Really Not Funny
When comedy broadcasting is not a theatre of cruelty it
seldom reverts to what might be called natural humour, by which I mean simple
good fun, instead it falls back on social and political manipulation, some of
it quite subtle, some of it very crude indeed. To begin with, the comedians and
comic actors are chosen because they are people who fit in with the ethos of
the production company or the broadcaster's in-house team; an independent
company that hires people who fail to fit in fails to sell its programmes to
broadcasters, so their ethos is indistinguishable from that of the TV channels
themselves. Then there is the material broadcast, this presents a specific
worldview in which certain attitudes are normal and good, and others not simply
bad, but so abnormal as to be ludicrous. Where such an approach would be too
obvious, or the public has been insufficiently prepared for its crudity, more subtle
means are used to normalise the preferred liberal left viewpoint and denigrate
more traditional alternatives. Comedy interacts with broadcast drama; sometimes
one leads, sometimes the other, and they are combined from time to time in
comic plays and sitcoms. Of course, when it comes to radio broadcasting, the
BBC has an effective monopoly.
 |
| (c) From Crisis Magazine |
An obvious example of the crude method of propaganda is the
way in which Brexit and its supporters have been treated. Whilst news
programmes and current affairs documentaries preserved the legally required
neutrality before the referendum and remain somewhat cautious in their
Europhilia, the comedians never ceased in their mockery of Brexit supporters
and politicians, many of whom had been figures of fun for many years. Since the
vote comedians have repeatedly claimed (without being challenged because they
seldom appear on programmes requiring balance or accuracy) that Leave
supporters lied, are unintelligent and are racists. There has been a radio play
satirising the three Brexiteers, and have been a couple more at least on the
theme of an apocalyptic Britain from which refugees have to escape to
civilisation in France or Ireland. I can only conjecture that the purpose of
this propaganda, which is combined with partial and selective news reporting
now that the level of scrutiny in the pre-referendum period has been relaxed,
is either somehow to thwart the Brexit process or else to create a public mood
in favour of an application to re-join the EU at some future point.
The most glaring example of the more subtle method of social
engineering via broadcast propaganda is, of course, the normalisation of
homosexuality to the point where same-sex unions have become commonplace and
are legally dignified with the name of marriage. This all began with radio
comedies. There were novels and feature films, but it was the weekly encounter
with wireless favourites that made people who had never knowingly met any
homosexuals think that they were not uncommon, and that their peculiarities are
harmless. At first they were figures of fun, but that in itself established
them as an ordinary element in society so that people would expect a group to
contain a clever one, a dim one, a crook and a queer. Then they became entirely
ordinary characters rather than being the subject of jokes; then sympathetic
figures, the victims of discrimination in serious dramas. Finally we reached
where we are today with any challenge to gay rights and gay marriage portrayed
as intolerable bigotry – and it all began with “I'm Julian and this is my
friend, Sandy”.
All of this political propaganda and social engineering draws
its strength from our natural openness to humour, our instinctive expectation
that what is presented as comedy really will be comedy, a sharing of goodness
and joy. Because true humour is a reflection of the divine, we expect the comic
to be deeply and innately good, somebody who is always on the right side and a
friend to all. These people are not like that, not at all. Of course, there are
some good people in broadcast comedy, allowed to slip through and spread some
true joy so the ideological character of the rest of it does not become too
obvious; they might even be allowed to poke a little gentle fun at the
prevailing orthodoxies as long as they pose no real threat. The majority, and
it is now a majority, however, are quite simply not the kind of people we would
care to invite into our homes. They are no friends of ours, they are the shock
troops, the Red Guard, of a cultural revolution, they are radical feminists,
camaigning atheists, 'out and proud' homosexual activists, supporters of far
left organisations and drug-addled libertines. Just look at the TV and radio
listings, and look up some profiles and CVs – see what I mean?
By Prayer Crusader St Philip Howard
No comments:
Post a Comment