U.K. Year-End Show Draws Complaints With Jokes About Gerard Butler, Queen

7:34 AM PST 1/2/2013 by Georg Szalai

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Channel 4's "Big Fat Quiz of the Year," hosted by Jimmy Carr, featured edgy comments from comedians about events and personalities in the headlines.

Britain's Channel 4 is in hot water with its annual year-end show Big Fat Quiz of the Year, which has drawn complaints about jokes about the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Gerard Butler.

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The satirical year-in-review show, hosted by comic Jimmy Carr, has led to more than 160 complaints as of Wednesday morning, the Guardian reported.
Viewers criticized jokes from comedians Jack Whitehall and James Corden about the royal family, Butler, singer Susan Boyle, a past winner of Britain's Got Talent, and sprinter Usain Bolt, it said.

The Daily Mail made the show front-page news with the headline: "Channel 4 and the sick show they call comedy." The added exposure seems to have led to an increase in complaints, according to the Guardian.

Whitehall, in a pre-recorded joke about the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations, said during the show: "[The Queen] didn't sit down for the entirety of that thing, and people were talking about that. It was the day after the night of her anniversary, and Prince Philip woke up with a urinary infection...I'm just saying what everyone's thinking, people."

About Butler, Whitehall said: "He's got a beautiful voice. It's like someone holding your head down and making love to your ear with a condom made of velvet."

The show was watched by 3.1 million people.

Media regulator Ofcom is assessing whether to launch a formal probe into the Channel 4 show, the Guardian said.

Said a Channel 4 spokesman: "Big Fat Quiz of The Year is a well established comedic and satirical review of the year's events with well-known guests and was broadcast after the watershed with appropriate warnings."

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai