BBC's exquisitely balanced cutting edge political humour

Cutting edge political humour, says the BBC website of its new Radio 4 comedy series, "Political Animal"

Featuring cutting-edge satire from an exciting mix of new and more established acts, Political Animal is an incisive, unpredictable, and richly entertaining show, offering political comedy which reaches far beyond the bounds of Westminster into the broader issues which shape the world today.

Here's some samples of that cutting edge humour from guest star Frankie Boyle. 

Can you guess the targets?

D'you think George Bush actually knows who Gordon Brown is? He probably thinks Tony Blair has put on weight, had a mild stroke......

Bush says when he retires he's going to make a living from speaking. What are your strengths, eh, George? That's like Abu Hamza having a career doing shadow puppets.

The great thing is that when an American president retires, they always open a library. I can't wait to see that photo of Bush standing in front of 20,000 copies of The Gruffalo......

That's what I like, having American people as an audience. They're often whooping and cheering. I often think we should be more medicated as a society

I'm quite interested in the Middle East, I'm actually studying that Israeli Army martial arts. 

And I know sixteen ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back. 

It's a difficult situation to understand. I've got an analogy which explains the whole thing quite well: 

If you imagine that Palestine is a cake. Well, that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew

Comments

[Thud]

Radio 4 has produced some good comedy over the years but it then slips back into the bush is thick mode...lazy and offensive...but then what can one expect from the beeb?

[waterdragon52]

Thud:

Apparently we can also expect "Israel(is)= Nazis".

[Roger]

BBC's report on June 27, "Gaza truce 'violated repeatedly'", led with alleged Israeli violations, waiting until the third paragraph to mention Palestinian rockets and mortars:

A fragile eight-day-old truce between Israel and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip appears to have been violated repeatedly by both sides.

A UN source says Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinian farmers several times, causing injuries. Israel says its forces fired warning shots.

Palestinian militants have also broken the ceasefire, firing rockets and mortars into Israeli territory.

Irrespective of the veracity of an unnamed "UN source" (many Palestinians are employed by the UN in Gaza, including Hamas members), why will the BBC not recognize that there is no moral equivalence between rocket and mortar attacks on the western Negev and the firing of warning shots by an IDF wary of potential terrorist activities near the border fence?

Here is the reply I got from BBC- hardly convincing!
Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your comments regarding this report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7437935.stm

As a news organisation we often report the most recent news event, the newest news, at the top of a report and then go backwards in time to build up the context or background to an event. So, “chronological inversion” is something that we are bound to do as we update or follow up and story.

However, this is not an example of chronological inversion. In this case, we reported, as the top line of the report, the earlier attack on the kibbutz http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7437395.stm

Best regards,

Middle East desk
BBC News website