Pervy comedian Lucy Porter, a frequent panel show participant throughout Radio Four’s latest series of the News Quiz, has spent her appearances boring the listeners with her creepy infatuation with Sir Keir Starmer. Tuning in each Friday at 6:30pm (or on repeat on iPlayer) to hear Porter’s latest silliness has irked this hard-to-irk blogger.
For as long as I can remember, no male guest on the show has fawned over a female celebrity – they would be toast. Yet, Lucy Porter seems to get away with it, time after time.
Sure, there would have been a period, many years ago, when male guests might have made references to a female celeb’s good looks, but times have changed. Certainly, in the two decades that I have been listening, no male comedian on the show has repeatedly made their crush on a female politician the focal point of their routine; that would have been odd and wildly inappropriate.
What’s more, her unamusing faux obsession with Starmer lacks any real wit or insight. If a male comedian behaved similarly, he’d be skewered by the Twitterati and consigned to the ash heap of history faster than you can say “cancel culture.” Meanwhile, male participants, shackled by the straitjacket of political correctness, tiptoe around.
And it’s noticeable that the panellists don’t ‘joke surf’ on Porter’s Starmer gags because the topic is so odd; no one wants to jump in, making her Starmer comments really jar.
What a peculiar state of affairs when a show that once prided itself on sharp, incisive humour has devolved into a platform for double standards. The only thing more baffling than Porter’s antics is the fact that the audience continues to lap it up.
