BBC Program Gets Its Knuckles Rapped Over Sex Jokes About the Queen

By Kelly Faircloth | July 1, 2016 | 7:30pm

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The BBC radio program Don’t Make Me Laugh has landed in hot water thanks to some rather vulgar jokes about Queen Elizabeth II. And during her birthday celebrations, at that.

The Guardian reports that the BBC Trust, an independent governing body for the media organization that’s separate from management, has ruled that raunchy jokes about the Queen and her husband were “personal, intrusive and demeaning.”

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“Trustees found it hard to imagine circumstances in which this broadcast at any time or on any day would not have given rise to significant unjustified offence,” said the BBC Trust in its ruling on Thursday. “Trustees considered this was a serious breach of the editorial guidelines for harm and offence.”

Or, as the Daily Mail put it in their headline summary:

Of course, because this is the Daily Mail we’re talking about, they also helpfully reproduced some of the jokes in question:

During the episode, which was pre-recorded, host David Baddiel asked his guests to talk about how ‘the Queen must have had sex at least four times’.

Panellist Russell Kane, 41, said: ‘For me, this is just a quadruple representation of why inherited power is so dangerous. The Queen having had sex at least four times is no laughing matter whatsoever because we’re forced to imagine Prince Philip and his work in the creation of those children.’

The Telegraph said the segment included “reference to genitalia.”

The BBC has since apologized. Via the Guardian:

“While BBC Radio 4 comedy is a broad church and often pushes boundaries, we would like to apologise for this broadcast of Don’t Make Me Laugh,” the BBC said at the time. “We never intended for the scheduling of the programme to coincide with the Queen’s birthday and are sorry for the offence caused by its timing and content.”

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Photo via Getty Images.