How could anyone enjoy Mrs Brown's Boys?

Dave Cohen tries to understand how anyone could enjoy Mrs Brown's Boys.

Mrs Brown's Boys proves festive TV ratings hit

Two-part special pulls 11.7m and 10.7m using consolidated figures, eclipsed over Christmas only by Strictly Come Dancing.

Grace Dent on TV: Mrs Brown's Boys BBC1

Irritating relatives, terrible jokes, mindless banter: the perfect accompaniment to a family Christmas

Created by and starring a genuine comedic genius, Brendan O'Carroll, Mrs. Brown's Boys is just-about the funniest, cleverest and most seemingly-effortless comedy on British television, deconstructing the classic structures of conventional sitcom and adding great clumps of Rabelaisian filth.

In a way, this defiantly old-fashioned adult panto is TV's brightest emblem of the true spirit of Christmas, seeing as the only reasoned response to watching it is a solemnly uttered "Jesus Christ."

The argument in favour is that it appeals to an audience who have been ignored for too long, namely those overlooked millions who shriek with mirth at the very idea of a man in drag saying rude words and brandishing a vibrator. I can't argue with its popularity, but I can argue that it's a crass, depressing, lazy shriek of badly written garbage.

The only thing that could do more damage to our beloved comedy tradition of cross-dressing is if George Osborne personally demolished a trail of orphanages while dressed as Carmen Miranda.

Anyway, the BBC, in an extraordinary act of cruelty, have foisted not one but two Mrs Brown Christmas specials on us this year (Christmas Eve, 10.15pm, and Boxing Day, 9.30pm, BBC1). And wouldn't you know it, they're atrocious.

I'll give the limelight-hogging O'Carroll one grudging point for at least trying to make them as Christmassy as possible. Mrs B writes a nativity play in which she stars as the Virgin Mary. There's a bit of slapstick business with a Christmas tree, which is practically de rigueur. It's not at all funny, of course, but it's there.

Otherwise it's dismal business as usual: every useless gag is painfully signposted from miles away, before the whole thing degenerates into a horribly cynical puddle of forced, fake, unearned pathos. Tonight's Christmas Eve episode actually ends with Mrs B eulogising her dead dad to the strains of a music box. And this following 25 minutes of crude slapstick and "fecks" in which she's portrayed as a thoroughly unsympathetic ratbag. They'd be better off calling it "Mrs Brown's Schizoid Circus of Doom".

Fundamentally, I'd like to see Brendan O'Carroll introduce the Christmas institution of announcing your retirement from television.

Mrs Brown's Boys - 'We are not the Waltons'

Mrs Brown's Boys has been a surprise success - winning a Bafta for best sitcom and gathering up to eight million viewers on BBC One. It returns for a third series, starting with two Christmas specials on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Its creator and star Brendan O'Carroll explains how it took 20 years to become an overnight success.

Mrs Brown's Boys UK arena tour announced

The cast of Mrs Brown's Boys have today announced a UK stadium tour for next year.

Marmite nature of Mrs Brown

The first time I saw Brendan O'Carroll on stage, I laughed until I cried. Mrs Agnes Brown had finally made her long-awaited Edinburgh debut. That was in 2008 at the Playhouse. I found him funny. Still do.