Why I Stopped Watching Have I Got News For You (and why I might just start again)

I love political satire. Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week on TV; The News Quiz and The Now Show on Radio 4—they all appeal to my ever-so-slightly cynical sense of humour. They’re funny and often informative—I’m almost ashamed to admit that some weeks they’re the main way I get to hear what’s going on in Westminster.

Is it just me, or has the volume and vehemence of these programmes gone up a notch recently? It seems like the political mood at the moment particularly lends itself to satirical comedy. There’s a sense of dissatisfaction, distrust and disappointment in the system, and the growth in online media, means that everyone’s got a platform from which to poke fun at the people at the top.

And there’s certainly no shortage of comedic material. We have larger-than-life personalities dominating headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, topsy-turvy election results that defy all predictions, a precariously-balanced cabinet, a widening gap between left and right—and all with unchartered constitutional territory ahead, as our team struggles through the Brexit negotiation. Politics at the moment is, frankly, bizarre. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.

Why I turned off

But things changed after a Bible study a couple of months back on these words from Romans 13:

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. … Give to everyone what you owe them: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.” (Romans 13 v 1, 7)

Paul’s point is that the authorities are owed our respect and honour—not because they’re behaving in a way that is honourable, but because they’ve been put there by God. As we wrestled with this passage, we were quick to try and find ways that we could wriggle out of it. What? Honour and Respect—for them? But our attempts to exempt ourselves started to sound a bit pathetic when we considered the kind of government that both the writer, Paul, and the readers, the Roman Christians, lived under. Pagan, corrupt, unbelieving, ruthless and dangerous. This was no idealised democracy that Paul was encouraging us to honour.

It's not possible for me to respect the government in my heart as I laugh along at them being mocked and derided on TV.

And so the next time Have I Got News for You came on, I reached for the channel changer. I decided to stop watching and listening to political satire.

I speak only for myself when I say: it’s not possible for me to respect the government in my heart as I laugh along at them being mocked and derided on TV. It’s one thing to take Romans 13 seriously on a Tuesday night at Bible study—but will we take it as seriously on a Friday night in front of the telly?

I’m not seeking to bind anyone’s conscience. It’s just that if we’re serious about following King Jesus and letting him have authority over every aspect of our lives, we can’t limit that to our sexual ethics or the slice of our income we give to church. It’s about “not conforming to the pattern of this world”—not being carried along by an increasingly cynical culture—but “being transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12 v 2). Christians should laugh at different things than everyone else does.

So I stopped watching. I’ll confess that I do miss it though—and sometimes I still look longingly at it as I scroll through BBC iPlayer, looking for something else to watch.

And that’s when the issue gets a bit more complex…

Bigger problem

Because here’s the problem: the “something else” I watch isn’t that much better. It dawned on me the other day that I’m wildly inconsistent. I might have cut out the political satire, but I still watch sex on the screen (I got through all six episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale). I’m avoiding language that derides the President of the United States, but at best I just wince a little at language that derides the King of the Universe; a bit of blasphemy isn’t enough to get me to turn off Gogglebox.

So why put a fence round this one thing but not others? Is that inconsistent, or is it good to just start somewhere? Is it legalistic? Or a helpful exercise in self-control?

How do I decide what is lawful for me to watch and what it beneficial?  Or can I enjoy TV as the creative expression of individuals who are made in the image of God, and who therefore have a hard-wired desire to communicate with one another?

There are no easy answers. I’m not sure I’ve even got half an answer—but maybe you do? Do you watch political satire? How do you make decisions more broadly on what to watch or not watch?

Answers on the back of a postcard, or in the comments below…