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The BBC has confirmed they do not book rightwing comedians as “they are not funny enough”, according to an insider.
Following reports that the broadcaster could see a “radical overhaul” in coming months in terms of comedy shows, to “tackle a perceived Left-wing bias”, an explanation has now come through detailing why so few rightwing comedians have a slot on the BBC in the first place.
The future direction, under the guidance of newly appointed director-general Tim Davie, is set to potentially axe a number of shows because they are “unfairly biased against the Tories, Donald Trump and Brexit”, the source from the BBC told The Guardian.
“Internally we’ve been asked to make sure we have more balance across our shows – we are constantly on the look out but there aren’t many people who have those viewpoints on the comedy circuit,” the source explained.
“Tell me the names that we’re missing out on? Some people aren’t very good. The issue is a shortage of rightwing comics.”
They added: “Give me 10 names of the people we aren’t currently looking at. Any person you would class as a rightwing comic has been on our output in the last 12-18 months.
“The categorisation that we have no rightwing representation just isn’t true. There is a question: where are the people the BBC are missing out on? Who are the people who aren’t on who should be? If they’re funny we’ll book them.”
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