>Joe Lycett isn’t the one making a mockery of politics. He’s merely laughing at it.
>In response to Lycett’s appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s new Sunday politics show, in which he sarcastically applauded Liz Truss, some in the politico and media classes have gone utterly bananas. Are we meant to believe a politely delivered, completely inoffensive, mild bit of bantering sending up the party of government is beyond the pale?
>Lycett has many media commentators in a frothing tizzy. Aside from making headline news on the next day’s Daily Mail with ’Now BBC Comic Mocks Liz Truss’, Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator grumped he couldn’t think of anything ‘less amusing’ than Lycett’s performance. “Comics once bristled at the establishment,” he complains. Lycett’s target was the newly minted Prime Minister. Tory MP Steve Brine brought up Lycett in Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in front of BBC Director General Tim Davie, saying “How about a conversation that goes on before output where somebody says – You know what, new show, new start, new term – let’s not book Joe, because we know what Joe’s going to deliver.” Any authoritarian regime would be pleased with a Minister suggesting those critical of the government not be invited onto a current affairs show.
>Ex-editor of BBC live political programming, Rob Burley, weighed in too. He said “…the panel needs an urgent rethink and someone senior at the BBC should have seen Lycett’s lame hijack coming.” The man who had far right Marine Le Pen (and no other French leadership candidate of 2016) on the Andrew Marr show takes umbrage with a comic’s mild sarcasm.
>As for the accusation comedian Lycett wasn’t ‘serious’ enough, is sarcasm any less communicative of the speaker’s genuine opinion? The response has made quite clear it’s widely understood Lycett is not, as he jested, ‘very right wing’ and doesn’t think highly of the new Prime Minister. His comments were no less intelligible than the politicians who appear on current affairs panel shows regurgitating party soundbites or obfuscating hard truths with rhetorical distractions and bad faith.
>iNews reported Kuenssberg’s brand new current affairs show will be ‘reset’ to prevent the same thing happening again. How stiff and brittle is British political discourse if the whole thing can come crashing down because one television guest briefly employed sarcasm against the government?
>Despite the overheated, disproportionate responses from right leaning media, what Lycett did was enjoyable, but not groundbreaking. But he did defy the British custom of falling into line and playing the game as instructed. He didn’t go along with the charade that contemporary British politics is anything other than a parlour game sewn up by the upper classes. Instead, he laughed at it.
>In his banana yellow jacket, Lycett was the canary in the coalmine. Britain is on such a mad, self-destructive, right-wing political path that incredulity at the absurdity of it all is truly a proportionate and authentic response. His refusal to play along with custom and convention might scare the right-wing media, but it resonated with the watching, fed-up, approaching breaking point public who just might take inspiration from his insubordination.
I think he was laughing at Liz Truss as well to be fair
I don’t think anyone, politician or broadcaster, can complain about a comedian telling a sarcastic joke when they refuse to be honest.
Whether it’s about what their policies are. How they intend to make them work. Who funds them. What shadowy and secretive parliamentary groups they’re part of.
Joe Lycetts input is as politically astute as any of the prepared talking points that get thrown out regardless of what the question was.
>Britain is on such a mad, self-destructive, right-wing political path that incredulity at the absurdity of it all is truly a proportionate and authentic response.
I agree. If we can’t laugh at them when they spout their political horse shit – what can we do? It’s not even like we got to vote for or against Pork Markets. That was achieved by a private council of geriatric rich people.
Weird how they had Ian Duncan smith on discussing pmq and pretty much saying the same thing about truss being extremely clear about her plan (which she won’t announce until later in the week!) and no outrage.
He should be hung from Cromwell’s statue for treason.
Oh not wait, he’s a comedian, who when asked his opinion on a TV show, basically did his job.
*Next week, Bob Montimer on Fracking*
What an actual state our country is in when something SO mild gets SUCH a response.
How thin skinned does your ~~wannabe fascist dictatorship~~ government need to be to get your knickers in such a twist?
They’re so narcissistic that they simply can’t allow a single thing in the moment to pass them by. It’s so reactionary and shortsighted that this government and the last government as well simply will never deliver any kind of future or plan because they’re so obsessed with what everyone thinks or says about them at this exact moment in time.
Pathetic.
Cancel culture is real.
It’s not the conservatives they want to cancel.
Ridiculous to watch Kussenburg leap to Truss’ defence and then pretend that it was ever going to be balanced on unbiased
When it comes to the media the Tories have really grown accustomed to playing politics on easy mode to the extent that one person sarcastically criticizing them on television sent them all into an absolute meltdown.
The calls to prevent anything like this happening again are chillingly authoritarian, good thing the right loves free speech and hates cancel culture right?
Ooo someone got angry because they were expecting a lefty comedian they could hackle and instead they got a man who essentially repeated what they normally say and highlighted how utterly stupid they sound.
Gosh I love this man.
The interesting thing is that all he did was say exactly what a Tory would have said but sarcastically. And it’s causing them to freak out about it.
Anyone remember spitting image?
You need to remember that this is just about attacking the BBC to sell it off.
The government being thin skinned about this was pretty much expected but the seething among journalists is hilarious.
Just says it all. He held up a mirror to their gentle questioning and inability to separate the fact they all attend the same schools and garden parties (as the people they’re covering) from actual reality. They didn’t like that and their reaction is just proving him right.
Awwww did the politician get upset because the comedian was mean to her?
I have never seen a joke so widely reported and complained about whilst simultaneously not sharing what the joke was. Does anyone know what he said?
He wasn’t laughing at it at all. He’s very right wing.
He mocked them just like they mock us. It was perfect. The only thing is, he was joking about it inside, not knowingly just lying about it. But the delivery was identical to when the public get gaslit on TV. “iNews reported Kuenssberg’s brand new current affairs show will be ‘reset’ to prevent the same thing happening again”. I fucking doubt that…it just won’t be a comedian doing it. BS espoused from whoever lying towrag is on this week. She’s like their cheerleader.
Nothing scares those who would control you more than laughter. Mockery above all.
It’s why we’ve seen such rage from the authoritarian aspiring identitarian left over the last years, and why the authoritarian aspiring populist right will now shit a brick at Lycett’s skewering.
Bring on more of this, mockery of both extremes will be the most effective way out of their grip upon our political and legal lives (populist right) and our cultural and social sphere (identitarian left) moving forward.
His point and what he said is completely justified with all these right wing MPs complaints that LKs first show wasn’t littered with right wingers.
Shows how much the right are used to getting wanked off by the media at all times, completely losing themselves over very light criticism.
It’s utterly insane that this is even a discussion.
A comedian was invited on to a panel show to give his opinions. Everyone knew in advance. He did so.
Now apparently despite everyone knowing the guests in advance, their careers and what kinds of comments they might be likely to make, the fact that he did exactly that is heinous and sacrosanct, insulting the very country? Fuck off with that. Come the fuck on!
To me it didn’t seem like he was laughing at all. He actually seemed like he was genuinely livid.
Lizz Truss tells a bunch of lies on a political show. Joe Lycett goes on afterwards and says, “I believe everything she said!”. A bunch of people get mad at **him**.
Why is Laura Kuenssberg hosting a tv show anyway? She has zero charisma. I remember she used to write the BBC articles that everyone hated. Was she just a really senior writer and got handed a show?
The problem isn’t Lycett of course. The problem they have is that Lycett merely had the audacity to demonstrate that the emperor has no clothes.
I love Joe Lycett, I’d like to see him on every political panel show
27 comments
>Joe Lycett isn’t the one making a mockery of politics. He’s merely laughing at it.
>In response to Lycett’s appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s new Sunday politics show, in which he sarcastically applauded Liz Truss, some in the politico and media classes have gone utterly bananas. Are we meant to believe a politely delivered, completely inoffensive, mild bit of bantering sending up the party of government is beyond the pale?
>Lycett has many media commentators in a frothing tizzy. Aside from making headline news on the next day’s Daily Mail with ’Now BBC Comic Mocks Liz Truss’, Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator grumped he couldn’t think of anything ‘less amusing’ than Lycett’s performance. “Comics once bristled at the establishment,” he complains. Lycett’s target was the newly minted Prime Minister. Tory MP Steve Brine brought up Lycett in Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in front of BBC Director General Tim Davie, saying “How about a conversation that goes on before output where somebody says – You know what, new show, new start, new term – let’s not book Joe, because we know what Joe’s going to deliver.” Any authoritarian regime would be pleased with a Minister suggesting those critical of the government not be invited onto a current affairs show.
>Ex-editor of BBC live political programming, Rob Burley, weighed in too. He said “…the panel needs an urgent rethink and someone senior at the BBC should have seen Lycett’s lame hijack coming.” The man who had far right Marine Le Pen (and no other French leadership candidate of 2016) on the Andrew Marr show takes umbrage with a comic’s mild sarcasm.
>As for the accusation comedian Lycett wasn’t ‘serious’ enough, is sarcasm any less communicative of the speaker’s genuine opinion? The response has made quite clear it’s widely understood Lycett is not, as he jested, ‘very right wing’ and doesn’t think highly of the new Prime Minister. His comments were no less intelligible than the politicians who appear on current affairs panel shows regurgitating party soundbites or obfuscating hard truths with rhetorical distractions and bad faith.
>iNews reported Kuenssberg’s brand new current affairs show will be ‘reset’ to prevent the same thing happening again. How stiff and brittle is British political discourse if the whole thing can come crashing down because one television guest briefly employed sarcasm against the government?
>Despite the overheated, disproportionate responses from right leaning media, what Lycett did was enjoyable, but not groundbreaking. But he did defy the British custom of falling into line and playing the game as instructed. He didn’t go along with the charade that contemporary British politics is anything other than a parlour game sewn up by the upper classes. Instead, he laughed at it.
>In his banana yellow jacket, Lycett was the canary in the coalmine. Britain is on such a mad, self-destructive, right-wing political path that incredulity at the absurdity of it all is truly a proportionate and authentic response. His refusal to play along with custom and convention might scare the right-wing media, but it resonated with the watching, fed-up, approaching breaking point public who just might take inspiration from his insubordination.
I think he was laughing at Liz Truss as well to be fair
I don’t think anyone, politician or broadcaster, can complain about a comedian telling a sarcastic joke when they refuse to be honest.
Whether it’s about what their policies are. How they intend to make them work. Who funds them. What shadowy and secretive parliamentary groups they’re part of.
Joe Lycetts input is as politically astute as any of the prepared talking points that get thrown out regardless of what the question was.
>Britain is on such a mad, self-destructive, right-wing political path that incredulity at the absurdity of it all is truly a proportionate and authentic response.
I agree. If we can’t laugh at them when they spout their political horse shit – what can we do? It’s not even like we got to vote for or against Pork Markets. That was achieved by a private council of geriatric rich people.
Weird how they had Ian Duncan smith on discussing pmq and pretty much saying the same thing about truss being extremely clear about her plan (which she won’t announce until later in the week!) and no outrage.
He should be hung from Cromwell’s statue for treason.
Oh not wait, he’s a comedian, who when asked his opinion on a TV show, basically did his job.
*Next week, Bob Montimer on Fracking*
What an actual state our country is in when something SO mild gets SUCH a response.
How thin skinned does your ~~wannabe fascist dictatorship~~ government need to be to get your knickers in such a twist?
They’re so narcissistic that they simply can’t allow a single thing in the moment to pass them by. It’s so reactionary and shortsighted that this government and the last government as well simply will never deliver any kind of future or plan because they’re so obsessed with what everyone thinks or says about them at this exact moment in time.
Pathetic.
Cancel culture is real.
It’s not the conservatives they want to cancel.
Ridiculous to watch Kussenburg leap to Truss’ defence and then pretend that it was ever going to be balanced on unbiased
When it comes to the media the Tories have really grown accustomed to playing politics on easy mode to the extent that one person sarcastically criticizing them on television sent them all into an absolute meltdown.
The calls to prevent anything like this happening again are chillingly authoritarian, good thing the right loves free speech and hates cancel culture right?
Ooo someone got angry because they were expecting a lefty comedian they could hackle and instead they got a man who essentially repeated what they normally say and highlighted how utterly stupid they sound.
Gosh I love this man.
The interesting thing is that all he did was say exactly what a Tory would have said but sarcastically. And it’s causing them to freak out about it.
Anyone remember spitting image?
You need to remember that this is just about attacking the BBC to sell it off.
The government being thin skinned about this was pretty much expected but the seething among journalists is hilarious.
Just says it all. He held up a mirror to their gentle questioning and inability to separate the fact they all attend the same schools and garden parties (as the people they’re covering) from actual reality. They didn’t like that and their reaction is just proving him right.
Awwww did the politician get upset because the comedian was mean to her?
I have never seen a joke so widely reported and complained about whilst simultaneously not sharing what the joke was. Does anyone know what he said?
He wasn’t laughing at it at all. He’s very right wing.
He mocked them just like they mock us. It was perfect. The only thing is, he was joking about it inside, not knowingly just lying about it. But the delivery was identical to when the public get gaslit on TV. “iNews reported Kuenssberg’s brand new current affairs show will be ‘reset’ to prevent the same thing happening again”. I fucking doubt that…it just won’t be a comedian doing it. BS espoused from whoever lying towrag is on this week. She’s like their cheerleader.
Nothing scares those who would control you more than laughter. Mockery above all.
It’s why we’ve seen such rage from the authoritarian aspiring identitarian left over the last years, and why the authoritarian aspiring populist right will now shit a brick at Lycett’s skewering.
Bring on more of this, mockery of both extremes will be the most effective way out of their grip upon our political and legal lives (populist right) and our cultural and social sphere (identitarian left) moving forward.
His point and what he said is completely justified with all these right wing MPs complaints that LKs first show wasn’t littered with right wingers.
Shows how much the right are used to getting wanked off by the media at all times, completely losing themselves over very light criticism.
It’s utterly insane that this is even a discussion.
A comedian was invited on to a panel show to give his opinions. Everyone knew in advance. He did so.
Now apparently despite everyone knowing the guests in advance, their careers and what kinds of comments they might be likely to make, the fact that he did exactly that is heinous and sacrosanct, insulting the very country? Fuck off with that. Come the fuck on!
To me it didn’t seem like he was laughing at all. He actually seemed like he was genuinely livid.
Lizz Truss tells a bunch of lies on a political show. Joe Lycett goes on afterwards and says, “I believe everything she said!”. A bunch of people get mad at **him**.
Why is Laura Kuenssberg hosting a tv show anyway? She has zero charisma. I remember she used to write the BBC articles that everyone hated. Was she just a really senior writer and got handed a show?
The problem isn’t Lycett of course. The problem they have is that Lycett merely had the audacity to demonstrate that the emperor has no clothes.
I love Joe Lycett, I’d like to see him on every political panel show