Brand and Ross - nothing a good birching couldn't fix

Back in 2000 or so, my old dad made a comment about the Weakest Link, along the lines of it’s a quiz show for bullies and does nothing other than reveal society for its wretched, Darwinian, screw-you-Jack nature. I didn’t get it. I liked the Link. I liked Ann Robinson (and having read her book, admire her all the more). However, his point stuck with me and like many others, I’ve noticed in the intervening years that society seems to revel more in humour that is not funny or worthwhile, just unkind.

Taking the mick out Ann Robinson’s evil mamma persona (or parodying it) has potential for laughs. Taking the mick of Ann Robinson’s alcoholism is NOT, in my opinion, remotely funny. To be amusing, a comedic victim needs to have made a fool out of themselves, or have displayed contradiction between practice and preach (this is why Spitting Image was such a success). Even relatively tame comedies like the Good Life kind of work because of the contradiction displayed by “people we know” or think we do.

Unkind humour can work. But for it to do so, the target must have also been careless in their bad luck. George Osborne springs to mind. Not just unlucky, but stupidly so.

So, Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand have been publicly exposed for leaving rude messages on Andrew Sach’s answerphone suggesting one of them was shagging his grand-daughter.

What smart cookies they are.

What heroes of comedy.

I bet they slapped themselves on the back for this piece of wit.

And what, pray tell, has Mr Sachs done to deserve such a “witty” verbal missive? Has he made some derogatory comments about either of these two losers in the past? Has he committed an act of paedophilia? I’m not aware of anything.

They are freaking bullies, plain and simple. And for anyone who did find it funny…would you feel the same if it was your granddad?

Andrew Sachs = a comic great and a nice, old guy.

Ross and Brand = over-paid celebri-twats with who really, really should know better but who have probably never been told to shut up. I hope they get given the birch. Then get given the boot.

And I hope that when they are sacked, that anyone thinking they are clever enough to pull a similar stunt get the message loud and clear.