Quote: Jonny M @ October 13 2012, 1:23 PM BST

You're deluded if you think they were going to do tasteless gags about Jimmy Saville. It's not cowardly, it was fairly sensible. They actually talked about it seriously and maturely, more than anyone else has and HIGNFY is hardly the place to go and be offensive for pretty much no reason. I thought they handled it really well.

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Agree.

Although Linehan came across a bit cliched-Daily-Mail-reader with his 'making a spear out of Jim'll Fix It badges' thing.

Quote: Jonny M @ October 13 2012, 1:23 PM BST

You're deluded if you think they were going to do tasteless gags about Jimmy Saville. It's not cowardly, it was fairly sensible. They actually talked about it seriously and maturely, more than anyone else has and HIGNFY is hardly the place to go and be offensive for pretty much no reason. I thought they handled it really well.

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If I wanted to listen to a serious and mature discussion about Jimmy Savile, then I'd watch Newsnight. HIGNFY used to be the most satirical, near the knuckle, no taboo too far comedy show on television.

The way they spoke about Savile was one 'cut his dead balls off' quip from being Loose Women. For comedians who profess their love of Peter Cook, TW3 and the Establishment Club, this was a display of futile pandering.

Hislop's sudden confession that when Savile was on the show that he knew he was dodgy hit a new low.

>>They actually talked about it seriously and maturely, more than anyone else has and HIGNFY is hardly the place to go and be offensive for pretty much no reason.../

But it IS the place to attempt humour, which they failed to do. If you're not going to do gags about it, don't do it at all.

Quote: Nogget @ October 13 2012, 1:37 PM BST

If you're not going to do gags about it, don't do it at all.

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It wouldn't be the first time, they've gone out of their way to avoid previous news stories, such as Syria.

It's a weird world where 10 O'Clock Live on Channel 4 is the most satirical thing on British telly.

But this story directly affected the BBC. It would have been really apparent if they'd avoided it, especially when he'd been on the show.

You were obviously expecting them to be cracking lots of off colour jokes about paedos and were surprised and horrified when they didn't. What can I say, I wasn't surprised or dismayed by the way they handled it at all, and nothing seemed ungenuine about it.

Quote: Raymond Terrific @ October 13 2012, 1:45 PM BST

You were obviously expecting them to be cracking lots of off colour jokes about paedos and were surprised and horrified when they didn't. What can I say, I wasn't surprised or dismayed by the way they handled it at all, and nothing seemed ungenuine about it.

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I was expecting them to be cracking lots of off colour jokes - paedo and otherwise - about a story that has been whipped up by the press to epic proportions.

Why is this such a big story? Why have the public reacted so strongly to it? Why can aspects of it never be viewed in a humourous fashion? How does this story differ from a dozen other similar scandals?

And not one mention of April Jones - another huge story in the news blantantly ignored. Where was their 'serious' discussion about that?

HIGNFY is the Ben Elton of panel shows.

One depressing story about kids was probably enough for one week!

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ October 13 2012, 1:51 PM BST

And not one mention of April Jones - another huge story in the news blantantly ignored. Where was their 'serious' discussion about that?

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There's been a lot of politics played with the Saville story, therefore they have to discuss it. In all fairness, the April Jones story doesn't have much to discuss.

Quote: Jonny M @ October 13 2012, 2:00 PM BST

There's been a lot of politics played with the Saville story, therefore they have to discuss it. In all fairness, the April Jones story doesn't have much to discuss.

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I agree with you about the politics. Merton and Hislop seemed to be under orders from the BBC Management to treat this topic with the upmost respect as they're in the firing line.

HIGNFY - the propaganda mouthpiece of the BBC. Hilarious.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ October 13 2012, 1:51 PM BST

And not one mention of April Jones - another huge story in the news blantantly ignored. Where was their 'serious' discussion about that?

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With a man under arrest, they have to be careful about making comments about April Jones for legal reasons.

Well, that's their excuse and they're sticking to it.

But luckily the dead can't sue, so it's open season on Jimmy.

I liked Balding's Linehan intro. Hopefully his gravestone won't be destroyed, or something.

I think there's been a lot of over-sensitively toward the Savile case. His crimes, though disgusting, aren't comparable to Ian Huntley's, or Joseph Fritzl's crimes, yet Boyle got laughs making Fritzl jokes on national TV.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ October 13 2012, 2:03 PM BST

HIGNFY - the propaganda mouthpiece of the BBC. Hilarious.

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Well, yes. It's on the BBC. Government-funded TV stations tend not to be the best place to look for agitprop.

North Korea's top comedy show ("It's So Funny") is terrible. A typical sketch has soldiers telling each other that The Dear Leader's advice on farming production will lead to a greater bean harvest.

But who are the bigger mugs? Them for watching outright propaganda or us for watching a far more sophisticated version?

EHHH?????

Quote: Nogget @ October 13 2012, 2:16 PM BST

I think there's been a lot of over-sensitively toward the Savile case. His crimes, though disgusting, aren't comparable to Ian Huntley's, or Joseph Fritzl's crimes, yet Boyle got laughs making Fritzl jokes on national TV.

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They've made Huntley and Fritzl (sounds like a lovely brand of biscuits) gags on HIGNFY previously.

From this here BCG on the History of HIGNFY -

When the series moved channels, there was some fear that this move to a more mainstream channel would result in a change of the show's content and the programme 'dumbing down'. Deayton made reference to this at the start of the first BBC One show, saying that the content would not be affected, after which a parade of Tiller Girls danced onto the set and Deayton continued: "Good evening, I'm Carol Smillie."

This was prophetically true and I think that now that the show is so mainstream and watched by people who get offended by just about everything, it's reflected in the content. No doubt, there was an army of viewers poised by their keyboards last night ready to send off 'outraged' emails of complaint.

Can we not build a new death camp especially for these whingers?

Not whinging again, are you?