...but not a mental illness sketch

Channel 4 broke the broadcasting rules for airing Frankie Boyle’s joke about Katie Price’s son Harvey, the official watchdog has ruled.

But complaints that another sketch mocked the mentally disabled were rejected.

Around 500 people complained to regulator Ofcom over Boyle’s gag: ‘I have a theory that Jordan married a cage fighter because she needed someone strong enough to stop Harvey from fucking her.’

Those who took offence included Mencap and the Royal London Society for the Blind, and concerns included naming an eight-year-old child as engaging in rape and incest.

Price’s lawyers also complained that the comments were discriminatory, offensive, demeaning and humiliating. The solicitors stated that ‘Harvey has very restricted sight, needs constant medication and has learning difficulties. Harvey, as a result of his condition and medication is large and strong for his age.’

Channel 4 has stood by the joke, saying it was ‘wholly justified’ and not about Harvey’s disability, or about rape or incest but ‘simply absurdist satire’. The broadcaster said the material was based on jokes made by Reid comparing Harvey to the Incredible Hulk.

It stated that: ‘Frankie Boyle’s comedy, in his trademark satirical and brutal way, plays in part on Price’s perceived sexualisation and exploitation of her children, who have been raised under the glare of the camera lens.’

And it added that ‘the understanding and interpretation of comedy is unavoidably a subjective exercise, and one which will always lead to different views being expressed’.

But Ofcom did not accept Channel 4’s arguments about the targets and found that ‘Frankie Boyle’s comments appeared to derive humour by demeaning the physical and mental disabilities of a known eight year-old child. As such, Ofcom found that the comments had considerable potential to be highly offensive to the audience.

Despite the findings no sanctions have been made against Channel 4, saying it was an error of judgement to broadcast the gag, not a widespread failing of its editorial vetting.

However, Ofcom did not uphold other complaints about a spoof of a mental charity ad, in which Boyle was seen calmly talking to camera, saying: ‘I have mental health problems. There’s a lot of stigma attached to mental health, a lot of people are unfairly stigmatised when their conditions allow them to lead perfectly normal lives.’ The camera then pulls out to reveal the man holding a knife and images of his dead wife and three dead children covered in blood on the floor. He then says: ‘Who the fuck am I talking to?’

Ofcom received eight complaints, including one from the mental health charity, Rethink. The complaints raised concerns that the sketch implied that people with mental illness are violent; promoted discrimination against people with mental illness; mocked people with mental illness; and was misleading.

However, Channel 4 said the sketched mocked the ads – and the incorrect stereotypes associated with people suffering mental health problems.

The broadcaster added: “Frankie Boyle spent nine months working with mental health patients long before he was a comic and he has some first hand experience of the difficulties faced by such patients. His experiences have therefore informed his comedic work and the issue of mental health has become one of his signature themes in his comedy.’

The watchdog agreed the sketch could cause offence but ruled: ‘The intention of this sketch – to use satire and controversy to make a joke about society’s attitudes to mental health - would have been well understood by the majority of the audience. Ofcom also considered that the sketch would not have gone beyond what would normally be expected in a programme of this type.’

In a separate ruling, Ofcom ruled that Top Gear's depiction of Mexicans as 'lazy, feckless, flatulent [and] overweight' was justified by its irreverent style.

Published: 4 Apr 2011