That Comic Relief was the biggest pile of crap

I don't for a moment believe that the directors keep most of the money for themselves - although I'm sure they're on decent charities - but I think a large question is WHICH charities and 'good causes' benefit, and what the choosing criteria are.

There are loads of genuine, bona fide charities out there - but many of them push beliefs and do work that I would personally 100% not support.

It's always a risk when you give trustingly to a grant-giving 'broker'-style charity, whose preferences and ideologies may wildly differ from your own, rather than directly to one that raises funds itself for its own clearly-stated cause.

It was 3 hours of recycled shit, dressed up as being a 40th anniversary special.
Proper cheapo show compared to previous years, with the naff presenters vying for attention.

@OonaStubbs can you prove that?

£34m + apparently

I haven’t watched it since I was ambushed by Billy Connolly’s jiggling nob.

Still traumatised.

I think it is all a waste of money. Hardly any of the money actually goes to the people in need. Most of it goes into the greedy pockets of the people running and working for the charity.

Oh I love Bob, he’s special. He’s also part of the older generation of funny people, of course.

Did they actually shoehorn in a TRA?? BBC stop promoting creeps challenge.

I only caught the last hour which just seemed to be videos of how we used to be funny. It doesn't seem big any more. No atmosphere. Do kids even talk about it any more?

I seem to have missed the bit where you explained how you were forced to keep watching, OP?

Excuse me, Lisa is hilarious! How f**king dare you>!

😆

@BarneyRonson I agree with you with the possible exception of Bob Mortimer. But yeah if D, L or R ever left the show would collapse entirely.

Its never been something I'd watch. It's a bunch of sycophantic celebrities pretending they care about poor people for attention.

@mondaytosunday Did they raise a decent amount?

There’s nothing on the BBC News website. Don’t they normally have an article stating the amount raised?

Who was it who was being paid handsomely to present a BBC charity event? Terry Wogan?

I took it that she was insinuating that the charity's admin and management costs were very high, as they sometimes are in charities ( not saying they are here), rather than implying that the BBC management were taking some of the money.

Where have the funny comedians gone though? All we see now are comedians that aren’t funny at all. It’s funny watching WILTY, when week after week the only people that make you laugh are the original fixtures, all the guests are as interesting and funny as Lisa at the till in Tesco.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g but the money doesn’t go into BBC hands like the OP is insinuating.

That's like saying the RNLI and the RSPCA operate in exactly the same way. CR and CiN are two separate charities with different purposes and trustees.

The way the money is accounted for will be the same as for Children in Need

But this thread is not about Children in Need.

There's a rare sketch these days that makes me chuckle, and I could barely even watch it last night, despite actually appearing on it myself in one of the filmed segments. I'm a member of Rock Choir, and I am seriously pissed off that our esteemed leader decided to make the efforts of many thousands of us, filmed all over the country for a period of weeks, all about herself. She used the choir as a vehicle for her own television appearance.

It had funded many small projects both at home and abroad that have made a real difference to individuals.
It is working to support people. It's not a matter of donating once and that solving every future problem

Why did you watch it for two hours if it was so bad?

It is shite. As a pp said, it peaked in the 1990s. French and Saunders (their bit with the Spice Girls was brilliant!,) Ali G interviewing The Beckhams, Jo Brand, Harry Enfield, Lenny Henry, Julian Clary, Ben Elton, Alan Partridge, etc... It's all PC, woke bollocks now, and about as funny as piles.

Pretty sure much of the money does go to charity though @Alwx1987GG And a lot of people around the country/workplaces/schools etc seem to have a lot of fun with it.

So I'm on the fence a bit about whether it should be axed - or continue.

It does help, Mrsdyna - or rather it can - but it depends heavily on how recipients are chosen, what they do with the money when it gets there and what kind of overall accountability exists

My own charitable involvement's now on a purely local level, partly because most of these issues are much easier to monitor, but also because experience has taught that what's become an enormous industry has brought with it too many opportunities for graft

Obviously this has to be managed, but realistically it's only the "grants given" part of that which many would regard as the money actually going to the needy; they may even say that the rest offer rather too many opportunities for ££££ to be spent on non productive areas

I didn't know they donated to Stonewall though, albeit their "housing" section, but this being tghe BBC I'm not in the least surprised