Frankie Boyle is Bernard Manning in a suit made of irony
I am not Disgusted Of Tumbridge Wells. When something on TV offends me (and that is a rare occurence usually involving the presence of Fearne Cotton), I change the channel. But in my role as a TV reviewer I had to watch Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights. It is by far the most vile bit of television I have ever seen and I once watched 5 hours of Richard And Judy repeats. Throughout his show, Frankie Boyle repeatedly used racial and homophobic slurs, degraded women and made light of rape.
Frankie Boyle thinks he’s being subversive, shocking and brutal in the heritage of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor or Bill Hicks. He moaned that he had to leave Mock The Week because it wouldn’t allow his cutting satire about Palestinians and the Israeli army. That’s bollocks. He has done not one bit of politically edgy comedy during Tramadol Nights preferring instead to make jokes that would have given Bernard Manning a raging woody.
In Tuesday night’s episode of Tramadol Nights, Boyle used the words “nigger” and “paki” several times, insulted people with AIDS and cancer patients. In a bizarre sketch featuring a woman dressed as a sexy version of Super Mario (what the hell are Boyle and his writers on?), a character turned to the camera saying: “Hello to Pakis everywhere!”
Oh the inclusive and radical agenda of Channel 4 which tolerates racial and homophobic abuse to be broadcast on national television. They’re so damn edgy aren’t they?
Russell Brand has said that he excused his bad behaviour as a junkie because he felt as if he was under a drugbrella. Channel 4 seems to be doing something similar as if Frankie Boyle is in a special controversy repelling irony suit.
Material that we would deride if it had been written by the working men’s club comics of the seventies is allowed to appear in 2010 because Frankie Boyle is “cutting edge” and a master of irony. He is none of those things.
Boyle is a misanthropic individual who obviously suffers from some kind of depression. The entire series is his hate mail to the human race, half hour episodes of him rubbing our faces in the most degrading elements of humanity.
Shane Allen, the head of comedy comissioning at Channel 4 says the channel “strongly refutes any suggestion we are endorsing or condoning racist language by our broadcast of Frankie’s Boyle’s Tramadol Nights. This cutting edge comedy is clearly intended to ridicule and satirise the use of these words - Frankie Boyle was not endorsing them.
Channel 4 would not have broadcast these words had they been used in a racist way. All the jokes highlight the unacceptable nature of this language. We are aware that Frankie Boyle’s comedy can offend which is why we have been careful to scrutinise the material editorially, schedule the series appropriately and give clear and strong warning into each programme.”
Allen is being disengenous and just plain cheeky with his comments. He should seriously consider his responsibilities and look at just how many people are offended and outright disgusted by Tramadol Nights. It is not just the Daily Mail outrage brigade but a wide swathe of the viewing audience.
To broadcast material which mocked Katie Price’s eight-year-old son who suffers from autism and septo-optic dysplasia among other conditions is utterly unacceptable particularly when Channel 4 claims to have scrutinised the material. Why didn’t anyone at the channel tell Boyle that he had crossed a line? Or do they simply not see the line?
Frankie Boyle started out as an extremely aggressive but also funny presence on TV. In the context of a tootless panel show like Mock The Week, Boyle was a tonic, a biting edge that made up for wet and unfunny wannabes such as Andy Parsons.
But Boyle’s ego is out of control. With Tramadol Nights he has been allowed to do as he pleases and in place of comedy he has just taken the chance to spit in the faces of everyone he dislikes. Within that suit of irony, Boyle is just Bernard Manning after a serious weightloss programme.
