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Tim Minchin censored on UK TV

zooterkin

Nitpicking dilettante, Administrator
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zooterkin
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Tim Minchin wrote and recorded a new Christmas song (WoodyAllenJesus) specially for the Jonathan Ross show to be shown tomorrow night (23rd), only for it to be cut out later.

Suzi and her team edited the show and everybody was happy. Suzi felt it had a nice balance of big-ticket celeb action, local talent, and a nice bit of that cheeky, iconoclastic spirit for which Jonathan is known and widely loved.

And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham.

And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show.

He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, ****-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.
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Full story here.

Here's the song:
 
commandlinegamer said:
Jonathan Ross is a **** anyway.
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Maybe so, but he is also a skeptic in general (he was in the audience at TAM London), though he plays it down in public, I think (he had Adam Savage on his radio show at the time of TAM London, at which Savage spoke, but it was not mentioned on air). It would be interesting to know how much of a fight he put up.
 
Matthew Best said:
It's also too long.
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But neither this nor its possibly not being funny are relevant if it occurred as TM himself tells it. By his account, it was in the show and Ross, the producer, and everyone else was very happy with it. It was allegedly pulled much later when the ITV head of television heard about it.
 
Matthew Best said:
What did ITV say?
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Not much, so far. According to the BBC:

ITV said the decision to cut the song would have been taken by senior executives in conjunction with Jonathan Ross's production company, Hot Sauce.

It did not confirm Mr Fincham's involvement directly. But it is likely the broadcaster's director of television would have final approval of the programme, to be broadcast on 23 December.

"We often make changes to programmes before transmission," ITV said in its statement.
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As far as I can tell from various news sources, ITV say:

it did not work “editorially”.

it “didn’t feel right for the show"

"didn't quite work editorially"

was "not right tonally"

Maybe if it had been funnier it would have been more in keeping with the tone of the show?
 
Non-believers simply aren't supposed to say (or sing) "Jesus".

Whether the song was funny or not, good satire or not, victimless or not, are all beside the point, IMO.


ETA: I'm thinking of the Simpsons episode when Homer cries out, "Help me, Jeebus!" For whatever reason, that seems much more innocuous than if he'd cried out, "Help me, Jesus!"
 
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Matthew Best said:
Maybe it was dropped because it's not very funny.
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I don't know, I kinda liked:

Jesus died and rose from the dead
Just like a movie with Simon Pegg.

Although Minchin does need to turn in his Geek card for mis-attributing 'With great power comes great responsibility' to Superman
 
i found it not very funny, but thanks to it being cut out of the programm it got far more attention than otherwise. its all over my Youtube start page :D
 
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