One of the problems of seeing a lot of comedy is that you become a bit unshockable. When I watched the first episode of Revolting I thought the Real Housewives Of Isis sketch was amusing but nothing to get into a tizzy about. I’d heard plenty of similar gags about jihadi brides on the circuit in recent years from the likes of Shazia Mirza. And yet the sketch has been accused of being Islamophobic and has given some handy publicity to the new series from Jolyon Rubinstein and Heydon Prowse.
So what is there in the second episode that might cause a similar kerfuffle? Well, nothing much from what I can see, but there are some lovely pieces of easily digestible satire that will raise plenty of approving smiles and a few laughs.
One running gag is a spoof report about the rise of illicit vegetable consumption among the young. In a mock news report we see salad dealers outside nightclubs and kids ending up in a K Hole – as in Kale Hole. It’s a good gag with some fun footage that looks genuine when a couple of passing policemen take an interest in what they are selling.
Elsewhere we discover that dullard Tory MP James Twottington-Burbage (Rubinstein) is now hoping to rise through the ranks of Theresa May’s cabinet. This week he is off doing business at the Farnborough Air Show, looking to help to flog military hardware to foreign countries (very much Mark Thomas territory). He also corners Labour's Andy Burnham and Jeremy Corbyn during a rally in London and thanks them for doing so much to keep the Conservative Party in power.
There are, though less stitch-ups of high profile political figures than in their previous BBC3 show The Revolution Will Be Televised and instead, more stunts and straightforward comic sketches. They do get some delicously controversial comments out of members of the public at the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, although one does wonder how many people gave them the brush-off and got edited out. Likewise Prowse goes around Carnaby Street pretending to be Tim Farron – the premise being nobody knows what the Lidbdem leader looks like – and getting freebies. We don’t see all the people who rumbled him of course.
Nothing here to get the media into a froth then, but maybe I've missed something. Maybe the right-to-choose sketch? Maybe the hospital sketch in which a patient dies because his credit card is declined? Maybe the voxpop about royal succession? Their Top Gun drone bombing spoof? Have a look yourselves and prepare to be possibly offended.
Revolting, BBC2, Tuesdays, 10pm.
Review of Episode One here.
