BBC bans radio Mo-toons

BBC Radio Scotland has pulled a series by Glasgow comedy group The Franz Kafka Big Band because it portrays Rolf Harris drawing cartoons of Mohammed. Executives explained it was due to “anxieties over taste and decency”.

This was the comedy group’s second series for BBC Scotland, but the sketch entitled “Rolf’s Blasphemous Cartoon Time” proved too much for BBC officials, who decided the pulling the plug was the safest option.

The MCB, to their credit, did not applaud the decision:

It sounds like they’re making fun of the situation and possibly Rolf Harris here. The issue with the cartoons was linking the prophet to terrorism – that is what people objected to

said Osama Saeed.

A fine example of hyper-sensitive, soft-racist self-censorship from the BBC.


5 Responses to “BBC bans radio Mo-toons”

  1. Andrew Nixon says:

    This is a joke right?

    Surely we’ve not got to the stage where you can’t even talk about Mo-toons?

  2. […] The BBC has refused to broadcast a radio comedy show because of a sketch involving Rolf Harris painting Mohammed cartoons. The reason given was “anxieties over taste and decency”, not that they’re cowtowing to crazy people. […]

  3. Dave says:

    Who is offending who here? Who are the offended people? Its me.
    Im offended that my ‘choices’ of what
    I watch or read or listen to are becoming so totally limited. Im not sure
    if the people who may potentially be offended by this Rolf Harris sketch
    are the reason. The BBC are so frightened of offending people they might as well be
    called The PPC. Pathetically politically correct.

  4. Marc Draco says:

    I don’t think they are scared of offending people. That’s just denial. They’re scared of giving extremists having another reason to blow shit up. Seems to me that the way to address this is to actually offend people: as a way of increasing tolerance. Much in the same way as standards of beachware have evolved over the last century or so. If we don’t push back the barriers, the barriers are in serious danger running us over: which is, of course, what most of this loonies actually want.