Charlie Brooker becomes next celeb to end his career with a ‘joke’ about Labour and anti-Semitism
Has it become a contractual obligation that celebrities appearing on the BBC’s Have I Got News For You now have to reel out a duff comment connecting the Labour Party or Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism, and pretend that it’s a funny joke?
It was sad enough when Victoria Coren Mitchell did it, linking Labour with the anti-Semitic trope about a Jewish bankers’ conspiracy. Because the Labour leadership has never suggested it believes anything of the sort, it was in fact she who committed the anti-Semitic slur.
Now Charlie Brooker has used his appearance to link Labour with Holocaust denial:
This is really disturbing from @charltonbrooker on #HIGNFY
As minorities face rising abuse and violence every day the BBC producing this stuff is deeply disturbing. Perhaps the licence fee isn’t worth it after all. pic.twitter.com/KkXKzxvLs5
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) December 21, 2019
Did you hear that audience reaction? They didn’t like it at all. That was the sound of a career ending, as Simon Maginn implies here:
Imagine being Charlie Brooker.
Successful, feted, admired as a fierce and uncompromising critic of lies and bullshit.
Then he goes on some crappy BBC 'comedy' show and delivers a Labour Holocaust-denial 'gag' and BOOM! he's
just another dumbo cog in the dumbo BBC smear machine.— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) December 21, 2019
And here:
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Get 'Charlie Brooker's Bumper Book of Holocaust Denial Jokes' from BBC Books.
All your favourite Brooker Holocaust denial gags in one handy volume, perfect for reporting to the police as a hate crime.
Buy now.@charltonbrooker#HIGNFY
— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) December 21, 2019
As I say, though, it seems entirely possible that reading an anti-Labour jab from an autocue is now a contractual obligation. But Mr Brooker can’t be so hard-up for cash that he would abandon any principles and ruin his reputation for the sake of 30 pieces of silver from the BBC… can he? We note that he hasn’t exactly been running out to defend himself:
Just seen the clip from HIGNFY with your holocaust comment @charltonbrooker. Wow. You really need to say something about this, now
— Raphael Dogg (@raphaeldogg) December 21, 2019
Sadly, Mr Brooker’s (probably-scripted) outburst seems to have achieved what these behaviours often do – and got someone else to join in. Isn’t this Phil Wang from the same programme?
I am Jewish
There is NO proper evidence that Corbyn is an antisemite because he is not one
The people who pushed the incessant, relentless propaganda that he is have
Undermined democracy
Done huge damage to relations between minorities
Harmed Jewish communityThis is sick https://t.co/ntDR7sbI9M
— Tom London (@TomLondon6) December 21, 2019
It isn’t satire; it’s just a bad lie. What a way to commit career suicide.
And it seems Have I Got Lies For You may be on its way out now, as well.
There will be plenty of people who like the propaganda-pumping attitude the programme is currently showing – but if enough of us kick it into touch, then maybe the BBC will get the message.
We don’t like lies, and we don’t like people who lie to us.
HIGNFY is really unfunny now, and I think it might be because I always thought they were on my side, but it’s now clear they’re not. Charlie Brooker made a really pathetic joke about the Holocaust and the Labour Party. To think I used to like him.
— @artdecolady #StarmerOut #ItWasAScam (@Teresa_Peckham) December 20, 2019
Worst of all is the probability that Boris Johnson will use this as part of his excuse to axe the BBC’s status as the UK’s public service broadcaster and remove the requirement to pay the licence fee.
Still, the BBC did its best to ensure the Tories won the general election, knowing that this would be on the cards.
The Corporation’s bosses really are like turkeys voting for Christmas.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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I can’t bear to watch HIGNFY anymore, it used to be good but it’s lost its edge and become part of the Establishment it used to satirise. I would have expected more of Charlie Brooker though.
Brooker and the rest of the BBC HIGNIFY ‘slebs are welcome to rot. The anti Labour sneering and Corbyn AS smearing has reaped their rewards. They can now revert to telling racist, disablist and misogynistic “jokes” too, because they are all part of the nasty Tory RW values they have helped usher in. Did they think it was just a joke when they undermined the democratic process by cowtowing to the Tory establishment? Or was it that they really do support the destruction of the welfare state, and millions of lives, and are still laughing at us?