Satire show the Mash Report said they were forced to censor quotes from Boris Johnson clipped for social media because they “violated our brand guidelines”.
In a mock news package ‘announcing’ calls for people to show more respect in public life, the show appeared to call into question whether Johnson would be the best person to spearhead such hypothetical moves, by referencing a number of controversial statements he has made in the past.
They said: “The Prime Minister urged more tolerance amongst all communities in Britain, including tank-topped *** ***, hot totty, girly swots and Muslim women who look like letterboxes.”
🚨🚨| BREAKING NEWS FROM NUMBER 10. #LateNightMash tonight at 10pm. pic.twitter.com/68ZhrDE9ff
— Dave (@davechannel) October 21, 2021
And as these comments Johnson made were bleeped out, a message appeared on screen saying:
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“Fun fact! These are real quotes from Boris Johnson but they violate our brand guidelines so we had to censor them.”
Host Nish Kumar wrote on Twitter: “Pretty cool that we aren’t allowed to broadcast things the Prime Minister has said because they’re too racist.”
Pretty cool that we aren't allowed to broadcast things the Prime Minister has said because they're too racist. https://t.co/jjIEu1UYra
— Nish Kumar (@MrNishKumar) October 21, 2021
The quotes they used, that we could decipher over the bleeping, are indeed real. Johnson sparked controversy when a number of his old Telegraph columns were unearthed in recent years. He referred to Muslim women in hijab visiting his constituency as “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” and referred to gay men as “tank-topped bum boys”.
He has also made controversial comments about single mothers, and described female Olympians as “wet otters”.
In a 2019 general election debate, Johnson addressed calls for him to apologise over his past comments and said:
“If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and take out individual phrases, there is no doubt that you can find things that can be made to seem offensive and of course I understand that.”
He also has said he would not make the comments about Muslim women as prime minister.
A Dave insider said they censored the language because of younger audiences on social media but that the full version aired on TV as it was after the watershed.
Our Prime Minister is officially too spicy for social media.
