Last Friday I had the great pleasure of sitting in a Starbucks, sipping on a hot caramel macchiatto, and listening to a brilliant podcast from Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. The podcast was from Brand's BBC Radio 2 program, in which Ross was a guest on that originally aired on October 18.
As you may have heard from every news source imaginable, during the radio show, Ross and Brand called up 78-year-old Andrew Sachs on his mobile to try an interview him, as he was supposed to appear on the show but for whatever reason, couldn't. Sachs didn't answer, so they left him a voicemail...or four.
Brand, shockingly, had slept with Sach's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, and kept joking with Ross that he better not mention anything. Baillie was a performer in the group called The Satanic Sluts at the time of her rendezvous with Brand, and so you can imagine what great material that was for Brand and Ross.
On the first voicemail, Ross, sure enough, blurts out, "Russell's had sex with your granddaughter!!!" So the pair then spend the next four or five voicemails trying to apologize, but it keeps turning out to be more and more ridiculous, awkward, and...hilarious.
In all honestly, that podcast was pretty much one of the funniest things I've ever heard. I died with laughter in the middle of Starbucks. Yes, that was me snorting in the corner.
Cut to a couple weeks later, and Ofcom has received 10,000 complaints for "listeners" who heard this pre-recored show broadcast on the radio. (Or, probably heard about it on the news, or listened to the podcast online, and THEN called to complain about it.)
It has been in every single paper, all over the news, and if you watch BBC News, it's talked about approximately every three seconds.
Ofcom are launching an investigation into the program. They're "probing".
People are calling for Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to be fired! Fired, I tell you!
Andrew Sachs is, rightfully, pissed off. Georgina has told The Sun (which I think says a lot right there...) that she is "really distraught about it" and that Ross and Brand should be "punished" for what they did to a "harmless, lovely old man".
So, as you can probably tell, I'm about to launch into enraged diatribe about why this is all bullshit. So, here it goes...
THIS IS BULLSHIT.
Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are absolutely fucking brilliant. They're comedic geniuses and I have so much respect for both of them. They are both deranged and perverted and a tad bit out of control - everyone knows this - and yet these are the same reasons that every body loves them. They say things we, and hardly anybody else, will say.
The radio show that they did - fucking hilarious. Brilliant.
The phone calls to Sachs? Side-splittingly funny. They were shocking and hilarious and while they were doing it you, you kept thinking, "Oh my god. I can't believe they're doing this." That's part of the reason it was so funny.
Like it or not, comedy is almost always at the expense of somebody else.
Was it offensive? Yes. Did they cross the line? Probably. But, considering that this was a PRE-RECORDED radio broadcast, perhaps it should have been the show's producers responsibility to either:
a) Tell Brand and Ross to stop calling Sachs
b) Edit out the phone calls or the obscenities or bits of the show that violated Ofcom's broadcasting guidelines before it went on air!
But, neither one of those things was done. It did go on air and even lived online for a while - before all this hoo-ha erupted. I can absolutely see how Georginia would be embarrassed and offended, as well as Andrew Sachs, and Brand and Russell should have absolutely apologized - which they did. Profusely.
Sachs has even said that he's recieved flowers and apologies from both of them, and that, "They are in enough trouble now, I don't want to put anymore pressure on them."
So, the BBC has apologized, Russell Brand has apologized, Jonathan Ross has apologized - so what the hell is everyone's problem?!
On BBC News last night they showed a group of the offended people discussing how they should all be sacked - and you know what? They were all OLD ASS WOMEN who are probably so offended by this all because they had a crush on Sachs when he played Manuel on Fawlty Towers back in the '20s or whenever it was.
Why are these old people listening to Russell Brand's show!? I find it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE that all these pensioners were listening to this show when it was originally broadcast on the radio, so why the hell are they getting so angry about it?
The people on the TV who are complaining about this say that it's "disgusting", that they were "bullying a senior citizen", and for some fucking reason, David Cameron has his panties in a bunch over it, as well as Gordon Brown who has deemed Brand and Ross' actions as "inappropriate and unacceptable".
Ofcom are citing their conduct code as to why, in addition to the complaints, that they are investigating the broadcast. BBC News reported that Ofcom say Brand and Ross have violated the code as their broadcast included the following: "offensive language"; "humiliation"; "distress" as well as "violation of human dignity".
I can most definitely see how Ofcom see that things like distress and offensive language were used in the program. However, how many other fucking programs use these tactics in both TV and radio?
For example, have you ever watched Fonejacker?
A guy randomly calls people and establishments, uses fake voices and offensive language to create an awkward, enraging, or embarrassing situations with the sole intent to humiliate his *victims* in the name of comedy.
In the most recent episode, he called some guy and said the he knew he was "fucking his wife". This, obviously, caused the poor guy DISTRESS and HUMILIATION - but are people complaining about it? No.
While one could argue a main difference between the two shows is that the subjects on Fonejacker have to give the producers consent to broadcast the material on TV. However, Andrew Sachs was not ON the program. It was his voicemail. And, it wasn't live, so once again, in this case, it comes down to the producers doesn't it?
He and his granddaughter were embarrassed by what was being said about him on a radio program and what was on his voicemail. And the people responsible for it apologized. Profusely.
And, for the record, Sky News and BBC News and anyone else that is showing Russell Brand's "song" as how he apologized to Andrew Sachs - you're wrong! That was on one of the voice mails. He actually, sincerely apologized off air, so stop saying that THAT is how he apologized. Maybe it's because of your biased news reporting that everyone is getting so fussy over this.
They should not be fired, they should not be suspended or fined or "investigated".
I can't help but wonder if this were Jonathan Ross and Chris Moyles, or Jonathan Ross and any other comedian would the media be reacting so harshly?
If Brand weren't a tall, skinny, wild-haired, flamboyant, feminine man with a history of drug and sex addiction - would these old ladies and conservative politicians and journalists care so much about this?
UPDATE: The fucking BBC have SUSPENDED Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.
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Image via The Telegraph