Channel 4 - Brass Eye > Reviews > Don't be brassed off

Author's product rating:   

How good are the presenters?	Outstanding
How good is the content?	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar programmes?	Outstanding
How good is the concept?	Outstanding
Is it funny?	Hilarious

Advantages:	very funny satire, causes media to be up in arms when the programme satirises them without them knowing it
Disadvantages:	some will be offended

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Brass Eye is once again showing up on TV on Thursday nights on Channel 4. The man behind it is Chris Morris and if you haven't seen it then you are missing out on pure comedy genius.

The show is in the style of a hard hitting current affairs programme that every week exposes some truly horrific plights in the world. Only they are not real. But Morris doesn't tell his guests that.

One of the shows questions the merits of science. Morris takes on the guise of a serious young presenter and is joined by fleet street big wig Eve Pollard. She is horrified at the footage shown to her of a scientific experiment that went wrong and resulted in the birth of a large testicle which was being incubated as it was premature. Obviously Eve took this very seriously and declared it wrong for science. Anyone with any common sense wouldn't be able to keep a straight face but Eve seems to be taking it seriously.

Another sketch has Morris taking on the medical world where two medics offer money to people in exhange for using their bodies for growing human body parts on such as testicles on a womans back. The medics avoid him until he comes crashing through their window and confronts them.

The show works because it just plays on some of the media hysteria over certain things and how easy it is to get some minor celebrities to highlight a cause just to get some self promotion. It just shows them as slightly stupid and a tad desparate. Morris has had people like Noel Edmonds and Bernard Manning highlighing the absurd dangers of a fictional drug named Cake. While Gladiators Wolf highlights the plight of an elephant who has her head stuck up her backside and is slowly dying because no one will do anything.

The show angered a lot of it's innocent participants but it makes for some of the most funniest comedy ever seen on TV. It only ran for 6 episodes so catch it while you can.