Channel 4 eh? What are they playing at? Eyes are still being rubbed in disbelief at recent viewings of soft cock action in the Big Brother house, with Jodie Marsh’s complete disbelief at the thought of being regarded as some kind of cheap, tacky, orange skinned tart.
That said, the kind of people that would complain about such matters were far too busy scribbling at the insanely fantastic Root Of All Evil by the controversial scholar Richard Dawkins. Apparently, the working title was God Is Crap but Channel 4 bosses weren’t available to confirm or deny this at the time of press (so it’s definitely true).
On Root Of All Evil, Richard Dawkins – filthy little elf that he his – went around prodding every
religious person and building he could find. He even went to the Middle East, with the explicit reason of bothering some God botherers. Magic
TV!
One great encounter in this first of a few-parter was Rich’s face off
with Bible Belt millionaire pastor Ted Haggard. Ted Haggard is a
special man indeed. Not like the clergy we’re used to – far from it in
fact. Ted is the all American, poodle rock-posturing, punching the air,
one foot on the monitor Christian. Neither, in the battle that ensues
is willing to back down. Dawkins serves with "your sermon reminded me of,
dare I say it, the Nuremberg rally," (15-Love) only to be beaten back
with "there are many things you don’t know, but you suffer from
intellectual arrogance." (Deuce) In fact they make a lovely couple.
Naturally, Richard Dawkins has the last laugh as it cuts to a shot of the
scientist up a hill in Israel comparing Christians to "fundamental
Muslims." That’s the beauty of having your own programme eh Mr Haggard?
To be quite frank, Dawkins’ quest for facts concerning the
viability of the son, the father and the other fella borders on
perverted. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility to imagine him
tearing around Jerusalem on another episode of Root Of All Evil squealing "GIMME FACTS YOU HEATHENS!" to
bemused onlookers.
As ever with all good televidgeon wrong-casts, Root Of All Evil showed the ability to get
completely surreal at the drop of a choir boys’ knickers. Dawkins cuts
to the theory of the "celestial teapot." A theory that compares that
fella who lives in heaven to a teapot floating around the sun. Should
you question the belief? Of course not. TV hasn’t told you what to
think yet. So blindly follow and remain as confused as the rest of the soul-destroyed flock. Sure enough, stay tuned next week to watch Dawkins
bothering some Sunday school-goers, and marvel as he yells abuse at
infants with Hindi parents (probably).
Channel 4 is really cooking with these shock tactics. A brief look at
the rest of the week shows that a drama involving animal testing. The
clip alludes to terrorist activity on behalf of anti-testing groups,
bricks through windows and the word cancer writ large on a computer
monitor. Essential viewing? You betcha! Channel 4 isn’t stopping there
either.
Next month, it’s airing a six-part series called You. Sat On The Sofa. You’re Rubbish And Your Girlfriend Is Ugly. Apparently it
will star Jeremy Spake who will entertain us by invading people’s
houses and shouting every swearword he knows to ‘scrubbers’.
Next stop, Top 100 TV Abortions, complete with talking heads such as
Paul Ross and Jimmy ‘you don’t see enough of him on TV do you?’ Carr.
As ever, ’tis a funny old week in TV land, and who knows what’s around
the corner? As long as we have more quality viewing like this, we can’t
grumble, and as Jodie Marsh said "forgive me if what I say comes out of
mouth". Stunning.
Read more:
The Root Of All Evil – Channel 4
[story by Mof Gimmers]
Brendan Taggart says
Thanks for taking the time to write the review. I missed part 1 of The root of all Evil and badly need a copy of it, for what I am writing. Has anybody got a taped copy? or do you know where i can buy one? A reply from anyone would be greatly appreciated
Brendan
Brendan Conroy says
What strikes me about the bould Mr Dawkins is that he only ever talks about believers as if they were ALL fundamentalist as if none of them for example were scientists or engineers or nurses or road sweepers or television producers who do what they do with a bit of style, humour, tolerance and believe in God in some shape or form. Many of us who are fascinated by science and it’s virtually daily new discoveries are equally awed by the notion of God and both can sit very well together. Certainly my view of the universe is greatly enriched by having two lenses with which to look at it instead of one – Richard’s characterisation of all believers as having a “pokey medieval world view” is just not borne out by his beloved evidence. Possibly because for all fundamentalists there is some evidence that you just can’t afford to look at. What would really have been brave for Richard Dawkins to do instead of jousting with tetchy fundamantalist rabble rousers, would have been to sit down with say, someone like fellow scientist and believer Francis Collins the co-director of the Genome Project and examine, probe and explore calmly and without the C4 histrionics why one of them believes and the other doesn’t while both being brilliant scientists. Perhaps he’s just not that brave unless he’s calling all the (television) shots? Brendan Conroy.