New director general threatens to axe 'Left-wing' BBC comedy

[idunnosomename]

Laurence Fox is gonna get his own show isn't he. I'm already seeing far too much of the cunt

i think he has no discernable talent beyond reading a script so with all the will in the world going to be difficult

[Puce Moment]

Stunned by this news.

"Davie won a scholarship to attend Whitgift School in Croydon, and studied English at Selwyn College, Cambridge, being the first in his family to attend University. He joined Procter & Gamble as a trainee in 1991.

Appointed UK Marketing Manager for PepsiCo in 1993, Davie was subsequently promoted to Vice-President, Marketing, Europe and Sub-Sahara Africa, holding several similar appointments, including in the United States, before taking up the Vice-President for Marketing and Franchise post.

Davie stood as a councillor for the Conservative Party in Hammersmith in 1993 and 1994 and was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative party in the 1990s."

[BlodwynPig]

It was well known, hence the distaste by ... ? ... when he was appointed

[idunnosomename]

The telegraph also had a nonsense article about the British Library having a woke clearout that obviously led to accusations of book-burning from readers.

It's barely a reputable source now

[Sebastian Cobb]

It'll be like the last Alan Partridge series where his "rants" are shown in the studio when news videos are being shown in the real world.

Are you sure his 'thing' will work if he's not stood alone in a park pretending to be a reporter?

[Puce Moment]

It was well known, hence the distaste by ... ? ... when he was appointed

Yes, distaste expressed by about everyone I know, especially those who still work for the BBC. And my Mum.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The only way you can mistake the bbc for being 'left-wing' is if you confuse diversity with actual left-wing thought. Though it would explain why right-wing racists complain about Nish Kumar far more than Mark Thomas or Mark Steel.

[Thursday]

Right-wing comedy? You're to the right OF comedy!!!

[SteveDave]

Are you sure his 'thing' will work if he's not stood alone in a park pretending to be a reporter?

He'll still be angry and ranting though. But this time he'll be directing his ire at those people in the "gallery" whilst off-air. It's a delicious spin on his tired as fuck thing.

[idunnosomename]

I love donald trump and brexit. Also i identify as a grape!!!!

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

That's a shame because right wingers have two jokes between them.

[dead-ced-dead]

That's a shame because right wingers have two jokes between them.

1. "There's so many genders"/"I identify as an attack helicopter."
2. "Woke kids are too sensitive."

Am I right or did you have something else in mind?

[JamesTC]

Why can't we have good old fashioned right-wing comedy on the BBC again like Alf Garnett and Tran & Helle.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Left wing vs right wing comedy essentially comes down to punching up vs punching down, doesn't it?

Bit more complicated of course, but it's a very condescending white middle class concept, 'we mustn't  laugh at these people because they are beneath us'. The left will of course pile on and punch out at thick inbred rural gammon scum, but the more careful dogmatists will try to pretend the target is actually crusty old retired colonels.

The only way you can mistake the bbc for being 'left-wing' is if you confuse diversity with actual left-wing thought. Though it would explain why right-wing racists complain about Nish Kumar far more than Mark Thomas or Mark Steel.

As would the fact that Nish Kumar makes even someone as unfunny as Mark Steel look like Eric bleeding Morecambe. Surely in a world of Priti Patel, Candace Owens, Zuby and Raheem Kassam, nobody is mistaking diversity for leftism. However, the concept of enforced diversity, ticking boxes every time a non white face appears on TV, is a left wing one, so maybe.

[pcsjwgm]

If true, I wonder if Will Franken will try to get a series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwmXeUpYCo&feature=youtu.be&t=3880

He says he wants to get on the BBC "again", so I checked his IMDB page and it appears he was in "Jonathan Pie's American Pie" (even though he doesn't think very highly of Tom Walker's act), an hour-long special on BBC3:
https://www.reddit.com/r/notapanelshow/comments/ai94ha/jonathan_pies_american_pie_2019/

Franken was involved in a shitty sketch where

Spoiler alert

the liberal reporter Pie throws a tantrum because he just can't believe that someone would sincerely want to vote for Trump

[close]

(from 15:33 in the video):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KNMYgcEg9YzT2W8JwnSxWeJf-65Wh1en/view

[dissolute ocelot]

Maybe they'll bring back Clarkson. I'd rather watch him than Hislop.

Does Radio 4 still do terrible unfunny satirical comedy on Friday at 6.30 pm? They could scrap that at the same time as HIGNFY and Russell Howard (the BBC's other most incisive topical comedian). Wins all round, and it would make the right-wing bias of BBC news and current affairs stand out all the more clearly.

[Ornlu]

Left wing vs right wing comedy essentially comes down to punching up vs punching down, doesn't it? The message here seems to be that punching up must be balanced by an equivalent amount of punching down.

Up, down, left, right - all directions, ideally.

[idunnosomename]

I identify as a right wing comedian

[Mr_Simnock]

Maybe they'll bring back Clarkson. I'd rather watch him than Hislop.

Does Radio 4 still do terrible unfunny satirical comedy on Friday at 6.30 pm? They could scrap that at the same time as HIGNFY and Russell Howard (the BBC's other most incisive topical comedian). Wins all round, and it would make the right-wing bias of BBC news and current affairs stand out all the more clearly.

Radio 4 has never done anything else and never will do and not just at 6:30 either, basically any time

[up_the_hampipe]

Just book funny people.

Easier said than done. Slim pickings out there.

[bgmnts]

Who cares if right wingers cant be funny?

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

1. "There's so many genders"/"I identify as an attack helicopter."
2. "Woke kids are too sensitive."

See? Everyone knows! We've heard it all before Auntie Beeb, enjoy your continuing slide into irrelevance.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Watching PJW and Darren Grimes die on everything they go on could be hilarious tbf.

[pigamus]

Was full of foreboding when I saw Stewart Lee trending, but luckily it's this.

[Thursday]

Watching PJW and Darren Grimes die on everything they go on could be hilarious tbf.

Yeah, normally I'm of the attitude "don't give these cunts a platform" but seeing these crap reactionaries dying on their arse might actually show why there's so little right-wing comedy.

But then that's probably very optimistic wishful thinking from me.

[pigamus]

They struggle to get anyone vaguely Tory on the News Quiz. Hugo Rifkind and Simon Evans is the best they can do. They had Peter Oborne on once and it was a car crash.

[RicoMNKN]

If true, I wonder if Will Franken will try to get a series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwmXeUpYCo&feature=youtu.be&t=3880

Having enjoyed that, I watched some of his latest video, and he's become an anti-mask "covid is a hoax" conspiracy theorist.
His politics actually seem all over the place, often complaining about more left-wing concerns such as job automation and Jeff Bezos' wealth.  He's an odd one.

[NoSleep]

They could give Marina Hyde a slot. Or Robert Webb.

[lankyguy95]

They could give Marina Hyde a slot. Or Robert Webb.

No I don't think she's interested in Robert Webb.

[Tony Yeboah]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/sep/01/rightwing-comedians-not-funny-enough-for-bbc-shows-says-insider
Syd Little joins Twitter. Posts 'All Lives Matter.' Waits for BBC to call.