Barry Humphries calls out ‘puritanism’ of the BBC over ban on Corbyn jokes
Barry Humphries, otherwise known by alter-egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, has criticised the BBC for being too sensitive around political matters after refusing to let him poke fun at Jeremy Corbyn without doing the same to David Cameron.
Humphries claims in an interview with Radio Times that during talks with the BBC, prior to an appearance as Dame Edna on Michael McIntyre’s Christmas show, a “faceless, nameless person” at the BBC told him if he wanted to say something about Mr Corbyn “you also have to say something about Mr Cameron”. Humphries suggests the irony of their concern for balance, saying: “As if there wasn’t any bias at the BBC at all!”
In the same interview, the comedian proposed the success of British series Downton Abbey in the US was due to there being “no black people in it”, and called out the “new puritanism” and “nervousness” of the BBC in axing shows like Til Death Do Us Part over concerns they encourage prejudice.
It’s not the first time Humphries has scathed the escalating political correctness across the media. In an interview with the Telegraph published yesterday (4th January), Humphries spoke of far-Left politics as “conservative, paradoxically, inflexible, doctrinaire and humourless” and blames these politics for enforcing too many guidelines: “You can’t describe the world as it is any more. You get jumped on.”
Humphries has been at the centre of controversy before, supporting fellow australian Germaine Greer’s claims that trans women such as Caitlyn Jenner are men “who believe they are women and have themselves castrated”. In response to Greer’s comments, Humphries told the Telegraph: “I agree with Germaine! You’re a mutilated man, that’s all,” he says. “Self-mutilation, what’s all this carry on? Caitlyn Jenner – what a publicity-seeking ratbag. It’s all given the stamp – not of respectability, but authenticity or something. If you criticise anything you’re racist or sexist or homophobic.”