Satire should be dumbed down to be funny

CHANNEL 4 satire show 10 O’clock Live returned for a second series with a supporting cast to rival Ben Hur’s.

The credits boasted four writers, eight researchers, eight associates, five producers, four executive producers and a script advisor.

That sounds like a lot of brainpower to knock out a few topical gags, so you might expect them to be good. Well, let’s take a look.

On the news that Fabio Capello had quit: “Now he can go back to making apple juice.”

What they’ve done there, you see, is spotted that Capello sounds similar to Copella, the apple juice. How many researchers did that one take?

On calls for all pet dogs to be microchipped: “I thought dogs preferred oven chips.”

Here, the team have spotted that the word “chip” has several meanings, including both a data storage device and also a frozen potato snack. (I’ve never seen a dog eat an oven chip, but let’s not quibble over details.)

Finally, on the slaughter of thousands of civilians in the Syrian city of Homs, they gave us: “Homs Under the Hammer.”

Actually, that one is quite funny. I wonder if the right-on audience would laugh if it was printed in a tabloid newspaper?