Viewing Thread:
"Channel 4 Are Beginning To Annoy Me..."

On Friday night, I watched some of the Brasseye special on C4. It was absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. It was meant to be a comedy, and the only time I laughed was once, just as I turned on, when it had, "Here is a peadophile disguised as a house."

Then I began to see what it was all about. They showed footage of 2 people having sex, the woman meant to be a 10-year-old girl. They also brought a boy in, and then asked a 'peadophile,' if he fancied him!

After clocking up over a 1000 complaints, one from MP David Blunkett, they STILL showed the repeat!

And what's this I hear? They're getting rid of WWF because of it's 'extreme nature.' Supposedly, it's 'too hard to edit,' although it's shown at past midnight, and their have been a few complaints about the crazy stunts and the way they portray women.

John Bayer, Director of Media Watch UK, slammed the move. He said, "On one hand they transmit disgraceful programmmes such as Brass Eye and on the other hand they have a dislike of wrestling, which is just acting and healthy messing around. Their double standards are incomprehensable."

I completely agree. Brasseye wasn't funny, it was disgusting, and I expect it offended many people. How'd you think people who had actually been affected by the subject felt??

I was also shocked to see (not sure about her name,) but that women who starred in great comedies such as Beast and Smack The Pony, playing a large role in the program!

So Channel 4 think that Sports-Entertainment is wrong, and Brasseye is right. Wrestling is very popular in the UK, and the 4 PPV's that they show over the whole year, as well as the weekly edition of Sunday Night Heat, must get them a lot of viewers. Their have been hardly any complaints, and it's now been changed from an afternoon showing to a late night showing. Brasseye, which was shown at around 10pm I think, has now had over 2000 complaints, they show it twice and have still done nothing about it.

I am very annoyed at the actions of Channel 4. It's probably one of my favourite channels as it shows class programs such as Friends, Frasier, South Park and has good coverage of the Cricket. And of course, it did have WWF.

I would like to hear your views, and if you actually liked Brasseye, please tell me why as I am shocked that anyone could actually enjoy a programme with such dirty, offensive material.

Thanks for reading, Ant.

Do you know any more details about the Blue Jam thing?

Does anyone remember that joke news item about spaghetti trees shown ages ago on April 1st?

Apparently people were outraged that the news would hoax people like this.

Same thing here, better graphics and writing.

I honestly wonder how many people just watched this because of the "outrageous nature" decried in the tabloids the day before and the day of broadcast?

I would love it if Morris was working with The Sun, that would be the single greatest feat of performance art ever created in the history of man.

And a new series of Jam starts in 2 months on Radio 1.

So kids, tune in and complain to that as well.

I saw the last 20 minutes of the repeat on friday night. Some of it was funny, but some of it wasn't.

I'm not sure what I was expecting as I hadn't seen any of his stuff before. I'd just heard about it in the paper and what Goatboy (an a couple of others) said on here.

All in all I'm glad I watched it. It baltantly took the p!ss out of a number of things, but none of the celebrities involved could see it.

There are always going to be people complaining as this is a touchy subject.

However, because most people are dumbed down by cooking shows and home improvemnt shows, as soon as something different comes along, people start screaming and shouting.

I will definately be on the look out for more Brasseye stuff in the future, anyone know if there's one on this friday?

What would be really amusing was if Morris was 'Pulling a Kaufman' and was in it from the start with the Sun etceteras in whipping the public and the rest of the media into a frenzy.

Morris can't hate the Sun as he must realise that what he's doing sells them papers. If he's laughing at them I'm sure there not to bothered because of the money they are making from the moral outrage.

It does.
The mass media has reacted in exactly the way that Brasseye mocks it for.

It's a joke, and the papers walked straight into it.
It wasn't even about peodophiles, it was about the media's reaction and reporting of the subject.

Morris is laughing his face off.

"The twisted brain wrong of a one off man mental"

I'm not sure if he does this intentionally or not, but I'm sure he realises that this is the effect the programme was going to have.

Then again... it is the silly season.

I cant decide whether the medias knee-jerk reaction to Brasseye works more as a joke against the media or not?

I agree 100% with what Goatboy has said. I haven't seen the episode in question, but isn't Brasseye usually preceded by a warning of the nature of it's content?

The whole point is, if you don't like the programme then simply don't watch it. If you do and don't like it, then by all means exercise the right you have to voice an opinion about the programme. That's what the ITC is for, who by the way don't take to kindly to the type of sensationalist reporting carried out by the gutter press, who are only carrying on this way to take your money.

By arguing using the example of the WWF you more or less shoot yourself in the foot. You're saying that; 'I don't see anything wrong with wrestling, why are they trying to ban it?' Then countering with 'I think this Morris' style is wrong, please ban it.'

It's all about personal taste. Chris Morris and his dark humour is not for a lot of people, just as wrestling seems to have incited outrage in some 'moral' groups. It is this extreme reaction, that Morris intentionally sets out to achieve that causes problems. People look at the extreme in the WWF, read what they can into it and make the programme seem much worse than it is.

Brasseye is supposed to cause a reaction. When you watch a programme does it always have to make you laugh? Why not angry or upset? Just as art doesn't have to be a landscape, or music can be something other than a mindless tune that just rolls around your head, television doesn't have to be sugary sweet Richard and Judy.

Exercise your right as a rational person and change the channel, and don't shoot the C4 messenger because they've tried to show you something different.

Exactly, that's what I put in my original reply to Ant.

I haven't seen this one yet (got the video right beside me though), but I have all of the 1st series on tape, as well as The Day Today and Blue Jam on MP3.

The whole deal with Morris is that he attacks the media, not the subjects.
It's that simple.

Jeremy Paxman hates him for portraying him so accurately on The Day Today.

Don't start waving fists at Morris and chasing him through the village with burning torches, take a step back, watch his work and his previous work to see where he's coming from.

I have been a long-time devotee of Chris Morris.
I think this guy is one of the few people today that have the courage and intelligence to question and attack society and the way it perceives the world through media.

Chris Morris, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.
These 4 people have done more to shake people up and try to make you see how ridiculous we have become than any "serious" news programme ever has done.

The whole idea of comedy is that it should break the rules, it should provoke you and make you think.
Whether you like the reaction it inspires doesn't matter, at least you made a connection with it, good or bad.

I wouldn't even place Morris as a "comedian", I would call him a performance artist.
This guy is devoted to winding up and abusing the media and the way it keeps you and me stupid and docile.
He's been on The Time, The Place in disguise, interviews the public and stars and makes them sound foolish because they don't question what is in front of them.

Watch the original Brasseye and see Tania Bryers and Nick Owen warning of the dangers of "Heavy electricity".
If these people stopped to think for a second about what they were spouting, they'd get it.
The clues are there, but they don't.
They are so eager to appear "right on" that they'll talk absolute balls and then get upset about it.

I mean come on, a t-shirt that says "Nonce Sense".
How much more obvious can it be?

Chris Morris takes you places you might not like, but you won't just sit there and drool waiting for commercials.
He uses the medium to create a whole different universe.

For me, Brasseye is and always will be performance art disguised as a comedy show.
And people swallowed it, hook line and sinker.

The jokes on you, not peodophiles.
The point of this show is that everyone instantly screams "EVIL!" when this subject is dealt with by mass media, sex offenders are hunted and screamed at.
And what happens after this show is broadcast?

The exact same thing.
I've said it before and I'll say it again:

You just got played, deal with it.

What people fail to see is that the show wasn't taking the pee out of the victims of paedeophilia, but the media and their sensationalisim of it - creating inhuman monsters out of the criminals. If more people had actually watched the show they'd realize this.