Viewing Thread:
"Brasseye complainers please read"

Ok, this is not directed at any particular person here (except for the one that complained about C4 shouldn’t have shown this programme and then said they didn’t watch it), this is more of an open rant. Feel free to print it off and distribute to anybody screaming about Brasseye, League of Gentlemen or any other television programme, book or work of art that they find “offensive”.

There are two quotes applicable here:
“When did you ever hear anyone say – This work should be banned because I might be exposed to it and it might be dangerous to me”. Francis Bacon, Artist.

“I may not agree with what you say sir, but I will defend to my death your right to say it” Abraham Lincoln.

You, as an individual, have the ultimate control over things that you find offensive. You can not subject yourself to the offending subject matter.
Turn off the television, stop reading that book, don’t look at that object of art.
You have been blessed with free will and independent intelligence. I beg you, please use it, don’t resort to lynch mob tactics and chasing those you disagree with through the village waving flaming torches.
Ok?

The furore of the previous few days over a simple television show has made me realise just how utterly thoughtless and moronic 80% of this population are.
All it takes is one newspaper to whip something up and the herd start lowing before stampeding. The events of the past few days have been like watching the Pamplona Bull run with crowds hurtling through the street, out of control.
Before this fuss, Chris Morris has been criticised by people, and cleared by the ITC over the last series of Brasseye.
The media was waiting for him, they know his style and the targets he attacks. Morris makes a complete mockery of the news media, and this group huddled in their ivory towers refuse to accept any kind of criticism at all, they are above it all.

So when Morris starts to poke around, they scream and cry “Devil!” so that people don’t bother watching the programme to see the actual content. In a previous series of Brasseye, Morris conned the editor of the Daily Sport, who subsequently printed his mobile and home phone number in revenge for being made to look foolish on television, they encouraged people to phone and harass Morris. This is far more abhorrent than any programme about peodophiles.
And it wasn’t even about that, it was about the way the mass media treat this subject.
Chris Morris is an extremely intelligent man, very very witty and very very clever.
He is able to make something look like one thing, whilst it is actually something completely different. And, at the risk of offending (most ironic considering the subject matter), most people do not understand and take offence at having their lack of intelligence highlighted.

Nobody likes to be made to look stupid, or admit that they didn’t understand something, which is how Morris gets away with what he does.
But you cannot censor and vilify somebody because they present a situation or programme that challenges what you may find acceptable.
This is the point of art, to provoke and inspire a response in people. It may be joy, sadness or even anger, but a reaction other than indifference has to be applauded in an age where apathy reigns supreme.
Robert Mapplethorpe, a US artist went on trial in 1990 for displaying photographs of underage children. They were not pornography, but some felt them obscene and tasteless. Much like the Brasseye storm.
After lengthy trial procedures, Mapplethorpe won and a victory claimed for artistic expression.
Morris does not force you to watch his programmes, it is out of your own free will that you do so.
And by subjecting yourself to his mindset, you may be presented with a view that offends or upsets you.
But that only means the problem lays with you. Nobody seriously believes that C4 would broadcast a pro-child sex programme, and indeed it wasn’t.
But in an age where soap operas pull in up to 18 million viewers daily, a programme that doesn’t attempt to install moral and social values through entertainment will be seen as a threat. TV isn’t supposed to challenge and make you think, it’s there to keep you quiet and pacified between sleep and work.
Morris doesn’t do that, and it upsets you.

I say good. TV is one of the most powerful mediums, and should be used as a tool of thought instead of a wet-nurse for oversized infants that are unable to exercise even the simplest of self-regulatory acts: Turning the damn thing off.

Don’t complain about Brasseye for shocking you, complain about all the other shows for not shaking you up.
For one brief instant, you were engaged and passionate enough to reply. When was the last time you did something like that?
So, I personally thank Chris Morris and C4 for pushing the envelope and allowing art to be exposed to an otherwise complacent nation.

I really hate to think what kind of sick twisted sense of humor you have, you find pedophilia funny? I think its sick. it's a serious problem that needs a serious answer not someone to take the pi$s. Your right. I didn't watch it all. i have better things to do than watch something as sick and disgusting as that.

That was not at Mirablis or anyone else that has tried to explain this programme in nice simple words for those with learning difficulties.

Footnote to "People misunderstanding Brasseye".

The Daily Star printed out a list and home addresses of known sex offenders when Sidney Cook was released.
There morons were so hot to trot that they burned down the home of a Peodiatrician, having looked his address up when someone misunderstood what that was.

*shakes head*

"This crowd is like one that has swallowed a bomb and given the detonator to a monkey" - Brasseye Special news report on an angry mob launching themselves over prison walls in catapaults in an attempt to "get" a sex offender.

THAT is what Brasseye was about, people like you who complain without understanding. People that panic at fire, think Volcanoes are devils living underground and people that think peodiatricians should have their homes burnt.

Shame on you for being so utterly, utterly ill educated, reactionary and goddamn stupid.

Go back and watch Eastenders where you belong.

And it
> wasn’t even about that, it was about the way the mass media treat
> this subject.

This is precisely it. The mdia reacted in the way displayed in Brasseye. they went into overkill causing a mass over reaction from the population who in their ignorence have as so often made a bad situation worse. The News Of the world is a great example; by publishing the list of paedophiles they enflicted a hate campaign which greatly harmed police policy which was do fine already thanks. the big fuss therefore has shown the media up for what Brasseye quite poignantly pointed out.

Whoooo Style! wrote:
> I sort of watched the first few minutes of it, saw what it was about
> and turned it off. If you think that kinda things funny, there's
> something wrong with you.


Ok, how to reply without ranting or laughing hysterically at you...hmm..

"I sort of watched the first few minutes of it"

No, you didn't. I asked you to tell me exactly what parts made you feel sick and outraged, and you can't do that because you didn't see it.
You're basing your opinions on erroneous tabloid crap and hysterical posts from others that didn't bother to watch it either.
This is the problem.
1.5 million people watched it.
That's less people than watch the weather.
One question, how old are you? Because this went out after the watershed, and if you are of a young age then you have no business watching this programme.

It is meant for an adult audience. And by that I do mean just in age, but those able to distinguish between satire and the lazy comedy of programmes like "You've Been Framed" and other sitcoms.

And as for your "there must be something wrong with you", I am restraining myself greatly when I say that is one of the most ignorant, moronic and unintelligent arguments ever presented to me in my entire life.

Please, read my post at the beginning of this thread.
I appreciate it's long with a few big words but read it.
And then realise how utterly childish that remark is.

I sort of watched the first few minutes of it, saw what it was about and turned it off. If you think that kinda things funny, there's something wrong with you.

Goatboy wrote:
> For one brief instant, you were engaged and passionate enough to reply. When was
> the last time you did something like that?


Knowing these people, it was probably when the local transmitter was undergoing maintenance and they couldn't see EastEnders/Coronation Street.

You know how they all write in to Points of View etc. "Why oh why was Hugh wearing such a hideous tie on the six-o-clock news?"

Whoooo Style! wrote:
> I think that programme was disgusting, unfunny and outrageous. Also
> the league of gentleman was just as unfunny.

So why did you watch it?
Did you even watch it?
What parts made you think it was disgusting, unfunny and outrageous?

Seriously, I want you to tell me exactly why you are so upset by it, because I simply do not believe you even watched it.

Or, if you did, why the hell didn't you turn it off?

Culpa Mea mate, Culpa Mea.

Well I didn't see it.

I saw the one about science on trial.

Jenny Powell talking heavy electricity was absolutely hilarious.

I saw the one about sex too, but that was less funny. I guess it just didn't appeal to me.

I missed last weeks, but never mind, it's only TV.

I watched League of Gentlemen once, for a bit, but didn't get it, so I switched off.

Life is choice, 'off' IS an option.

I think that programme was disgusting, unfunny and outrageous. Also the league of gentleman was just as unfunny.