Little Miss Jocelyn

After succumbing to the ram-it-down-your-throat hype campaign for this show, I thought I'd give it a whirl after tonight's episode of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" had faded off the screen. And I can honestly say that instead of sitting on my couch with an expression of bemused disgust on my face for thirty minutes, I wish I had simply stood up and head-butted the wall until my face bled.

This is quite simply the worst programme I have ever seen masquerading as television comedy. Ever. Including that god awful one with Jasper Carrot where his kid's in a wheelchair or something. Watching "Little Miss Jocelyn" is like being hit in the face with a massive fish with the word "stupid" carved into its flank.

It beggars belief how such a show even got commissioned, let alone made it past BBC executives, producers, script meetings, rewrites and all of the normal processes every TV show goes through, only to end up as this steaming pile of pig's offal. The only conclusion I can draw is that those in charge of our entertainment industry - get ready for the irony - really don't have the first clue about entertainment.

But hey, I could sit here and bitch all day. let's go through the show. I watched. She did a cheap, "Last Of The Summer Wine"-esquire wheelchair out of control sketch. The audience whooped. I was silent but carried on watching. She dressed as a man in a fat suit. The audience howled. I was silent and carried on watching. She screamed repeatedly like a distressed boar for the entire duration of a sketch. The audience loved it, seemingly unaware of the Stupid Fish continuing its terrific facial barrage. Televisual root canal work. I carried on watching. A sketch with absolutely no direction - which appeared to be about some fitness fanatics or something - meandered on for about ten minutes. The audience seemed to like this as well, but by that time there was no doubt in my mind that they were being held at gunpoint. A small whimper escaped as I realised I had lost the use of my legs.

I implore anyone who hasn't seen this show to give it a watch. You'll see just how bad television comedy can be. And a note to the BBC - There are tonnes of perfectly talented ethnic minority comedians out there. Don't give a show to the first one who comes along just to fill your quota.

This is a perfect example of the BBC trying to get 'the ethnic vote', and failing miserably. There are lots and lots of extremely funny black comics working the UK today - Felix Dexter, for instance, has been criminally overlooked for many years and Gina Yashere, although hit and miss, is certainly ten times funnier than this tripe.

I've watched (forced myself) four episodes to try and give it as much of a chance as I could, but, aside from a couple of guilty laughs at the expense of the Nigerian parking attendant and bus driver, there is precious little here to merit even a first viewing, let alone a second.

It's clear that she is trying too hard to be funny but, whilst she may or may not be a good stand-up, the protagonist here most certainly isn't a sketch comic. Admittedly she isn't helped by the hackneyed 'fifteen year old drama students' scripts, but thinly veiled racism posing as 'laughing at ourselves' stopped being funny after the first series of Goodness Gracious Me - when the novelty value wore off.

Incidentally - why is it that, during an age when there is increasingly serious racism between black kids of African and Caribbean descent in our schools, a programme which, basically, is 25 minutes of p***-taking between the two cultures is not considered 'racism'?

Little Miss Jocelyn is one of the most brilliant of comedy shows. Its depth is often unappreciated. Take these characters: Liz: a biting satire of white man's exoticisation of black women. Fiona: a woman who is so conditioned by prevalent (but generally unspoken) racist opinions that she espouses them wholeheartedly to the point of denying her own 'black' identity, save finally exploding at the end of the sketch by 'fulfilling' the most racist and outrageous of anti-black clichés. Mrs Omwukupopo: another incisive satire playing up to white people's prejudices towards so-called 'black sexuality'. Throughout Jocelyn Lee Esien plays on either reversing white prejudices or on reproducing them for satiric effect highlighting the racist views that British society is full of and is not aware of subscribing to, or cannot quite admit to in public (except perhaps in the dark corners of a pub), thanks to its often hypocritical adherence to 'political correctness'. I imagine many white people will find the show distasteful, but that is the whole purpose of it, to throw back in their faces the types of prejudices that their society itself often holds against Africans. Of course that is just one level. There is another. Little Miss Jocelyn is a comedy about the African community in the UK laughing about itself and its idiosyncrasies. Many of her sketches are part of the classic repertoire of 'country (call-a-spade-a-spade) bumpkin goes to the metropolis of political correctness' and can be found in many other comedies about/by migrants (not only African) living in the so-called 'advanced' economies.

I am not surprised but saddened by the axing of the program.

OK, I simply adore this new comedy sketch show by 3 Non Blondes star, Jocelyn Jee Esien. But first of all, I must admit that this show is an acquired taste. The less positive comments about it are understandable, considering the sketch material.

But for me, it is Esien's sheer versatility and wide-range of characters, that make this a winning formula. She becomes that character and adopts a whole new persona, in each sketch! My favourites include acid-tongued, man hating Gladys Kingston, Fiona the office employee who believes that no-one knows that she is black, Jiffy the busy-body traffic warden with her love for stopping ordinary people and lecturing them on various topics, and so on. Her facial expressions are just priceless, too.

You either love or hate it. I personally can't get enough of it.

This program is the worst I have ever seen, and believe me, I've seen Tittybangbang and Peter Serofinawicz. I'm amazed that there are people commenting here who say they love it. I suppose the explanations about recognising characters from the black community may go somewhere to explain it, but even so in that sphere, all she does is shout in a particular accent. If I was an ex-pat in eg Nigeria and a white woman came on TV shouting in cockney, that in itself might amuse for 30 seconds, but when I realise there are actually no jokes and no wit, surely the amusement wears thin? Goofy teeth, strange accents and shouting does not make comedy. Take out the rude bits and this is sub-standard children's TV.