Modern comedians are no joke for TV viewers

ONCE more, we are having to read in the Press about our so-called comedians trying to be funny.

It is seven years ago since I wrote a letter to your paper deploring the quality of some of the material that is put out on TV in the name of comedy, and I think it has got worse. I have always maintained that a comedian who has to rely on sexual innuendo and other peoples disabilities, whether mental or physical, is not worth his salt. I never watch such individuals but I am told there are quite a few of them who have no qualms about getting fat on other peoples misfortunes.

I accept that broadcasters have to cater for all tastes and opinions, but some of the stuff is an insult to one’s intelligence. Why are the TV and radio bosses, with their enormous salaries, able to peddle such rubbish?

It is only since the Savile affair that we have been able to discover what obscenities lie within the top echelons of the broadcasting business and it doesn’t make pleasant reading, but I suppose it is part of the general malaise in this country where a lot of people at the top who think they are indispensable are drawing fat salaries and building up large pension funds without getting their hands dirty, and that includes failed MPs who always seem to end up as EU commissioners or in other sinecures.

Where are the likes of The Good Life, Dad’s Army and The Two Ronnies whose humour is everlasting? Some of these programmes were made 30-40 years ago and they are still funny. I can’t think of any sitcom in the last 10 years that can match that.

I may sound like an intellectual snob, but that is not the case. I consider myself to be as broad minded as the average person, but I like to watch quality TV.