Jerry Springer: The Opera
Dir: Peter Orton
2005
***
Jerry Springer: The Opera is a little Edinburgh fringe play that did very well for itself. Written by one of my favourite comedians Stewart Lee and featuring many memorable moments such as Jerry Springer going to hell, A gay Jesus and tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members, what more could you want. When the BBC decided to broadcast it there was outrage, Church-goers, Daily Mail readers and BNP members joined forces and camped outside the Broadcasting centre and demanded that they banned such filth. It featured songs like; "Chick With a D**k", "Diaper Man" and "Mama Gimmee Smack on the A**hole" and was all singing and all dancing, David Soul was also rather convincing as Mr. Springer too. Great yeah? Well no, unfortunately it's just not very funny. Great on paper and I'm sure it was a laugh when it was a little production but on the big stage it just didn't do it for me. It's funny for about 5 minutes, then the joke wears a little thin. I also think it would have been a little better if it were Jerry Spinger: The Musical, at least then the songs would have sounded a bit different form each other. Avenue Q suffered from the same shortsightedness - sure if you still find the work 'f**k' funny the hundredth time you hear it, give it a go but otherwise see it just for the fact that so many ignorant bigots don't want you too. Read up about it on 'That famous website full of information beginning with the letter W', it makes for interesting reading. I give it three stars, purely for pissing off all the right people.