Great Britain doesn’t have too much to offer in the way of culture, at least not when it comes to fine dining or modern art, anyway. One area where the Brits have always excelled though is through their fantastic sense of humor, which has led to countless great British comedies since regular television broadcasts began in the UK back in 1936.
RELATED:The Best British Crime Drama Series
As times and attitudes have changed though, certain shows that were once considered funny have been retroactively branded offensive or distasteful, with many being taken down from streaming services like the BBC iPlayer. As a result, were these controversial series to ever be pitched to modern tv executives, there’s almost no chance they’d get the green light.
Banzai
Banzaiwas a gambling-centricgame showthat ran for three seasons in the early two-thousands. The E4 series sought to satirize the over-the-top nature of Japanese game shows likeDero!andTakeshi’s Castleand was made up of a mixture of both regular recurring segments and random celebrity challenges. It was certainly entertaining, though was criticized by some for its perpetuation of certain negative Japanese stereotypes.
One of the more notable segments revolved around a character named Mr. Shake Hands Man, who would attend red carpet events and attempt to shake celebrities' hands for as long as possible. The show was also criticized for its treatment of animals, with viewers able to bet on things like how long it would take to microwave a cockroach or how many helium balloons it would take to lift a chicken into the air.
Bo' Selecta!
There are a lot of parallels between Sacha Baron Cohen and Leigh Francis, with both men having proven themselves to be masters of character-driven sketch shows. Granted, Francis never quite reached the same lofty heights asthe Borat, Bruno, and Ali G creator, though he did have several popular personas during the early twenty-first century. Keith Lemon is perhaps the most notable of these, but it was Francis' celebrity stalker character Avid Merrion and the showBo' Selecta!that really helped to shine a spotlight on the talented Yorkshireman.
RELATED:The Best British Gangster Movies (& Where to Stream Them)
In the series, Francis would wear latex masks of different celebrities, including the likes of Elton John, Michael Jackson, and, perhaps most famously, Craig David. Though certainly funny at times, the show’s humor was often incredibly crude, with toilet humor used in the majority of its sketches. The show’s use of blackface has since garnered heavy criticism too and led to the series being pulled from Channel 4’s All 4streaming servicein June of 2020.
Little Britain
Bo Selecta!wasn’t the onlyBritish comedy showto be retroactively criticized for its use of blackface, withSaturday Night Takeaway,The League of Gentlemen, andThe Mighty Booshalso coming under fire in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps the most notable, however, wasLittle Britain, with the David Walliams and Matt Lucas sketch show completely removed from the BBC iPlayer almost overnight.
Though it has since returned to theonline streaming servicewith scenes containing the offending characters cut out, its derogatory take on minority groups is just the tip of the iceberg, with its depictions of women, the mentally handicapped, and the LGBTQIA+ community also coming under fire in recent years. This wasn’t the only controversial show from Walliams and Lucas either, withCome Fly with Mealso using blackface for several of its characters.
Fonejacker
Fans of thepopular YouTube channelOwnage Pranks would likely have gotten a real kick out ofFonejacker, a 2006 E4 series centered around ridiculous prank calls. Like Russell from OP, Kayvan Novak had many comical characters in his repertoire, including Terry Tibbs, Brian Badonde, and the Ugandan scammer George Agdgdgwngo. The show effectively ran for four seasons, with the final two being rebranded asFacejackerand featuring live-action pranks rather than prank calls.
RELATED:Underrated British Sci-Fi Films
Though some ofFonejacker’s ethnic accents did draw complaints, a combination ofNovak’s Iranian rootsand a small yet dedicated audience allowed the show to fly under the radar to a certain degree. The change in format forFacejackerand the blackface that came along with it was a lot less forgivable, however, with the Augustus Kwembe character having aged particularly poorly in the decade or so since the show first aired.
Eurotrash
With more than 160 episodes spread out across 16 seasons,Eurotrashwas one of the longest-running British comedy shows of all time when it finally came to an end in late 2004. With each episode costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce, it was also one of the most expensiveshows on British television, though one would never have guessed it just by watching it due to the series' intentional low-budget feel.
In terms of actual content,Eurotrashadopted a magazine format and focussed on crude and kinky content from right across Europe, with exaggerated dubbing for comedic effect. Interviews with porn stars and nudity were the norm, as too were features centered around individuals with unusual kinks or hobbies. The show was revived for a special Brexit episode in 2016, though it’s difficult to see a series likeEurotrashbeing commissioned in this day and age, something that former host Jean Paul Gaultier lamented ina 2021 interview with the Irish Times.
