Comic Relief let off by watchdog
COMIC Relief has escaped an Ofcom investigation despite 3 5 complaints from viewers.
They were outraged at the content screened before the 9pm watershed including swearing by Russell Brand and a large fake penis being flashed by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
There were also complaints about violence and religious discrimination in the BBC1 charity telethon on March 2 . But the watchdog ruled the show ‘did not raise issues warranting investigation’.
It added: ‘We recognise some of the comedy sketches were not to everyone’s taste but found they were inexplicit and consistent with the live, unpredictable format.’
Most complaints centred around a comedy sketch featuring Reeves and Mortimer as their characters The Stotts interviewing Susanna Reid. They prompted 117 complaints for flashing a fake penis while speaking to the host of ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The routine was full of innuendos, asking if she had ‘seen Kong’ then saying ‘it’s quite long… it’s quite hairy at the beginning’.
Miss Reid, 6, tweeted later: ‘Well. That was an experience’ accompanied by an angry face.
There were five complaints about Brand after he shouted ‘f****** hell’ and ten other viewers were unhappy about swearing during a Mrs Brown’s Boys sketch.
The watchdog also rejected 9 complaints about images of a child with malaria as they were ‘limited’ and likely to have been expected by most viewers on a fundraising programme. Comic Relief raised £73million and had an average of 6.2million viewers.