Little Britain

[tallulahhula33]

Just seen an interesting discussion on Twitter regarding Little Britain and how damaging it was to minority groups in the UK. I must admit I liked it at the time (I was a teenager) but can't understand how they got away with it now. And I don't think I've ever seen them apologise for it?

There was the disabled guy pretending to be disabled.
The old lady who threw up when she found out anyone foreign had baked the cake and she was eating.
The university secretary who used blatant racist language.
Also transphobic/homophobic issues.

Were they perhaps double bluffing by poking fun at the views of people who for example think all disabled people are fakers? Or was it really that offensive? It definitely wouldn't be aired now but it wasn't really all that long ago. And Walliams and Lucas are still very much in the public eye.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=O-njb_RJLEM

It did reappear in Lockdown

Well of course it was ‘double bluffing’. That was the comedy!

Was it funny at the time it was made? Some of it was. Was it close to the bone at the time? Yep. Did lots of people think they were crossing boundaries at the time? Yes. Have they apologised for any offence they may have caused to people now? Yes. The only think left is being whipped in the streets which I’m sure 2023 will provide for us.

Yes, I think anyone who enjoyed a character called Ting Tong is misplaced to tell me it was a good show.

I did miss that, yes. Because none of the minority characters ever got the upper hand. It was Marjorie Daws being racist every week with no comeback.

Exactly 🤣 I always understood ‘Little Englanders’ to mean people terrified to step out of their English comfort zone and suspicious of anything non-English. Which is where I assume Little Britain came from

The victim characters never getting the upper hand isn’t an indication that they weren’t actually taking the piss out of racists and homophones FFS. It’s a comedy sketch show, or a lifetime movie. It plays on the audience’s recognition of the prejudiced attitude of many people we come across in GB.

And FYI, I’m sure you think highly of yourself to think you’re the High Priestess of What’s Funny on T , but you’re not. You think it wasn’t hilarious. I did. Neither of us are wrong.

I always saw it as satire, it was and still is hilariously funny.

You are wrong though. There’s absolutely nothing funny about Matt Lucas shouting ‘curry’ at an Indian woman who sat silently through the whole thing.

It shows just how thick Twitterati are that they cannot see the irony that Little Britain was trying to project. The show was actually called ‘Little Britain’. How dim would you have to be to not see that it was poking fun at racism etc.

You are wrong though. There’s absolutely nothing funny about Matt Lucas shouting ‘curry’ at an Indian woman who sat silently through the whole thing.

You seem to think humour is an objective thing that can be defined as a one-size-fits-all. I'm sure there are things you find funny that others don't, would they be right to tell you there is nothing funny about what you find funny?

@tallulahhula33
BBC
they won’t apologise for anything

It’s an opinion.

As is yours.

Im not wrong. You’re not wrong.

Do you know what an opinion is?

Dont remember the sketch in LB you refer to. I didn’t find every sketch in the show funny. But it doesn’t mean I didn’t think it was a funny show. I appreciate satire, and for the most part the show was hilarious.

There isn’t anything funny about the inherent racism that Little Britain perpetuated that made Walliams and Lucas loads of money.

Marjorie Dawes was great but I preferred the shop owner who would have the same customer ask for something insanely obscure and the shopkeeper would find it and there be a problem like the thickness of the paper or the design of the box 😂 if you’ve worked in customer service you have had THAT customer

total spoonfed rubbish
people saying ‘computa sez noooo’ for years and ‘yeh but no but yeh but no but’

utter crap then and even worse now

Some of the sketches were funny, some weren't. It did get a little try-hard and uncomfortable at points, especially the later seasons.

Come Fly with Me is good, need to watch that again.

Did you find Ting Tong funny? Specifically which bits are you still finding hysterical twenty years later?

It is interesting to read these replies, the last time I read a thread on LB the vast majority were saying it was completely unacceptable and DW and ML should be cancelled.

Someone up thread said even if we stop joking about racism etc it doesn't mean people stop being racist, we just pretend it isn't happening. Comedy should be able to challenge unacceptable views, it should be close to the bone.
Censorship doesn't bring freedom it causes oppression.

JFC.

They we’re making fun of racists, homophobes, biggots, fatphobics and generally difficult people and the way they treated others.

What is it about that statement you don’t understand? Do you understand why it was called Little Britain?

Yeah, we don’t have to put it on primetime BBC though. I bet there’s loads of racist garbage on the internet if you want to find it.

😂😂

Everyone knows a creepy sex tourist who bought his wife, and was probably a virgin before - it was taking the piss out of people like him. LB also did quite well at subtlety touching on the macabre side of life, such as what it is like for Thai brides.

I don’t think it ever tried to sell itself as a ‘macabre’ comedy though. It was fairly mainstream and I think it’s aim was to just be simply funny at the time. They did Comic Relief and Christmas Specials. It’s not like Family Guy or a Jimmy Carr stand up routine that aims to be provocative or ironically inappropriate. If it was, and had thereby probably been handled and presented slightly differently, then it would still be airing now. But it didn’t set out to be a dark comedy. Taking the piss out of gay people or disabled people or people of minority or disadvantaged backgrounds was just seen as fair game for mainstream humour back then - which is why it was so successful and widely watched - and that’s why it’s been taken off streaming platforms. I don’t think there was anything subtle or ironic about the show at all. People who are trying to make out there was are looking at it through a 2022 lens. In 2003 this was just simply face value funny stuff.

Some people think there is nothing to find funny when someone falls over. Some do. I don't understand why one person's opinion about what's funny is correct. Funny is different to different people. It's like saying you don't find a painting appealing/beautiful/of any merit. Well, fine, but someone else does. Beauty, taste, humour, all personal.

And did that override the racist stuff for you? It was worth the racism for this top-notch humour?

The population has been dumbed down over time to not understand satire. People struggle to think for themselves and want to be told how to tie their shoes laces, when to leave the house, what to think. It’s no surprise that the same population struggles to grasp the itself deprecating humour of Little Britain.

TBH I don’t remember much about Ting Tong but I remember thinking how they captured the grim situation really well.

I loved the sketches of Marjorie Dawes, the shopkeeper, I’m a Lady, Anne, the WI racist and Bubbles.

Much less keen on the only gay in the village, bitty and the man who fancied elderly women.

Make of that what you will (I’m sure you will accuse me of all sorts but you did ask)