https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/03...ng-matter/
EXCERPT (Tim Dawson): . . . Tim Davie is correct that there is a problem, but it is not simply that comedy is controlled by the ‘left’. It is that it is controlled by the ‘woke’: militant identitarians who despise Brexit, despise the ordinary people of this country, and see it as their moral duty to criticise and sneer. It is a great irony that so many identitarian comedians believe right-wing comedy is ‘punching down’ – what have they been doing for the past four years? Maligning ordinary Britons – accusing them of stupidity and prejudice while trying to neutralise their votes – is hardly ‘punching up’.
Furthermore, people who believe everybody who disagrees with them is ethically repulsive probably aren’t the sort of characters you want in charge of a national programme-making machine.
I used to work on shows which were popular with less well-educated, working-class people. [...] they were serving an audience which also paid a TV licence, and also had a right to programming they enjoyed. As working-class audiences were forgotten, so the elderly were left behind, and family audiences were abandoned, too...
It is impossible not to see what has happened as a kind of class erasure – the broad tastes of the masses overwhelmed by the niche interests of a dominant few. Ultimately, if your main interest in making television comedy is impressing your north London mates, you are unlikely to dish up the goods effectively for viewers with ‘normal jobs’ and ‘normal lives’, who really aren’t interested in dark HBO rip-offs or identitarian sermons.
Davie’s reforms, if he’s really serious about returning comedy ‘to the people’, will need to be very wide-ranging. Traditional sitcom – always sneered at by the elite, but beloved by many millions [...] has largely been killed ... Sketch comedy has all but disappeared. ... If comedy is going to resonate with the average punter again, the changes will have to go far deeper... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT (Tim Dawson): . . . Tim Davie is correct that there is a problem, but it is not simply that comedy is controlled by the ‘left’. It is that it is controlled by the ‘woke’: militant identitarians who despise Brexit, despise the ordinary people of this country, and see it as their moral duty to criticise and sneer. It is a great irony that so many identitarian comedians believe right-wing comedy is ‘punching down’ – what have they been doing for the past four years? Maligning ordinary Britons – accusing them of stupidity and prejudice while trying to neutralise their votes – is hardly ‘punching up’.
Furthermore, people who believe everybody who disagrees with them is ethically repulsive probably aren’t the sort of characters you want in charge of a national programme-making machine.
I used to work on shows which were popular with less well-educated, working-class people. [...] they were serving an audience which also paid a TV licence, and also had a right to programming they enjoyed. As working-class audiences were forgotten, so the elderly were left behind, and family audiences were abandoned, too...
It is impossible not to see what has happened as a kind of class erasure – the broad tastes of the masses overwhelmed by the niche interests of a dominant few. Ultimately, if your main interest in making television comedy is impressing your north London mates, you are unlikely to dish up the goods effectively for viewers with ‘normal jobs’ and ‘normal lives’, who really aren’t interested in dark HBO rip-offs or identitarian sermons.
Davie’s reforms, if he’s really serious about returning comedy ‘to the people’, will need to be very wide-ranging. Traditional sitcom – always sneered at by the elite, but beloved by many millions [...] has largely been killed ... Sketch comedy has all but disappeared. ... If comedy is going to resonate with the average punter again, the changes will have to go far deeper... (MORE - details)