The scale of the BBC’s Left-wing comedy bias is laid bare for the first time today in an audit of its entertainment output.
Research seen by The Mail on Sunday shows that out of 364 comedy slots broadcast by the BBC over the past month, just four featured comedians with explicitly Conservative or pro-Brexit views.
By contrast, a total of 268 slots were filled by comedians with publicly pronounced, Left-leaning or ‘woke’ views, such as Nish Kumar, Adam Hills and Shappi Khorsandi.
Kumar, who appears on The Mini Mash Report, makes Right-leaning politicians the butt of jokes, on one occasion yelling ‘F*** you, Boris Johnson!’ to audience cheers.
The scale of the BBC’s Left-wing comedy bias is laid bare for the first time today in an audit of its entertainment output. Pictured: Left-wing comedian Nish Kumar
The findings come as Tory MPs are lobbying Boris Johnson to fight back against the BBC’s ‘politically correct’ agenda.
More than 25 of them, led by senior backbencher and ex-Minister Sir John Hayes, wrote to the Prime Minister last month to urge him to decriminalise the licence fee to ‘defend British traditions and values…to stand against the senseless woke whingers and the soulless militants who despise the best of Britain’.
The audit by the Campaign For Common Sense (CCS) found that out of 364 slots on BBC 1, BBC 2 and Radio 4 over the past month, a total of 268 slots – 74 per cent – were given to 99 comedians with ‘woke’ views.
It has prompted Mark Lehain, director of the CCS, to write to new BBC director- general Tim Davie to call on him to tackle bias in BBC comedy.
Mr Lehain said: ‘The BBC says it wants to improve the diversity of output.
The reality is our comedy shows are awash with ‘woke’ jokes and there is nothing funny about such flagrant bias.
Our research reveals prime-time comedy shows are dominated by comedians who broadly share the same outlook and views on politics, Brexit and Britain and simply don’t reflect the wide range of opinions held by the viewers they seek to entertain.
Atotal of 268 slots on the BBC’s comedy shows were filled last month by comedians with publicly pronounced, Left-leaning or ‘woke’ views, such as Nish Kumar, Adam Hills and Shappi Khorsandi
‘There are loads of talented comics out there holding small-‘c’ conservative, anti-‘woke’ and pro- Brexit views. The issue is they just aren’t getting booked by the BBC.’
Mr Davie has admitted that the BBC’s focus ‘must be to ensure that we deliver outstanding and unique value to all audiences’.
Comedian Leo Kearse claims to have been snubbed by the BBC because he is ‘one of the minorities forgotten by the Corporation – a Right-wing comedian’, adding: ‘It has long been obvious to anyone watching panel shows, sketch shows or sitcoms on British telly that there is a definite bias against Conservatives – and, let’s face it, working-class people.
‘This gigantic monolith that we all have to pay for or go to jail oozes a liberal, Oxbridge-educated, metropolitan elite agenda at every pore.’
Mr Kearse complains that Left-wing comedians such as Mr Kumar ‘all come out with the same stuff – Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have silly hair and are stupid’.
Adam Hills is one of the comedians who features on the BBC who is unafraid to air his left-wing views
The report’s authors highlight examples of ‘non-woke’ comedians who they think should be given more of an airing by the BBC, including Scott Capurro, whose anti-woke material includes: ‘Are there any radical Muslim fundamentalists in tonight? They’re always dying for attention.’
Another is Tania Edwards, who jokes: ‘I think having a referendum on Brexit was a mistake, I do.
‘I think it’s like asking your husband if he wants a threesome for his 40th. He was supposed to say No.’
The BBC said: ‘We don’t analyse our comedy by comparing numbers. We judge it on it being funny, how popular it is and whether it reflects a range of different voices and views.’
It’s no laughing matter – how the Beeb’s gags are right on… or just anti-right
Are You a Boy or a Girl?
BBC Radio 4, November 25
Comedienne Sarah Keyworth described herself as ‘a non- gender-conforming being’ at the beginning of the episode, before continuing with a history of ‘gender-queer people and the long fight for acceptance that we are still pursuing’.
Keyworth said: ‘That is what gender is, it’s a performance, it’s decoration… your sex organs are the physical bits of you, but what we have done as human beings is pile a load of arbitrary meanings on to those body parts.’
Have I Got News for You
BBC One, November 27
Programme host Jo Brand introduced newsreader and guest Charlene White as a woman who has interviewed a string of British leaders ‘except the current one – Carrie Symonds’.
Comedienne Sarah Keyworth described herself as ‘a non- gender-conforming being’ at the beginning of BBC Radio 4 show Are You A Boy Or Girl on November 25
Miss White suggested a caption for a photo showing the Prime Minister and Priti Patel talking to a policeman: ‘You’d better smile, or I’ll set her on you.’
Speaking about the friendship between Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the former landlord of The Cock Inn at Little Thurlow, Suffolk, team captain Paul Merton remarked: ‘When Matt Hancock’s there people say, ‘Is the c**k in?’.’
Mock the Week
BBC Two, November 26
Panelist Hugh Dennis, asked to pose a question with the number five as its answer, suggested: ‘How many times yesterday did Priti Patel flush a colleague’s head down the lavatory?’
Asked the same thing, comedian Rhys James said: ‘Taking into account the rule of six, how many spaces are left at Priti Patel’s office Christmas party?’
Host Dara O’Briain said of Boris Johnson: ‘He has announced mass testing just after three separate vaccines have arrived. He has announced the one thing we don’t need.’
The Ranganation
BBC Two, November 9
Host Romesh Ranganathan said: ‘A recent poll revealed just 27 per cent of Brits think Boris Johnson is an honest person. Boris has lied so many times that if he told me that stat I’d presume it was bulls***.’
He added: ‘Yes, he got corona and he had a baby, but as far as we know neither of those have symptoms that include p***-poor decision-making.’
On November 27, Have I Got News For You host Jo Brand introduced newsreader and guest Charlene White as a woman who has interviewed a string of British leaders ‘except the current one – Carrie Symonds’
The Mini Mash Report
BBC 2, November 26
Presenter Nish Kumar launched a broadside against Brexit and those who argue against mass immigration.
He quoted a 2016 report by the Centre for Economic Performance that claimed EU immigrants had no impact on the jobs and wages of UK workers, had no negative effect on local services and paid more in tax than they took in benefits.
In part of the show, there was an item about a post-Brexit recipe for spaghetti bolognese which included rat hair as a result, he said, of the absence of ‘tiresome EU food standard regulations’.