The newly controversial 2008 IT Crowd episode, The Speech, is certainly of its time. The season three instalment, written by Graham Linehan, details a romance between Matt Berry’s pugnacious executive Douglas Reynholm, and Lucy Montgomery’s reporter April.
The big gag is that April used to be a man. She reveals this over dinner but Reynholm mishears and thinks she is confessing that she used to be “from Iran” .When the truth finally emerges he freaks out, quietly at first – “I love that you used to be a man… it’s your thing” – but then massively. A lover’s tiff erupts between the pair. Here the joke is that April fights like a bloke, felling Reynholm with a walloping haymaker.
Berry’s character is clearly being called out for his prejudice and his inability to accept the love of his life for what she is. But there is also a winking suggestion that, as a transwoman, April can still scuffle like a football hooligan who’s had a pint glass lobbed at her head. Watched today, it’s a reminder of how marginalised the trans community used to be.
But of course you can’t watch it today – unless you’re enjoying edited highlights on YouTube – as it’s mysteriously vanished from Channel 4’s streaming platform. Actually, its disappearance isn’t all that mysterious. Linehan, who is banned from Twitter, revealed on his website that The Speech has been pulled because of “numerous complaints about transphobia”.
“It is fair to say that transphobia has grown in public awareness since this episode was made in 2008, attacks on trans men and women are rising and their place in society is vulnerable and some way from being legitimised,” goes a letter from Channel 4 which Linehan quotes at length.
“Whilst this episode is undeniably a feat of great comic ingenuity and it is clear that the prejudices of the character Reynholm sabotage his own happiness, the view of myself and others is that the episode ultimately risks appearing to endorse the view that trans women are in fact men and, more seriously arguably legitimises violence against them. For these reasons we do not think it is appropriate for it to remain on All 4.”
The balance which Channel 4 must of course strike is between protecting minorities and honestly acknowledging past prejudices in society. Linehan, whose Twitter expulsion followed comments about trans people that breached the site’s rules, obviously feels the broadcaster has gone too far. He also argues that, owing to his outspokenness on the trans issue, he has been singled out.
“As part of the wider house-cleaning enterprise, I presume Channel 4 will also be banning the episode of Peep Show where Jez sees an attractive woman at a club, and his internal voice, seeing she’s interested, says 'maybe she’s a tranny', looks down at her crotch and says 'that’s no tranny,'" he writes on his website.
He went on to cite instances of transphobia on Spaced and of an episode of Brass Eye in which host Chris Morris appears in blackface.
“I don’t think any of these should be banned. But Channel 4 is being disingenuous when they pretend it’s part of a wider enterprise, when they disappear my show but not others. And I’m entirely serious when I say that Channel 4 is banning the episode for religious reasons.
“Transwomen are women” is a statement of belief, which I do not share.”
His remarks will reignite the debate as to whether it is correct to expunge “problematic” comedies from the past or whether this ranks as cultural erasure.
In June, John Cleese accused the BBC of “cowardice” over the temporary removal from a streaming platform owned by the corporation of an episode of Fawlty Towers featuring ethnic slurs. The BBC has also pulled instalments of Little Britain from the iPlayer while Netflix decided not to go ahead with a reboot of the David Walliams, Matt Lucas sketch series.
“BBC decisions are made by persons whose main concern is not losing their jobs,” wrote Cleese. “That's why they're so cowardly and gutless and contemptible. I rest my case.”
The episode in question, The Germans, was later reinstated with a warning about "offensive content and language”. However, no such second chance has been afforded to American satirical cartoons Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Boondocks and the Shivering Truth.
“Problematic” episodes from all three featuring the animated equivalent of blackface and a racist country singer have been taken down by Adult Swim. It did so discreetly and did not acknowledge its actions until fans noticed the missing content.
As these controversies rage on it is at one level unsurprising that The It Crowd should receive the same treatment as Little Britain and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. On the other hand, since when has Channel 4 gone with the status quo?
Isn’t the entire point of Channel 4 that it pushes against received wisdom, eyeballs taboos, confronts viewers with the unpalatable truth? And the unpalatable truth is that 12 years ago a family sitcom could show a transwoman decking a man in a fistfight without anyone blinking.
This isn’t just subjective opinion. Channel 4’s website boasts of its “statutory remit” to challenge the status quo. Many people are aghast at Linehan’s assertion that “transwoman are not woman”. But is that grounds to scrub from history an episode of the IT Crowd which shines a light on attitudes to the trans community widely held as recently as 2008? By burying the past, surely the risk is that we only end up repeating it.
October 05, 2020 at 07:52PM
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Banning The IT Crowd is a funny way for Channel 4 to ‘challenge the status quo’ - Telegraph.co.uk
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Funny
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