Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Innuendo is never a step too fnarr!
Why Springwatch gags are harmless pun...
WHAT is the world coming to when we’re complaining about puns on Springwatch?
Hosts Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan have been told off by their TV bosses for too many great tits and shags.
We’ll be complaining about The One Show next!
Our humour from the days of music hall, all the way through to Mel and Sue on the Great British Bake Off with its soggy bottoms, ultimate moistness and stiff meringues, has always had a bit of suggestive naughtiness.
When you look back over the Carry On films, classic seaside postcards and panto, they are all riddled with innuendo.
I’ve just worked with Julian Clary in panto and he is the master of the double entendre and innuendo – and he is hilarious.
I’m terrified we’re getting a humour bypass in this country and I blame social media.
These days, as soon as somebody says anything, Twitter is just full of people complaining.
I feel like saying to people: “Mind your own business and get a life.”
It’s not just the PC brigade getting on their high horse, it’s any old Joe these days who gets offended over the slightest thing. It’s ridiculous.
We used to be known for our irony – we used to say that Americans didn’t have a sense of irony – but it seems like it’s going out of the window. It’s such a shame, and just daft.
Maybe we are being bombarded with too many horrific stories, such as the terrorist attacks, and it has worn us down. We are living in mean times so everyone is very touchy – but we certainly do need to lighten up a bit.
Say anything these days – it doesn’t even have to be dirty or off colour – and the next thing you know, you’re being bombarded with abuse on social media.
When I was growing up, we had Benny Hill and Till Death Us Do Part. Some of the shows were shocking, like Love Thy Neighbour, and in many ways our humour has changed for the better.
I watched an episode of On The Buses a few months ago and it was so un-pc. You wouldn’t be able to get away with it now, and you wouldn’t want to either.
So comedy on TV has changed for the better – when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, it was quite misogynistic and, at times, racist. But people have gone too far quibbling over little things. Comedy really shouldn’t have boundaries, that’s the unwritten rule. Comics such as Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle are really funny, and go out to shock.
And Great British Bake Off jokes are like the postcards you used to get from Blackpool – harmless.
That’s the thing about innuendo – if it’s said as a joke, it’s harmless.
If it’s done maliciously it’s different – but it never is.
Shows such as Bake Off and Springwatch are doing panto and seaside postcard jokes.
We still have an appetite for this kind of humour, even if our tastes are a bit more sophisticated.
Just look at the success of Mrs Brown’s Boys. The critics went after the show tooth and nail – but the public just love it because it’s that basic humour of innuendo, slapstick and a man in drag.
British Bake Off and Mrs Brown’s Boys are two of the most popular shows on TV, and they’re all about innuendo. We’ve just got to loosen up, that’s what I say.