earth!

[j_u_d_a_s]

and this

Just to take issue with posts like these. Throwing all nuance and context out of the window to make a point isn't the strong argument you think it is. Who is this actually helping? How is this moving the conversation along? It's also a 3 minute sketch out of 2 and a half hours, I like the sketch but can appreciate that the blackface is problematic. IT'S REALLY NOT THAT HARD TO HOLD BOTH POSITIONS!

[Chriddof]

I like Matt Lucas. He's clearly someone who has realised that he's fucked up in the past, and wants to make amends; the same thing seems to have happened with Leigh Francis. I don't view Little Britain getting yanked as some troubling development - rather, we're going through another version of what occurred in the early 1980s; a younger generation is unhappy and disgusted with the attitudes of the time, and wants to move on. And some members of an older generation are baffled and angered by all of this.

Of course, back in 1984 or whenever, we didn't have the spectre of social media fucking everything up every single day. If we had, you can bet that a pre-national-treasure status French & Saunders would have been attacked over the nation's ZX Spectrums for daring to make Girls On Top or something. "There aren't any jokes about black people! WAKE UP ITV!" [nb]Autopsy Turvey, The Sun On Prestel, 24th October 1985[/nb] I mean, back in the 90s, you didn't have people complaining about Curry & Chips not being available on video - or rather, you did, but they were the wrong kind of people. And at least Lucas and Leigh have figured this out, which you didn't get from the cast of The Comedians.

I agree wholeheartedly with j_u_d_a_s. If anything, reading the salvo of posts before theirs got quite unnerving. If you don't catch yourself, that's genuinely how you get softened up to the kinds of dangerous ideas that end up literally killing people. I'm not accusing anyone here of anything - just pointing out that this is the kind of thinking that gets exploited and twisted by actual fascists. In real life people aren't going round kneeling on old comedy DVDs before chucking them into a river, they're protesting for the right to be allowed to exist. And that's more important than making it a bit more difficult to watch Little Britain, or Spike Milligan's Q series - the latter of which I have on officially released DVD. (Has its moments, away from the racism.)

Imagine saying "times have changed" about 200 and fucking 5, the brass neck of it

Well, that's about 15 years - the same amount of time between 1975 and 1990.

[Old Nehamkin]

Imagine saying "times have changed" about 200 and fucking 5, the brass neck of it

I mean quite a lot has happened between then and now to be fair.

Would it seem particularly weird to talk about "times changing" between, say, 1945 and 1960?

[confettiinmyhair]

Societal change accelerates, think of all the cultural change that's occurred from 2015-2020.

Reality TV seems to be an area of entertainment where social issues are more apparent and arguably more reflective of the conflicts within society - the classism of Benefits Street, everything that's wrong with Love Island, and American imports, such as the show when men are picked to  Father a child, are just three examples. There's a line between subjects and contestants being either celebrated or exploited. Note the move for comedians to appear on spin-off shows to The Apprentice or Bake-off, narrate dating shows etc. Career comedy is moving away from the sitcom. It's also a safe place to reinvent yourself as the wholesome family entertainer, Walliams on BGT, Leigh Francis on the new craft show.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Just to take issue with posts like these. Throwing all nuance and context out of the window to make a point isn't the strong argument you think it is. Who is this actually helping? How is this moving the conversation along? It's also a 3 minute sketch out of 2 and a half hours, I like the sketch but can appreciate that the blackface is problematic. IT'S REALLY NOT THAT HARD TO HOLD BOTH POSITIONS!

you think the mob care about context??

League of Gentlemen next to get cancelled hopefully

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

League of Gentlemen next to get cancelled hopefully

You've already done that one.