In defence of Chris Morris
Comrade Vathek | 30.07.2001 15:29
Thus began Chris Morris' career as a satirist in 1993 with "The Day Today". This phrase seems to permeate his entire oeuvre, for when the actual, purported 'real' news is routinely as bizarre and (as sites like IMC have exposed) completely divorced from the reality they claim to reflect, satire and ridicule is the only response.
The hypocritical hysteria over the distorted threat of child molestation, generated by the establishment and taken up by the populist elements, has cast an unpleasant shadow over the entire decade.
The genius of Morris and his team is to point out that, far from being overblown exagerations, the media techniques that he parodies, are very much being used for real. Watch any episode of "Brass Eye or "Day Today" and then immediately turn to a 'genuine' current affairs program such as "Newsnight" or "Tonight". Almost impossible to distinguish the 'real' from the parody, isnt it ? (I really wish I'd made some recordings of "The Day Today". If anyone has a copy, especially the "WAR" edition, do let me know)
It comes as no surprise that the ex-Stalinists in Blair's entourage are scheming to bring in new censorship rules, even though it transpires that many of them havent even seen the item on trial. Not that this discrepancy will stop them; "I have no wish to see that which you have no right to see"... the fundamental hypocrisy of censorship is very clear.
We may perhaps hope that Chris Morris has finally called a halt to the ever creeping forces of demonisation, and look forward to a serious debate, and It is sad that he has had to put himself and his career at some considerable risk from howling lynch-mobs and howling politicans to do it. Under the pretence of protecting 'poor little kiddies', Britain remains a nation not noticeable for its good treatment of children in general. The old Victorian days of giving them a beating and a bible reading for breakfast may have faded, but the general authoritarian, gerontocratic mentality remains. If we want children to be 'safe' they should be given the confidence to lead their lives in a spirit of freedom, not constant fear of latter day bogey-men.
The hypocritical hysteria over the distorted threat of child molestation, generated by the establishment and taken up by the populist elements, has cast an unpleasant shadow over the entire decade.
The genius of Morris and his team is to point out that, far from being overblown exagerations, the media techniques that he parodies, are very much being used for real. Watch any episode of "Brass Eye or "Day Today" and then immediately turn to a 'genuine' current affairs program such as "Newsnight" or "Tonight". Almost impossible to distinguish the 'real' from the parody, isnt it ? (I really wish I'd made some recordings of "The Day Today". If anyone has a copy, especially the "WAR" edition, do let me know)
It comes as no surprise that the ex-Stalinists in Blair's entourage are scheming to bring in new censorship rules, even though it transpires that many of them havent even seen the item on trial. Not that this discrepancy will stop them; "I have no wish to see that which you have no right to see"... the fundamental hypocrisy of censorship is very clear.
We may perhaps hope that Chris Morris has finally called a halt to the ever creeping forces of demonisation, and look forward to a serious debate, and It is sad that he has had to put himself and his career at some considerable risk from howling lynch-mobs and howling politicans to do it. Under the pretence of protecting 'poor little kiddies', Britain remains a nation not noticeable for its good treatment of children in general. The old Victorian days of giving them a beating and a bible reading for breakfast may have faded, but the general authoritarian, gerontocratic mentality remains. If we want children to be 'safe' they should be given the confidence to lead their lives in a spirit of freedom, not constant fear of latter day bogey-men.
Comrade Vathek
Comments
Hide the following 15 comments
Brass Eye
30.07.2001 16:18
The silence is deafening
Jason Hornby
e-mail: jasonh@shelter.org.uk
The Grate Off Switch
30.07.2001 16:18
Any one who fiels that they are watching somthing inappropiate only has to flick that switch.
The Pilgrim
e-mail: 07950232225@one2one.net
Moral authoritarianism
30.07.2001 16:45
Although the media furore was somewhat predictable - and probably intended on Morris's part - the fact that the government has chosen to interven so obnoxiously in the matter lifts the situation way beyond that. Governments have always censored programmes, of course: but I believe this is the first time that any Minister has suggested a need to institutionally censor television - via a "strengthened" ITC - outside of war conditions. Nor, I think, has censorship ever been presented as quite such a moral virtue, rather than a regrettable necessity.
So what to do? Tessa Jowell can be found at tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk, but frankly it'll take rather more than a few irked emails to do anything much. Any suggestions for support Chris Morris/anti-censorship activities?
Jim
e-mail: j.g.meadway@lse.ac.uk
Bad Taste
30.07.2001 19:19
Sickos
Brassed off
30.07.2001 19:47
Brass Balls
What the fuck??
30.07.2001 20:42
Countermeazure
People are fucking stupid
30.07.2001 21:10
Anyone who has watched chris morris before should know what to expect.
Jam was as twisted and funny and it catered for the minorities(for a change).
there was a warning before the prorramme and anyone who could stand to watch the episode all the way through cant really be offended enough to complain.
comedy shows have always featured issues like death,suicide and many more,so why not this one?
peadophilia hasnt increased over the last 2 or three years,its always been the same...it hasnt started happening more often,it is just that the media have seen the $$$$.
a year ago thick wankers who spend their lives having their opinions handed to them daily by newspapers were attacking peadiatricians.
if you dont like it then dont fuckin watch it.
plenty of people took the episode in the context it was meant.
i find offence in some programmes but i wont condem those who watch them nor complain.
the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child.
all it has done is caused a fuss it was supposed to ridicule.
i myself find peadophilia sick and unforgivable.
but this is a fucking tv show.
grow the fuck up.
j
Morris is serious
30.07.2001 21:15
He has made a career of risking his career (he's been sacked from lots of media channels for unauthorised activities on the airwaves).
The Day Today videos are on sale in shops (sorry to sound corporate). Brass Balls and Sickos: if you ain't seen them before, take a look - might improve your opinion of Morris.
I think satire need not be harmless - i don't think that Brass Eye was meant to be harmless: it was intended to disturb.
This evening Channel 4 News was on the attack showing how the supposedly outraged Mail didn't have a problem with printing photos of very young Royals in swimwear in todays edition. I know it's a tremendous generalisation but the tabloids and scandal-mags are in the business of turning people into just objects to sell as entertainment.
Morris has been showing how celebrities can be just puppets and he's used lots of different topics to do so. We could just as easily have seen a moral outcry about the Brass Eye: Drugs edition where various famous people denounced 'Cake' - a new drug which was supplied in a tablet the size of a frisbee. Didn't any of the people who held up the fake tablets and looked into the camera as they warned 'the kids' to 'just say no', think that dealing these tablets in the nightclubs would be really impractical? This was not intended to trivialise the people who have been injured or killed by dodgy drugs - it was about faces for hire. A real life paralell is at www.schnews.org.uk "...Bob Geldof, was flown in on Tony Blair’s private jet to tell people that the G8 was really a force for good and not the un-elected power crazy cabal that everybody knows they are..."
Morris' series Jam, also on Channel 4, received a number of complaints including complaints about use of children using adult language. ITC investigated the complaints and found, not surprisingly, that the adult language and sinister atmosphere had been added in post-production.
(I recall complaints about other sketches featuring actors playing disabled people were upheld: disabled people were actually watching and were actually offended).
probably worth kkeping an eye on the itc as this saga unfolds, at www.itc.org.uk - which also has details of the existing regulations including this:
1.3(i) Warnings in Relation to Programmes Likely to Harm Children
The European Union's Television Without Frontiers Directive 1997 (Article 22.1) requires that broadcasters take 'appropriate measures to ensure that television broadcasts... do not include any programmes which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular programmes that involve pornography or gratuitous violence'. The legislation also requires broadcasters to include either acoustic warnings before, or visual symbols throughout, to alert viewers to other programmes, broadcast in unencoded form, that are likely to impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors. Such programmes, even broadcast late at night, must therefore, at a minimum, be preceded by verbal warnings to this effect.
Warnings should be included, for example, where programmes include the strongest acceptable sexual material, violence or themes (such as child abuse or the use of drugs) treated in a way likely to be harmful to children.
Smin
e-mail: mrsmin@hotmail.com
oi!
30.07.2001 21:27
PuNk
your already dead!
30.07.2001 21:50
UpRiSiNg=-
Brass eye
30.07.2001 22:04
I just saw the BBC ten o clock news item on brass eye and it was incredible how even the BBC news told a totally one sided story about the program, siding with the tabloids and mass hysteria sufferers and neglecting to mention what brass eye's producers real aims were. (The brass eye item was followed by an equally biased item on foot and mouth where 'distressed' farmers skirted around questions about the large financial incentives available to anyone who's herd becomes infected)
Peoples' general ignorance about Brass eye is what is worst, the day after the program was aired I encountered numerous people who were unaware that the program was a spoof, while they flicked through their copies of the Sun. The fact that the paper's objections to Brass eye only exist because their readers will be sympathetic to the paper's views and not because they beleive Brass eye is immoral is stunningly obvious, while the irony is that this is the point that the program was trying to make.
george
e-mail: mummifiedzebra@netscape.net
South Park
31.07.2001 08:08
Note to those who don't watch South Park.
NAMBLA is the North American Man Boy Love Assoc.and the episode featured naked pedeophiles running around a hotel chaceing a young boy and his friends.
The Pilgrim
You've seen the bitching now watch da program
31.07.2001 13:00
http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/
I propose that anyone who feel the media response to Brass Eye is unfair. Please contact ITC and state your support for Morris et al.
publicaffars@itc.org.uk
I personally think if anyone really thinks Morris was laughing at child abuse they must make a stack of planks look like Harvards finest.
:-)
Mustermann
complain about Jowell
31.07.2001 14:45
COMPLAIN! I have.
Lets keep her out of the news.
DO IT!
munkle
TESSA JAW-ACHE IS A TWAT, BUT...
31.07.2001 15:34
about as ignorant daily-hate mail reading and anachronistic as you can get, and it only
serves that small band who actually realised what (demi god) Cris Morris was actually
trying to achieve.
He achieved his greatest measure of success sprcifically because he
knew those wind-bag whitehall types would play their hands exactly as they did - just like
those tuppence rent-a-gob "celebrities" who would sell their own mothers for 5 nano
seconds in front of a camera ( - i've just sniffed my keyboard sitting here, and i'm
definately feeling more suggestible) - fucking idiots.
I do feel however, that although Tessa's innane ramblings were necessary to the
ultimate success of the program and giving untold daily mail readers one more peptic
ulcer, (yay) - (it all helps the nhs in the end) the real crime was the way Chris was
LEGALLY allowed to let "THE STARS" make such utter cunts of themselves. Afterall, in
a shiny plastic consumerist society such as ours, our "celebrities" provide a lead - our
kiddies look upto their plastic chins and noses, and into their botoxed eyes and say
"mummy when i grow up, can i be like (read whoever is in steps - thankfully i don't know
their names)...
Comments regarding some comments above -
yes, sarah paine's mother could indeed have switched off the t.v. if she didn't like what she saw, (i doubt she even saw it, but that of course is irrelevant) Ofcourse innocent children are going to be raped and murdered - it has allways happened, AND IT WILL ALLWAYS HAPPEN, unless of course J gets her way and every citizen reports to their nearest police station to be strilized incase they happen to become A MONSTER who does shit like that,
( imagine what the neighbours would think if YOU DIDN'T REPORT but everyone else did YOU WOULDN'T LAST VERY FUCKING LING WOULD YOU? AND THATS EXACTLY WHAT MORRIS WAS TRYING TO GET ACCROSS. JUST BECAUSE A POEADOPHILE'S VICTIMS PARENTS MIGHT BE WATCHING, DOES NOT GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CENSOR EVERYONE ELSES - DARE I SAY IT? ENTERTAINEMENT?
PUnK PERSON ABOVE - WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE, NICE 1 - IF YOU ARE QUEER, LET ME KNOW - SERIOUSLY, i'm not joking, get in touch.
L8r people...
AND REMEBER KIDS - CAKE IS A MADE UP DRUG...
LOCUTUS
e-mail: TONY1701F@HOTMAIL.COM