Black comedian Sophie Duker's 'killing white people' joke sparks 42 Ofcom complaints - as Tory MP leads fury over gag about 'racially-motivated murder' on Frankie Boyle show
BBC bosses are facing new questions about why they pandered to the demands of a black comedienne who has controversially 'joked' about killing white people.
Sophie Duker, 30, caused huge public outrage yesterday after making dodgy remarks on an episode of Frankie Boyle's irreverent BBC2 panel show New World Order about the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Left-wing comic's misjudged gag about 'killing whitey' has racked in 42 complaints to broadcast regulator Ofcom. A spokesman for the BBC would not reveal how many formal complaints it has received.
Ms Duker, who has appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats, has now said that she was booked by producers of Radio 4's News Quiz 'last minute' so the panel was not 'all-white'.
The comedienne allegedly then refused to appear on future episodes of the radio programme unless the BBC hired other black panelists.
In an interview for the RHLSTP comedy podcast, Ms Duker revealed that the Corporation privately admitted that it 'understood' her concerns and vowed to make it an 'easy yes' to bring her back by meeting the 'terms' she outlined.
Critics now accuse the the BBC of pandering to Ms Duker's requirements despite a fierce public backlash after her appearance, despite Director-General Tim Davie's vow to tackle the problem of 'Left-wing bias' in its comedy output.
Furious Conservative MP Ben Bradley has blasted Ms Duker's joke about 'racially-motivated murder' and formally complained to the BBC.
The backbencher called the gag 'another example of the BBC being way off base when it comes to representing the views and values of the majority of the public'.
'I've seen clips from the episode online and I've since made a formal complaint to the BBC about the content,' Mr Bradley told MailOnline.
Controversial statements about racism and 'white power' were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle's panel show New World Order
WHO IS SOPHIE DUKER?
Duker was born in London to first-generation immigrants from West Africa. Her mother is from Cameroon and her father is from Ghana. She studied French and English at Wadham College, Oxford. She joined the Oxford Imps in her first year at university.
An alumna of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve, Duker was shortlisted for the Funny Women award in 2015. She founded and hosted the 'Manic Pixie Dream Girls' show as part of Edinburgh's Free Festival in 2016 and 2017.
Duker was an assistant producer for Frankie Boyle's New World Order and a researcher for 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In 2019, she appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Frankie Boyle's New World Order, Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply, and Mock the Week, and in 2020 in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
In 2018, Duker set up the comedy night 'Wacky Racists', which currently has a monthly residency at 2Northdown in Kings Cross, London, and performs spin-off shows at festivals and events across the UK. In December 2019, Soho Theatre hosted a seasonal Christmas 'Wacky Racists' special.
Duker co-starred in the pilot for a hidden camera sketch show on Channel 4 called Riot Girls as well as on the Comedy Central UK comedy show What I Wish I'd Said in 2018.
Her first stand-up show, 'Diet Woke', was premiered in 2018. She took her 2019 show, 'Venus', to the Brighton Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe, performing at the Edinburgh Pleasance from July 31 to August 25, 2019.
'I have no idea how any producer could think it's appropriate to make jokes about killing white people, and you can bet your life that there would be an outcry if it were the other way around.
'I'm all for 'edgy' comedy and jokes that might be a bit close to the line are often the funniest ones, but jokes about racially motivated murder in that context must surely be way beyond that line.
'It's another example of the BBC being way off base when it comes to representing the views and values of the majority of the public.'
The comedienne made controversial statements about racism and 'white power' where she called 'whiteness' a 'capitalist structure' and joked about 'killing whitey'.
Speaking with Richard Herring for the podcast yesterday, Ms Duker said: 'I was asked to do the news quiz at very short notice after having already done an episode in the series, and I sort of immediately knew it would be to speak about Black Lives Matter.
'They told me shortly after that I was replacing another comic, who was a white man, and it would have been an all-white panel, and that's why I'd been booked.
'I said I wouldn't go back on the short again unless there was another black person on the show. There's been no other person of colour involved editorially at all.
'I was emailed (by the BBC) afterwards and they said that they basically understood why I did it… They would really like to have me back and to make it like an easy yes on the terms I outlined. I thought it was really gracious and classy'.
MailOnline has approached the BBC for comment.
Yesterday the BBC came under fire for airing 'racist' remarks by the 'Marxist' comic in an episode about the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a segment where the panelists discuss if the movement 'glosses over the complexities of a world where we all need to come together and kill whitey', Boyle played a clip of black author James Baldwin talking about 'black power' in an interview on the Dick Cavett Show in the 1970s.
Responding to the clip, Duker said 'white power is Trump Tower' - a nod to Left-wing allegations that the US President is a racist.
She continued: 'But when we say we want to kill whitey, we don't really mean we want to kill whitey'. Ms Duker then quips to the panelists 'we do' to roars of laughter.
Controversial statements about racism and 'white power' were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle's panel show New World Order
Throughout her monologue, Duker's co-panelists - Frankie Boyle, Sara Pascoe and Jamali Maddix - can be seen nodding and heard humming in agreement with the comedian
The segment fueled anger from a growing chorus of licence-fee payers who question why the BBC is 'broadcasting 'comedy' where they 'joke' about killing an entire race of people'
Ms Duker added: 'But when people react to people saying white privilege - whiteness is a capitalist structure, it benefits itself. It hurts white people, it hurts non-black people, it hurts black people.
'But still this kind of fear of a black alternative, and it's these sort of rhetorics battling against each other, these extreme capitalist rhetorics of supremacy.'
The great TV licence turn-off: Figures reveal 237,000 fewer families have paid the BBC fee in the last year as viewers switch to Netflix
Fewer households are buying TV licences, according to the BBC's annual report.
Audiences for its major channels have also fallen, suggesting many families are relying on streaming services such as Netflix.
The Corporation said 25.9million licences were in force in 2019/20 – down 237,000 in a year.
With a licence costing £157.50, the fall cost the BBC just under £40million. The BBC lost millions more because the Government has started to reduce the amount of money it gives the Corporation to pay for free licences for the over-75s.
Overall licence fee revenue fell £170million to just over £3.5billion.
According to yesterday's report, younger people aged 16 to 34 watched or listened to just seven and a half hours of BBC content a week – only a slightly higher share than YouTube.
Across all ages, the audience reach of BBC1 – the numbers that see the channel each week – fell from 68 per cent to 65.4 per cent in a year. BBC2 also saw a decline, from 42.9 per cent to 41.9 per cent.
The segment fueled anger from a growing chorus of disgruntled licence-fee payers who question why the BBC is 'broadcasting comedy' where they 'joke' about killing an entire race of people'.
Actor Laurence Fox thundered: 'The BBC must have a no tolerance policy on ALL forms of racism.'
A BBC spokesman yesterday rubbished criticism of its decision to air the 'Marxist' comic, telling MailOnline: 'Frankie Boyle's New World Order was shown after 10pm and its content is within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established'.
TalkRadio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer said: 'This is horrible. It's not just unfunny, it's incoherent nonsensical Marxist gobbledegook. The white contributors nodding along supportively as this woman jokes about killing people who look like them is just plain sick.'
Brexiteer Darren Grimes claimed: 'This is from BBC comedy's New World Order. I'm not sure how this is 'comedy'.
'I'm not sure why our cash is paying for it. I'm not sure why the BBC isn't challenging those determined to do all that they can to divide us with this hateful wordsoup of divisive dross.'
Another social media user tweeted: 'Whiteness hurts black people'??? Really? Doesn't sound like a joke to me. Imagine Frankie Boyle saying 'Blackness hurts white people!''
One commented: 'Shouldn't Ofcom be monitoring and taking action against this kind of incitement to violence masquerading as comedy?'
It comes after Tim Davie, the BBC's new Director-General, vowed to tackle the problem of 'Left-wing comedy bias' at the Corporation, over fears the broadcaster's comedy output is seen as is seen as 'too one-sided'.
Shows such as BBC Two's satirical comedy The Mash Report and The Now Show on Radio 4 and Have I Got News For You have previously been criticised.
Meanwhile, an anti-BBC campaign group which aims to drastically reform the corporation's governance has raised nearly £60,000 in donations.
Defund the BBC, a right-wing group founded by Brexiteers, began crowdfunding in June and aims to decriminalise non-payment of the TV licence fee.
The group is using the money to create campaign material including billboards, merchandise and advertisements across social media.
The campaign says it has three main goals: to raise awareness of the legal implications of cancelling a TV licence, to urge the government to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee and to lobby for the compulsory annual levy to be reduced to the lowest possible level in the BBC's mid-charter review in 2022.
Defund the BBC, founded by James Yucel , has received more than £57,000 in donations amid fury over corporation's 'rich list' published this week. The right-wing campaign is backed by prominent Brexiteer personalities including Darren Grimes and Calvin Robinson
The flood of donations comes as the BBC came under fire after published accounts showed staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent up to £1.5billion this year.
Accounts published earlier this week showed that Zoe Ball is now the BBC's highest earner after pocketing a £1million pay rise - knocking Gary Lineker off the top spot.
The Match of the Day star, 59, is understood to have signed a new five-year contract - and a nearly 25 per cent pay cut from £1.75million down to £1.35million.
While the Corporation said it was working towards closing the gender pay gap, anti-BBC campaigners say pay rises were given to those who were performing poorly.
They highlighted pay rises given to Zoe Ball, who has lost nearly a million listeners, and Lauren Laverne who hosts Desert Island Discs.
Defund the BBC's Head of Press Liam Deacon told talkRADIO: 'You might say this is because of a good instinct to correct this gender pay gap but really I think this is actually symptomatic of a structural fundamental problem with the BBC that pay and money is not tied to performance in the same way that it would be in a business.
'The BBC is using our money in a really grotesque way.'