- Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:27 am
#126719
Chris Moyles is an overweight, loud-mouthed, unintelligent, arrogant man. And yet he hosts one of the most popular radio shows in Britain. He is frequently xenophobic, sexist, homophobic and just plain rude on the air. But many celebrities of the rock and pop world grace his show. His humour is basic and it consisits mainly of toilet humour and crude sexual innuendo. His jokes are not pre-planned and could not in themselves be described as witty. The show basically consists of a three hour diatribe, interspersed with the occasional record, of bile. He also shouts a lot for no apparent reason.
The shows only redeeming qualities are the games and features which are funny and well thought out. In one, "Secret Squirrel", he has a couple on the phone, the boyfriend has committed a misdemeanour and the girlfriend knows about it. Moyles then quizzes the hapless boyfriend as he must struggle to guess which misdemeanour his girlfriend has discovered, while at the same time trying to maintain his dignity.
I usually like to listen to Mark and Lard which, I admit, contains the same amount of toilet humour, but is in general a much less offensive and much more intelligent show. However at 3pm I often find that I leave my radio tuned to Radio One. At first I thought that I just liked the background noise. However in the morning I never listen to Radio 1 because of Sara Cox. If she was annoying me sufficiently that I felt my wireless needed to be unplugged then why did Moyles remain. Surely I can't find his base level of humour funny? I'm much too clever to laugh at fart jokes. But, of course, sadly I'm not.
But I can laugh at Moyles aswell. I find his offensive jokes funny because I find them offensive and yet he thinks they are funny. I listen smugly as he rants on about Germans or Americans because I realise that it is unacceptable. In some way I feel I am better than Moyles. However, is this the same reaction for every listener. Certainly not. I think many people, especially the school age children, listen uncritically. They laugh at his stupid jokes but they do not recognise the offensive nature of his show and how it simply plays on many people's prejudices. Although I think that Moyles tries to be ironic about some things his homophobic and xenophobic jokes express his base prejudices. So is Moyles affecting the youth of today?
Sadly I think that his show is simply a reflection of society. His show is typical of many pub conversations across Britain. Moyles does not tell racist jokes, these are much less acceptable in todays society. He can of course say all Americans are stupid or call someone a puff. But at the moment I think these opinions are quite acceptable to the general public. Moyles does not turn people into loud-mouthed idiots but he does reinforce prejudices. I am not saying that his form of humour is any less valid. I am not saying that people should not listen to Moyles. But I think they should do so with a critical ear.
Source
The shows only redeeming qualities are the games and features which are funny and well thought out. In one, "Secret Squirrel", he has a couple on the phone, the boyfriend has committed a misdemeanour and the girlfriend knows about it. Moyles then quizzes the hapless boyfriend as he must struggle to guess which misdemeanour his girlfriend has discovered, while at the same time trying to maintain his dignity.
I usually like to listen to Mark and Lard which, I admit, contains the same amount of toilet humour, but is in general a much less offensive and much more intelligent show. However at 3pm I often find that I leave my radio tuned to Radio One. At first I thought that I just liked the background noise. However in the morning I never listen to Radio 1 because of Sara Cox. If she was annoying me sufficiently that I felt my wireless needed to be unplugged then why did Moyles remain. Surely I can't find his base level of humour funny? I'm much too clever to laugh at fart jokes. But, of course, sadly I'm not.
But I can laugh at Moyles aswell. I find his offensive jokes funny because I find them offensive and yet he thinks they are funny. I listen smugly as he rants on about Germans or Americans because I realise that it is unacceptable. In some way I feel I am better than Moyles. However, is this the same reaction for every listener. Certainly not. I think many people, especially the school age children, listen uncritically. They laugh at his stupid jokes but they do not recognise the offensive nature of his show and how it simply plays on many people's prejudices. Although I think that Moyles tries to be ironic about some things his homophobic and xenophobic jokes express his base prejudices. So is Moyles affecting the youth of today?
Sadly I think that his show is simply a reflection of society. His show is typical of many pub conversations across Britain. Moyles does not tell racist jokes, these are much less acceptable in todays society. He can of course say all Americans are stupid or call someone a puff. But at the moment I think these opinions are quite acceptable to the general public. Moyles does not turn people into loud-mouthed idiots but he does reinforce prejudices. I am not saying that his form of humour is any less valid. I am not saying that people should not listen to Moyles. But I think they should do so with a critical ear.
Source