Spitting Image returns after 24 years



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The satirical political puppet show, Spitting Image, returned to British screens, first on Saturday, after a 24-year hiatus, as shown on British television between 1984 and 1996, and at its peak it attracted 15 million viewers. each night.

The returning show selected 100 characters represented by the new latex dolls, and among the politicians who became dolls: Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Prince Harry and his wife Megan Markle, Boris Johnson, Greta Thunberg, Kim Kardashian and others …
Spitting Image’s sarcastic passages and its sometimes poignant and poignant sketches made political life accessible to the general public and served as an outlet to express anger against the conservative reforms of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the late President American Ronald Reagan.
One of the creators of this program, Rodger Law, said that “the moment has come” to reactivate the program, considering that the social upheaval that Britain is currently experiencing, especially with its exit from the European Union, “is no different” from the one that lived in the eighties of the last century.
But times have changed a lot, some commentators have questioned whether this first original production of Britbox, the video-on-demand service of the BBC and ITV, will be able to withstand the pressures of constant anger on social media. .
This program is shown every week to keep up to date with current events, and in its first episode it was approached with sarcasm by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, showing him immersed in negotiations with the Corona virus, before succumbing to sleep while the resounding tweets stayed out of his ass.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also did not escape sarcastic criticism, as the show portrayed him as an idiot controlled by his close adviser Dominic Cummings, who appears as the supreme leader of the aliens. As for Prince Harry, viewers saw him searching in vain for a job in Los Angeles, where Disney officials were discussing creating a black version of the famous “Star Wars” character “Yoda” in response to anti-racist demands.
The way the show handled young environmental activist Greta Thunberg caused a sensation. Some netizens found the mockery of a young woman suffering from a mild form of autism, presenting it as an introduction to the television climate paragraph, to be completely inappropriate, despite the fact that Greta herself liked a tweet featuring her doll. .
Lead writer Geoff Westbrook said at the presentation: “I’m not really trying to offend people” with this “weird and somewhat absurd” show, hoping this show will be seen as “a kind of sarcasm rather than a (sarcasm ) cruel”.
As for Rodger Law, he explained: “I do not find what we are doing offensive. Rather, he considers the most abusers to be some of the people we attack.”
Politicians were originally at the forefront of those who covered the show in the 1980s, from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who used to describe her ministers as vegetables in the show’s paragraphs, to the late US President Ronald. Reagan, who was portrayed as having no brain with his finger near the nuclear button, and the prime minister. Former Brit John Major who loves peas.
The dolls on the show also featured other types of celebrities, including soccer player Paul Gascoigne, who was portrayed always crying, as well as various members of the British royal family.
Cambridge University history professor Lucy Delab told AFP that the show’s sense of humor is part of a long history of political satire. “The show has provided a satirical platform for a society deeply divided by neoliberal policies, the closure of coal mines, police racism and nuclear weapons,” he added.
In response to a question on whether Spitting Image will achieve the expected success in 2020, he stated that the show “was necessary to tickle fans and corrupt people, and the need for that day remains just as urgent.”

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