This time last year, Barry Humphries revealed how political correctness had killed comedy at the BBC. His plan to tell a joke about Jeremy Corbyn hit a wall when a faceless BBC executive said he could only do so if he also made a joke about David Cameron. So, Mr S can’t help but wonder if the BBC is taking a new direction with its comedy in 2017.
BBC Two’s latest comedy show Revolting includes a sketch entitled the ‘Real Housewives of Isis’, which sees four jihadi brides ‘lift the lid’ on life in the Islamic State. The Brit runaways are seen planning their outfits for the next beheading (clue: they have no idea what they’re going to wear!) and bitching about the size of each other’s suicide vest — ‘She looked massive. You’re gonna need a lot of Semtex to kill that one’. Meanwhile, on next week’s episode one bride struggles when her husband ‘won’t stop talking about his 40 virgins’ — leading her to ask: ‘what about me?’
While Mr S suspects it’s the most refreshing comedy to hit the corporation in a long time, the BBC is under pressure to pull the sketch over claims they are ‘trivialising’ the plight of jihadi brides in Syria.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in