If you’ve never watched ‘Citizen Khan’, then count yourself lucky. It’s a sitcom in the loosest sense of the word and a prime example of a comedy show which would only ever appear on the BBC: achingly unfunny, contrived and featuring entirely unbelievable characters. Crucially, though, if the show is one thing, it’s politically correct, in that it centres around a family of Muslims living in a deprived part of Birmingham. But Labour’s Rupa Huq has decided otherwise. She has claimed the show is ‘Islamophobic’:
‘I feel if I didn’t know what the year is, you would think it’s an every day tale of a Birmingham family of Muslims but they’re really quite backward…It’s a beardy weirdy chap and they’re not quite cutting off people’s hands but I can imagine that being in a future episode.’
Admittedly the title figure in Citizen Khan is a bit of a weirdo: he’s unpopular and inappropriate. He’s also the sort of person you wouldn’t want to be friends with. But isn’t that the exact point of a comedy character? Alan Partridge is backwards; so, too, is Father Ted. And ‘Citizen Khan’ is no different. The only distinction is that you’re likely to laugh at the first two characters. In ‘Citizen Khan’, the only laughing is canned.
It’s worth having a watch of the show, just to see how wrong Rupa Huq is. Take the first episode, which features a sketch about toilet rolls before rapidly going downhill from there. Citizen Khan follows in the well-trodden path of the unfunny BBC sitcom – taking inspiration from the likes of My Family and All About Me — in presenting an unbelievable family made up of two-dimensional characters. But while you won’t laugh at Citizen Khan, it’s just not fair to say that it’s Islamophobic. No one is going to change their attitude towards Islam after watching this show and no one in their right mind would make a judgement about Muslims based on an unfunny sitcom like this either. In fact, the only person you’re likely to dislike after watching Citizen Khan is whoever commissioned four series worth of it.
Comments