A point to ponder as you watch: In what sense is the “alternative Christmas message” alternative? Literally it’s an alternative to the queen’s, but study the list of past presenters and you’ll find that the concept runs deeper than that. When Channel 4 goes the serious route, they tend to feature victims sympathetic to viewers — a wounded British soldier, a 9/11 survivor, a girl from Northern Ireland, parents of children killed by crime or disease. When they go for laughs, they favor icons of irreverence and/or camp — Quentin Crisp, Ali G, Marge Simpson, a male Princess Diana impersonator. Both groups of messengers are “alternative” but in different ways. The comic ones are pointedly countercultural, playing off of the queen’s gravitas by goofing on British conventions, while the serious ones, in asking us to reflect on their suffering, imply that western society is complicit in their misery. Which prompts the question: Into which category does this filthbag fall? Is he a victim, oppressed by Britain’s cultural myopia in believing that nuclear weapons and Islam are a bad mix? Or is he nothing more to Channel 4 than a political prankster, enlisted as the ultimate bit of irreverent counterprogramming? Whatever the answer, it’s repulsive.
You’ll find the queen’s message embedded below too, to help wash out the aftertaste.
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