Comedian Ben Elton has been forced to apologise to his homeland after comments made on Good News Week in which he described the Queen as a “sad little old lady.” He also referred to the Duke of York as “a bit of a yob” and suggested that the Earl of Wessex was homosexual, declaring that he “took it from behind”.
He also claimed that he had slept with Baroness Thatcher, the former Prime Minister and made lewd jokes about the fictional children’s character Harry Potter.
But his spokesman said the comments were taken out of context. Elton made his remarks about the Royal Family when asked to play a word association game.
He said: “She’s an ordinary lady. That woman represents Britain more than any head of state represents their country… she’s a sad little old lady, right.
“She lives in state-sponsored accommodation. Her husband is a mad old bigot that wishes it was still the war.”
Describing how “three out of her kids’ four marriages have failed”, he said “the oldest one is a disillusioned ex-hippy” and “the middle one is a bit of a yob”.
He added: “I’m just saying that’s a bog standard British family in all its rainbow glory. If she had a black one and a disabled one, she would have the full deck. That is a head of state.”
His spokesperson apologised for any offence caused and noted the comments that made the press in the UK were taken out of context.
“He was making a joke about Australian republicanism, pointing out on a comedy show that the Queen and her family were far more reflective of the modern rainbow population they represented than any other,” said the spokesperson.
On Tuesday Elton declared his “love and respect” for Britain and said his relocation to Australia was only “temporary”.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Re Ten stealing (yes, stealing) David’s article unattributed for their own site: where I come from, that’s called plagiarism. It’s actually illegal.
Shameful, Ten. Print journalists have lost their jobs for far less than that.
He was funnier than mikey robins
I see TEN is now taking content from TV Tonight… attribution would have been nice guys!
Besides, he has got a book to sell
Any publicity is good publicity.
Ben Elton has often made such comments about the Royals when he’s wearing his
comedy hat, yet speaks quite warmly of them when interviewed as a person.
It’s him playing his traditional role as the angry socialist when on stage.
The British tabloids probably tried an anti-Ben beat up, mixing it with
it’s Aussie setting to exploit the old charicature of Oz as a rude, disrespectful
hotbed of Republicanism.
It’s just everyone playing at stereotypes… that’s all. No biggie…
I wonder how many people here rushing to defend Elton for what he said (and, for the record, he spoke true on it all) cried for Harry Connick’s head on a pike?
I didn’t see the programme in question, but from what the quotations give, the comments did seem a tad disrespectful and inappropriate.
As far as having jokes about politics, Her Majesty is above politics, and we’d hope above poor taste as reported here. This is the Queen of Australia we’re talking about, not a politician or business leader.
It was hilarious. One is amused.
The UK tabloids are renowned for being the trashiest, most low-brow media in the world, so this doesn’t surprise me. Most of the UK population probably couldn’t care less. Something like 70 – 80 percent of them support the monarchy, but so many of them only do so because they want to preserve the history etc. Only old farts would be upset by jokes about the Queen.
Wow. Don’t the British press have better things to do than watch Australian TV shows on the internet?
Oh Good grief, hes a comedian. Of course hes going to say things like this. BTW does the truth hurt?
Ben has become a tired, boring hack. Even when paying out the royals – which is a cheap and easy gag for a Brit to an Aussie audience – he does ancient material. Did he say a single thing you haven’t heard said before?
How about his woeful “satire” on Idol? Or the We Will Rock You musical, which seemed to have been written by a 10-year-old?
Please retire quietly.
So it appears Australia isn’t the only country that needs to harden the fudge up.
Seems his bad back has headed south and turned into being a pain in the a**e.
Watching it was hilarious but It’s funny how mean spirited it sounds written in the article. A typical UK tabloid beat up! Ben really has nothing to apologise for.
Remember in the late 80′s when Ben Elton led the push to have the likes of Benny Hill off UK television because of his material — could the karma bus be turning full circle, courtesy of the tabloids, and coming back to take out another Ben?
This is rubbish. Ben Elton’s rant was one of the funniest moments on Monday’s GNW.
It was a joke!! Geez hurry up with that referendum already.
Ah, the British tabloids. So useless. And so over-sensitive.
Ben, you shouldn’t have even bothered having your “spokesperson” respond. Or perhaps there’s one less employed “spokesperson” right about now. Hopefully.
And yep, Elton’s description of the Family was spot-on. Truth hurts, I guess.
It seems to be a worrying trend to take offence at standard, and previously acceptable satire. Most of this behaviour seems to be stemmed from the Media trying to deliberately provoke.
Ben Elton added much need humor to Dull News Week. They need more guests like him or a whole new writing team, notice theirs never any political comments (except about Turnball)? Left wing nutbars!
The Queen was not amused, and as with most Ben Elton material, nor was anyone else.
It was funny but if I was Ben I wouldn’t be waiting for a knighthood !
Good News Week’s downfall is that it has the word “news” in its title. Some morons must actually tune in for the evening news bulletin and expect a serious show. If you can’t have a bit of a joke about politics on primetime Channel Ten, where can you?
pathetic….why are people so sensitive nowdays.
A complete non-story. The UK tabloids have long lost the understanding of what comedy is.