The deletion of 11 old sketches from BBC’s iPlayer has angered culture warriors and raises questions about how society has changed
“Are we the baddies?”, asked the comedy double act Mitchell and Webb in their most famous sketch, in which two uniformed SS officers look one another up and down and arrive at that inescapable conclusion. And lo, it turns out they are, if this week’s news about the supposed offensiveness of the duo’s back catalogue is to be believed.
Their newfound unpalatability made headlines last Monday, when 11 of the pair’s sketches were pulled from the rerelease of That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer to mark its 20th anniversary – a move that led to loud condemnation from the keyboard cavalry in Britain’s never-ending, and never much fun, culture war.
Brian Logan is the Guardian’s comedy critic, and the artistic director of A Play, a Pie and a Pint
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