Little Britain is an interesting show- It's run was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. I think it started off EXTREMELY strong; potential to be comparable to Red Dwarf, Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, etc. But it's true that by the 3rd season, what were once new, unique, boundary-pushing characters, had become incredibly repetitive, with the whole season being basically the same episode, with the exact same jokes repeated every week, but just transferred to a different location, or with trivial details changed. Sad- If they'd had the guts to retire characters at their peak of popularity, and replace them with something new, rather than just running the same jokes into the ground, the show could have had much more longevity. I WOULD still recommend the series- but if you were to start getting irritated with the repetition, and drop the show at season 3, I'd understand.
But the most striking thing for me, about re-watching Little Britain in 2021, is just how "edgy" this super-popular, BBC show is, by 2021 standards; Jokes about men insisting that they're actually women, despite being laughably unconvincing. Or about a gay man who blames every imagined injustice in his life on his (imagined) persecution for being "the only gay in the village". Jokes about/using cartoonish racial stereotypes, or over-the-top parodies of stereotypes of gay people, fat people, etc- In the early 2000's, audiences understood that the whole joke was ridiculing the STEREOTYPE, and those who saw the world in those terms- But today, the most vocal (but arguably not the largest) section of the audience have consistantly shown they'll assume that ANY joke about minorities CAN ONLY be assumed to be maliciously targetting the group portrayed, and motivated by bigotry.
In the early 2000's the people most offended by shows like Little Britain, were conservatives, offended that openly gay characters were being shown at all, and by the "obsceneity" of the crude humour... but today, those offended are from the exact opposite side of the political spectrum, offended because certain groups CAN ONLY be shown in a positive light. (and I won't go into detail, because it's not the point, but I'm in more than one of the minority groups, these actions are intended to "defend"- I'm not the evil, spooky "straight white man", that critics of this stuff are always assumed to be).
Despite Little Britain's flaws, I think it represents the least censored era in pop culture- a brief gap between the conservative-driven censorship of the mid-20th century, and the liberal-driven censorship that's taken hold in the last decade or so.
But the most striking thing for me, about re-watching Little Britain in 2021, is just how "edgy" this super-popular, BBC show is, by 2021 standards; Jokes about men insisting that they're actually women, despite being laughably unconvincing. Or about a gay man who blames every imagined injustice in his life on his (imagined) persecution for being "the only gay in the village". Jokes about/using cartoonish racial stereotypes, or over-the-top parodies of stereotypes of gay people, fat people, etc- In the early 2000's, audiences understood that the whole joke was ridiculing the STEREOTYPE, and those who saw the world in those terms- But today, the most vocal (but arguably not the largest) section of the audience have consistantly shown they'll assume that ANY joke about minorities CAN ONLY be assumed to be maliciously targetting the group portrayed, and motivated by bigotry.
In the early 2000's the people most offended by shows like Little Britain, were conservatives, offended that openly gay characters were being shown at all, and by the "obsceneity" of the crude humour... but today, those offended are from the exact opposite side of the political spectrum, offended because certain groups CAN ONLY be shown in a positive light. (and I won't go into detail, because it's not the point, but I'm in more than one of the minority groups, these actions are intended to "defend"- I'm not the evil, spooky "straight white man", that critics of this stuff are always assumed to be).
Despite Little Britain's flaws, I think it represents the least censored era in pop culture- a brief gap between the conservative-driven censorship of the mid-20th century, and the liberal-driven censorship that's taken hold in the last decade or so.