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Much as I agree that the Would I Lie To You? Christmas special is not the place to do Nazi salutes and as much as I have reservations about David Walliams, I think there might be a slight over reaction to the incident.
Walliams, like some kind of idiot, did an idiotic and inappropriate thing and that seems a shame on such a great programme, especially when there are hundreds of people who understand the correct tone who would have loved to have been in that seat. But comedians (and David Walliams) take risks and sometimes they don't come off and it's not like this was ever going to get to broadcast. So yeah, reprimand him, don't have him on the show again, maybe think about whether once someone has done a few things that have seemed a bit dodgy or worse consider whether you want to employ that person.
I was surprised and concerned to read this on
the Chortle report of the incident, "But a spokesperson for Banijay UK, which owns the show's production company Zeppotron, said: ‘Any attempt at humour regarding this deeply offensive gesture, whether broadcast or not, is completely unacceptable in any context.'"
Context is pretty important in comedy, but the minute you start saying there are things that you can't joke about in ANY context then we're getting into weird territory.
I can think of plenty of examples where jokes involving Nazi salutes have been fantastic and of course, in probably all of those cases the butt of the joke has been the Nazis. So this spokesman is very close to saying, "I don't mind jokes, but come on, when it comes to Hitler then you have to draw the line. We must not mock Hitler."
Off the top of my head I can think of quite a few great bits of comedy involving the Nazi salute or at least within that area - a lot of Mel Brooks' finest work and certainly
The Producers, the most
classic bit of Fawlty Towers (no actual salute to be fair),
satirical responses to Elon Musk apparently trying to bring the salute back,
It's a dumbass comment from someone who doesn't understand comedy (about someone who doesn't understand comedy), but it shows the problem with trying to censor stuff based on a list of banned words or actions or scenarios. And of not deciding you can't do something regardless of context. And equally the problem with stripping a joke of context and then whipping up hysteria on social media.
When we were putting out the Fist of Fun DVDs the BBC got worried about some of the stuff in series 2 and the guy deciding what we could do told us that obviously we'd have to cut the teacher sketch, because that week in the news a teacher had run off with a pupil. Of course the show had been recorded years before and was not coming out for months. If the sketch was going to be on TV that week then maybe you'd have to bump it, but not for a DVD. He told us that the changes were non-negotiable. He turned out to be wrong about that too.
A joke that is fun down the pub with your mates is maybe not appropriate at your grandma's funeral. Context is very important when it comes to humour. I can't think of any subject that you can't joke about in some context.
Saying you can't joke about a Nazi salute in any context is possibly more concerning than someone trying to make a joke about a Nazi salute in the wrong context. It feels like an over-step. The kind that Basil Fawlty might do after he's been banged on the head.
RHLSTP Book Club is the first part of a lovely long interview with the king of the podcasts, Adam Buxton.
Listen here.
