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Frankie Boyle attacks BBC Trust after they rebuke him for offensive Rebecca Adlington comments
Last updated at 14:36pm on 27.10.09Controversial comic Frankie Boyle is unrepentant about "offensive" comments which led to a rebuke - and has hit back at BBC Trust criticisms, claiming they were "b*****ks".
The former Mock The Week funnyman also launched an attack on the programme's production team for asking panellists to discuss "light, frothy stuff" instead of serious issues, which he said forced them to "make the comedy more extreme".
Boyle, who has now quit the show, said few people cared about the Trust's judgment that his on-screen criticism of Olympic gold medal winner Rebecca Adlington last year was "humiliating".
Hitting back: Comedian Frankie Boyle
The Scottish comedian was criticised for saying swim star Adlington looked "like someone who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon".
But in an interview with Time Out magazine today, Boyle responded to the Trust's remarks saying: "It was all b*****ks. Especially, when you consider we're fighting two wars, there's f****** swine flu and the global economy is going down the toilet.
"People expect you to talk about this - and what do the production team send us? A picture of Rebecca Adlington.
"Our top story was the British team returning home from the Olympics. We'd talked about them for five weeks and yet still had to joke about them getting off a plane.
Champion: Swimmer Rebecca Adlington was the subject of Boyle's jokes
"I mean what are you going to write about, apart from the fact that she looks like a beagle in the photo? What else is there? The tracksuits they're wearing? The shutter speed the photographers were using?"
He continued: "If we were allowed to do stuff about equipment shortages in Afghanistan or the swine flu vaccination programme there would be more intrinsic interest for the audience and we wouldn't need to hook them in so much.
"We could be gentler, more whimsical and much more sophisticated with it. But in the end they get what they ask for."
Boyle - who also made sexual comments about the Queen, for which the Trust dismissed complaints - said the Adlington comment was one of the mildest things he had said on the show. And he said few people cared about the BBC Trust's verdict.
"Can you imagine anyone reading that and actually giving a f***? It's disheartening. Who are these people? What authority do they have to judge comedy?
"There are bridges people shouldn't be allowed to cross, but it now feels like we're back in the 1970s in terms of compliance," he said.
"The number one priority in TV comedy today is 'don't frighten the horses', and it's probably number two and three as well. If you look at the scheduling nowadays, it's all just celebrities meeting meerkats."
Boyle said he left the show because he felt he was "going through the motions".
And he played down suggestions of a health scare during the filming of his last series.
He said he was exhausted after four years of "gigging, working six days a week, and it just caught up with me".
Reader views (16)
I personally think every last one of these so called comedians should be forced off air their not even funny, they only spread slander and hurtful lies, and promotes stupidity. They don't even know what true comedy is.
- Anon, USA
Nevermind Frankie Boyle. My disbelief stems from the fact that anybody can find Mock the Week remotely funny. It is not just bad. It is 'My Family' bad, only in a panel sense. Surely I'm not the only one that feels the humour is pathetic. It's not politically informed and weak in every sense of the word. At least in most things I don't like I see some merit. When I watch an episode of Mock the Week, I seriously feel that some Stepford laboratory is at work turning humans into humourless zombies. I really don't get it! As for Rebecca Adlington, she is wonderful but that's not the point.
- James Thorpe, Reigate, Surrey
It is ridiculous that Adlington's agent states that Boyle should not be given "the oxygen of publicity" - this will just create more of it, as an agent will know.
This leads me to the inevitable conclusion that this whole hoo-ha has been stirred up by the agent to give Adlington as much publicity as possible.
Good old Frankie - speaks it like it is!
- Liam Hennessy, London, UK
No Frankie, no show, as far as I'm concerned he was the only reason I watched
- Sharon, Hackney
What do you mean the show is rubbish! Its about the best current news comedy show on the planet. BOYLE is fantastic and he knows he doesn't need MTW but don't rubbish the format.
- James Andrew, Dagenham
Looking at the photograph in the article does the supremely untalented Mr Boyle have an overlarge head or just a small body??Hard to telll!! Suggest he looks in the mirror before commenting on other peoples looks!!!!
- Jasper Wainwright, Florida,USA
Frankie Boyle is a total waste of space, give him the boot, he'll not be missed.
- Paul Gh, London
I disagree with David B Mock the Week is brillliant but Frankie will be a big loss to the show - the man is a comic goldmine
- Brett Y,, camberwell
I agree with Frankie Boyle about the BBC's timidity. I complained to the BBC about the previous series of Have I Got News For You from which nearly all significant political topics had disappeared. They replied that they had a wider audience to appeal to.
The BBC has become wimpish since it gave in to Alistair Campbell's attacks and surrendered to the biased enquiry about David Kelly by sacking Greg Dyke.
The BBC is no longer impartial or fearless in exposing the truth. It has become another compliant tool in the government's machine that is grinding us into a nation of submissive, spineless, snooping dupes.
- Wat Tyler, Derby, UK
Unfortunately, the show has become a little too formulatic which is a shame as it was a great antidote to the 'oh so funny' drivel on 'Have I Got News For You' or Never Mind The Buzzcocks - talk about past the sell by date!
Frankie Boyle added a real edge which is now gone and there are very few comedians out there that can take his place. He was a great foil to O'Brien's attempts a being a BBC ring master. I wouldn't be surprised if Russel Howard goes now or one of the other regulars.
- Hansel, London
Frankie was by far the best thing about mock the week
a man who consistently went straight the point and didn't bother wiht petty niceties
pathetic he had to leave because of such a pithy comment.
- James, London
Who cares what Frank Boyle thinks?
- Kris, London
Bill Hicks is now revered for his political comments. At the time David Letterman wouldn't even show his sets. Shame the BBC or ITV haven't the guts to show genuine satire any more. Political satire should be shown. Give Frankie Boyle 5 minutes every night on Newsnight. Without censorship.
The joke Frankie Boyle made about looking in the back of spoon is straight from the 70's, recycled from a Barry Manilow skit. What next, jokes about mother-in-laws ?
If people don't like what comedians say. Don't watch. Don't tell me what they think I should watch.
- Jeff Wilson, Ilford UK
Boyle's contributions were consistentlly dissgusting, also adolescent and unfunny.
- Professor David Marsland, Reading, UK
Let's face it, at least in 20 years' time people will remember Rebecca Adlington for something.
- Blue Baby, London
Mock the Week is rubbish - Boyle is well out of it
Somebody give the man his own show
- David B, Potters Bar
