Quail Lite: Jonathan Ross Makes Joke

Jonathan Ross yesterday presented his first radio show since his tabloid enforced suspension two months ago.

Ross and his producer made a joke about an old person, which nobody found offensive.

The News of the World said today, in an article titled 'Ross does sick OAP sex gag':

'The mega-bucks star’s crude joke about sex with an 80-year-old woman infuriated listeners'

Similarly outraged, The Mail said:

'The BBC was today fending off calls for Ross to be sacked after yesterday's broadcast'

...in an article snappily titled 'New calls for Jonathan Ross to be sacked after he makes sick joke about sex with a pensioner on his radio return'.


The BBC said:

'The BBC did not receive any complaints over the incident on Saturday'

Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said:

'You’re not going to expect me to make any comment on this, are you?'

Interestingly, the BBC has now revealed it has received 18 complaints about the 'incident', after the 'shocking' and 'vile' dialogue was printed word-for-word in the Mail on Sunday and The News of the World, which bravely allowed the disgusting comments to be carried on their respective pages, reaching a far greater audience that the actual broadcast did.

Presumably all 18 complainants heard the broadcast themselves but were unable to complain when the show was on air due to outrage induced catatonia.

See next week's Quail on Sunday for the same article, as we tiresomely fearlessly ask the same questions again and again: Should Ross be hung, when will the licence fee be abolished, and who will think of the children? And what about Bob?

* Update *

It's up to 25 complaints now, and the article's been rewritten and retitled. So that's seven genuine, bona-fide listeners who definitely heard the broadcast but decided not to complain until they could be certain it was offensive by reading it in the papers. That's what they're there for: to tell people how offended they are. A valuable public service.