richardbarley.com

Another year, another chance for the british public to go totally bonkers about something they haven’t actually witnessed.

Last time it was the Celebrity Big Brother racism scandal, where thousands of people screamed blue murder about being offended by something they hadn’t actually seen. But thankfully the media was there to tell them just how offended they should be, so they could all complain anyway.

And now here we are again, this time its Jonothan Ross and Russell brand stiring up trouble (nothing new there) by leaving rather unsavoury messages on the answerphone of Andrew Sachs (he of Manuel fame).

I heard the show on the Russell Brand podcast and found it pretty funny at the time, but I did feel that it all went a bit too far. Sachs is, from what I can make out, a pretty decent guy and not likely to take great offence at this kind of behaviour. But his granddaughter probably didn’t deserve the publicity to be honest. 

The funny thing for me is how the number of people complaining about this has increased so dramatically. After the original show there were only 2 complaints. That means 2 people heard it and thought “hey that’s wrong” and complained. Good for them, exercising their right toeedback to the BBC. And some people may well have heard the show in the podcast, perhaps accounting for a couple of thousand complaints.

But as I write, the complaints are up to 18,000! Count ‘em. Eighteen Thousand. how many of these people do you think have actually heard the show in question? And how many have just read the transcripts in the papers?

How does that work?

Joe Bloggs picks up “The Daily Mail”. Reads the headline “Thousands complain about offensive Brand and Ross stunt”. Reads the article. joe is so offended that he needs to complain to the BBC.

Why, Joe, why? There were 17,999 people there before you. Its unnecessary. And hey, you knew you were going to be offended because you read the headline, right?

It’s true, Brand and Ross crossed the line, but People Of Britain, please get a grip! This is not affecting you. It affected Sachs and his family. Yes the BBC should have stepped in sooner and not even transmitted the pre-recorded show. Then all this would have gone away quickly and quietly after they apologised to Sachs privately. No need for several days of front-page news. No need to waste everyone’s time, least of all Gordaon brown, who should really have more important things to worry himself about just now.