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For What Is A Man Profited, If He Shall Gain A Ph.D And Lose His Sense Of Humor?

Feb 20, 2009
By .
Humor, Irksome, Reruns

Deborah Finding, the most pompous academic in Britain, knows hatred when she sees it.

Hit British TV comedy Little Britain has been accused of promoting prejudice and hatred.

A study by a London School of Economics academic says many of the show's characters – from teenage mum Vicky Pollard to proud gay Daffyd – are stereotypes based on people's dislike of others of a different class, sexuality, race or gender.

For those who have not seen it, the BBC comedy Little Britain is based on recurring character sketches. Among these are Daffyd Thomas, the only gay in the village of Llandewi Breffi. For those who have seen the show (which has to be watched a few times before one learns the characters sufficiently to appreciate it), but lack a sense of humor, Daffyd is funny because he identifies himself through victimhood to such an extent that he cannot see that there are plenty of well-adjusted and accepted gay people in his village, and he resents it when his neighbors fail to discriminate against him.

In short, he is exactly the sort of gay person, a humorless victim unable to laugh at himself, that a nitwit academic like Deborah Finding would wish to see more of. Perhaps that's why she hates him so, even as she acknowledges that Matt Lucas, the show's developer who plays Daffyd, is himself gay.

No doubt Finding also finds self-hatred in the work of Chris Rock.

A short clip (with a bit of NSFW language):

For fans of, as a prude like Professor Finding would classify it, bawdy comedy that at its best approaches Monty Python, I highly recommend the show, which can be seen on BBC America, or the American version currently running on HBO, which while still quite funny does suffer a bit because the makers are somewhat less familiar with what makes America funny than they are with what makes Britain funny.

As a bonus, both shows feature scandalous narration from Tom Baker, better known as the Doctor Who with the long scarf and the curly hair.

Via Andrew Bolt, and run about a month or two ago at another site.  Professor Finding, however, still asserts that Little Britain is hate speech, so it's as relevant as ever.

Last 5 posts by Patrick Non-White

6 Comments
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6 Comments

  1. Grandy  •  Feb 20, 2009 @4:52 am

    I definately need to see the British version. The US version had its moments but I didn't like it as much as Summer Heights High (more an indication of the latter's quality). I'll be watching/recording both when they return.

  2. astonied  •  Feb 20, 2009 @7:22 am

    I loved it! Thanks for the laugh! I must be too dumb to see the hate there.

  3. SB7  •  Feb 20, 2009 @7:36 am

    Well you've just convinced me to start watching Little Britain. Partly because that clip was hilarious, and partly because anything that pisses off the likes of Deborah Finding is top notch in my book.

  4. Richard Morrison  •  Feb 20, 2009 @8:58 pm

    Ms. Finding must think that all gay people are as humorless and thin-skinned as she is if she thinks that the character of Daffyd is a hurtful stereotype. Worse yet, given that she realizes that Matt Lucas is gay himself, she seems to think that anyone who disagrees with her is suffering from some kind of false consciousness. I'm gay and I think Little Britain is hilarious. By her logic, then, I must somehow not understand how I'm being victimized. Now who's being insulting?

  5. Bruce  •  Feb 20, 2009 @10:58 pm

    Little Britain (and Catherine Tate) shit me.

    They make these brilliant characterizations and then put them in the same sketch wearing a different hat. I laughed like a drain for the first episode. The following week I wondered if they had accidentally repeated the first episode. The third week I realised they were just being lazy.

    Daffyd is the prime example of this. In. Every. Single. Sketch. He starts off by preemptively berating someone for the bigotry they haven't shown, then someone screamingly queer will show up and then Daffyd walks off in a huff.

  6. Scott Jacobs  •  Feb 24, 2009 @10:35 am

    Little Britian can also be seen via Netflix's "Instant Watch"…

    Which means you can set up your Gold X-Box Live account to stream it to your TV…