AIBU to object to Hancock's Half Hour?

[TiddlesTheTiger]

I took exception to this episode. I complained to the BBC and they replied.
I won't say, yet, what I wrote or what they replied so if you have a few spare mins have a listen to the episode and give me your view.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007yntz .

I like Hancock's Half Hour but this is a long, long way from his best. I blame Galton and Simpson, personally. They wrote them.

In my view we should not judge what happened in years gone by according to the standards of today. HHH is a very dated programme and if it annoys you don't listen to it.

I used to watch Hancocks half hour, and lots of other comedy stuff from the 50''s and 60's era.. There used to be lots of iffy stuff, and risque things in most comedy programmes years ago, even my late Mum, who was quite straight laced years ago, would just laugh at stuff like the Benny Hill show, with him chasing around after scantily clad women, and making suggestive remarks to them, and all such things, It was just a different era then, when people could have a good laugh, without the critical and offended types these days.

At least you never had programmes, with swearing in them, like the F and C words being used every five minutes in some stuff like these days, and of course not many explicit sex scenes in the old telly days,

Comedy is a key part of how we develop and evolve socially and ethicially. If you look back over the last few decades we’ve had
Slut shaming single women who enjoy sex (Rox in Fraser)
Homophobia (eg Friends) with a slow crawl to having token gay men side characters
Transphobia (Little Britain)
The hilarity of Autism (Big Bang)

Every one of these moves us forward - first we laugh, and then we think. And in a relatively short space of time it becomes more uncomfortable than funny.

Comedy causes us to look at our social mores and to see what’s happening around us. It’s not easy to question our culture because it’s like expecting a fish to analyse water. We’re in it, not outside it, but comedy changes our perspective briefly.

I understand why it’s offensive to you OP, but the existence of those comedy shows may be a key part of the reason that you have that clarity.

Rather than worrying about the old stuff, maybe consider what we’re laughing at now and what that tells us about ourselves.

What do the Mn readers do who don't either comforting to the washing up gender stereotype or the saw wood stereotype? Listen whilst we cancel people? Listen whilst we type out our pronouns??

@TiddlesTheTiger

I took exception to this episode. I complained to the BBC and they replied. I won't say, yet, what I wrote or what they replied so if you have a few spare mins have a listen to the episode and give me your view.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007yntz .

Have you also complained about John Webster's Duchess of Malfi, all that blood and can we also 'cancel' Geoffrey Chaucer, very raunchy! How far back are we going to expect retrospective application of current standards?
It's no wonder that so many MNers are tired and exhausted the amount of time they spend looking for things about which they can be 'offended'. Hancock was amazing, but it's for adults.

@TeenPlusCat

A pint? That's nearly an armful!

We're not all Rob Roys!

If I ever hear the place Cheam mentined I think of Tony Hancock.

A few years ago I took part in a research study which involved having a lot of blood taken at half a dozen appointments. The phlebotomist was an older chap who dutifully laughed when I trotted out the 'very nearly an armful' line.

I hope op doesn’t come across Sid James. She will self combust.

To be fair, as one of the very few people (I suspect) who followed OP's link and listened to this episode, there are some casual references to domestic violence that do cause a sharp intake of breath now. Campaigning to pay the legal expenses of any man who finds himself in court for hitting the missus - . The fact that it ends with Hancock's mum humiliating him in front of his male chums and peremptorily ordering him home doesn't really make up for that.

I find that a lot more offensive than the scantily clad women on Benny Hill, tbh.

Oh do get over yourself. I loved Hancocks Half Hour, and I agree with others - if you don't like it, then don't listen. Any books you would like burned while your at it?

People fail to understand satirical comedy all the time. I wish the BBC response had tried to explain it to the OP instead of caving and saying it was of its time. It wasn’t, it was ahead of its time in many ways.

I'm a bit surprised by the responses. Yes the show was made a long time ago, and times have changed. But if I were watching content that the BBC was showing now in 2022 and there were jokes about hitting women where the bruises don't show, I doubt I'd be bothered to complain, because I'm too lazy, but I would definitely think "They shouldn't be showing that".

'Oh, wondrous moon! Oh wondrous moon with silvery sheen! Who throws its light upon East Cheam. From lofty heights, and through the mists, two o'clock Friday, chiropodists.'

"I'm very pleased to see your light,"
"Coming out tomorrow night?"

"Robert Browning? I wouldn't give him house room"

@Fairislefandango

I'm a bit surprised by the responses. Yes the show was made a long time ago, and times have changed. But if I were watching content that the BBC was showing now in 2022 and there were jokes about hitting women where the bruises don't show, I doubt I'd be bothered to complain, because I'm too lazy, but I would definitely think "They shouldn't be showing that".

Hancock wasn’t like that, though. The humour was all aimed at Hancock and his cohort of Railway cuttings losers. They were the butt of the joke.

I might listen to the episode in question tomorrow, just to be sure/ see what the fuss is about. I’d rather listen to them in order.

It's 64 years old and Hancock has been dead for 40 years or more.

Please don't ever watch Love Thy Neighbour.

Everyone appears to be offended by some bloody thing these days.

Ban it ban it. Censor this sick filth. No - get a life.

@DoWhatYouLike

It's 64 years old and Hancock has been dead for 40 years or more.

Please don't ever watch Love Thy Neighbour.

Everyone appears to be offended by some bloody thing these days.

TBF, Love Thy Neighbour was always cheap, offensive and deeply racist gutter water. Not in the same league at all.

At least you never had programmes, with swearing in them, like the F and C words being used every five minutes in some stuff like these days, and of course not many explicit sex scenes in the old telly days

I totally agree, but you don't see (many) people complaining about that. People seem to have lost the ability to have a good laugh at something, life is oh so serious, and we must prove how superior we are to the people who lived in a previous era.

@ShagMeRiggins

Thank fuck this wasn’t about Matt. I was struggling with the idea that he and his turtleneck had been given their own show.

Hahaha I was about to say the same 😂

So OP thinks the BBC should take action - presumably remove the episode/series - because she doesn’t like it / it offends her personal sensibilities?

I know MN can be ridiculous but this takes the biscuit. Why should everyone else have OP’s views forced on them?

OP, if you don’t like it, turn off the radio. Please allow the rest of us to continue living our lives in peace.

Tbh I'd consider swearing much less offensive than joking about domestic violence, as I'm sure most of MN would. Try it out - start a thread with the F word in the title, and start another thread making a joke about domestic abuse and see which one gets the most outraged responses.

Janesmom - do you think that nobody should ever complain about anything then, just in case not everybody agrees with them? The BBC is a public broadcasting company. It receives lots of complaints. Unless there are a hell of a lot, they don't do anything, so I don't think you need worry about having the OP's views forced on you. She still has a right to complain if she wants though.

@CounsellorTroi

Dalek creator Terry Nation is said by some to have “borrowed” the idea from Tony Hancock. Imagine if the Daleks, rather than shouting “exterminate” had wandered about morosely saying “Innit marvellous, eh” in sarcastic world weary tone.

Douglas Adams nailed that particular niche.

Brain the size of a planet.

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

The thing about Tony Hancock's shows is that he's always so full of himself, but comes unstuck and does stupid things which show him to be a buffoon. He's also hugely neurotic and none of the views he has can be taken seriously at all and the audience ends up laughing at him. He's a typical neurotic middle aged man that nobody takes seriously.

Well ssid! And Hattie Jacques always runs rings round all the men.