Chris Morris is the UK’s least appreciated comic genius. His mediocre efforts (The I.T. Crowd, Nathan Barley) are funny and his best work (The Day Today, Brass Eye) still look cutting edge as they head towards their 15th birthdays. Like all the best comics his influence extends far beyond his audience and his old work bears repeated viewing.
When his 1997 show, ‘Brass Eye‘, (UK slang for anus) was repeated in 2001 he produced a one off special on pedophilia (love of small, round, green vegetables) to mark the occasion. Like most of his work it’s presented bone dry and the jokes are left for viewers to discern. Predictably, given the massive numbers of idiots who watch TV, much of the audience missed the joke (which was on celebrities and the media) and wrongly assumed Morris was making light of child abuse.
In the show Morris questions the response to an issue which is seldom discussed rationally. He puts people’s mad, fear driven, beliefs about the dangers of the internet on display, and is brave enough to ask how far is too far when he becomes JLb-8, a Eminem/Fred Durst hybrid rapper who unabashedly loves little girls and simulates having sex with them on stage. He argues with a sex offender who claims not to be attracted to his child by asking ‘Well what’s wrong with him?’ and suggest kids should be strapped to explosive canisters of shit they’re trained to detonate in times of danger.
People - many of whom didn’t see the show - went mad. Questions were asked in parliament, the tabloids did their idiot thing and the program was forever relegated to legend, DVD and the internet. It was and remains brilliant, uncomfortable, hilarious stuff.
Kudos to whomever uploaded it to Google video where viewing it no longer requires buying a DVD or learning how to grab a torrent.
Absolutely agree: Chris Morris is a bloody genius.
(I’m assuming the above spelling of paedophile as peadophile is meant to be ironic. Ahem.)
Carry on.
Girl - Ha! I knew it was the wrong spelling but my US spellcheck wants pedophile and I just refuse to write that. I checked the spelling against another blog - assuming I was wrong. I should have known better. I’m never wrong… (why aren’t I on your blogroll? Who do I have to screw?)