I'm Spazticus

Arguably the most controversially titled comedy made, I'm Spazticus (the title comes from Ian Dury's song "Spasticus Autisticus") was originally a Comedy Lab pilot made way back in 2005. Seven years later, Channel 4 has made a four-part series, show over the course of its Funny Fortnight.

A couple of questions. Firstly, why commission this series seven years after the pilot? Second, is this show offensive? Third, was it a good move to broadcast this show just before Channel 4 televises the Paralympics? For me the answers are "No", "Yes", and "No".

I'm Spazticus takes five different disabled groups - namely dwarves, the blind, amputees, the wheelchair bound and cerebral palsy - and creates situations designed to put the public around them in uncomfortable, often offensive situations. These included getting a member of the public to decide which of the disabilities they would least like to have while standing in front of them, and getting a non-disabled person to join an all-disabled police line-up, so the victim had to pretend he has the disability everyone else has.

These sequences just made me wince in disgust. There was nothing here that I found funny. I can understand what the cast were trying to do, but it does not appear to come across on camera. Also there is the problem of the limited number of disabilities they covered. It may be named after the song "Spasticus Autisticus", but there was no-one on the autistic spectrum as far as I can tell. For that matter there were no deaf people either. You should try to cover as many disabilities as possible or just one or two. This show does neither and fails. Lazy.

I'm Spazticus - Episode 1.3 review

Love it or loathe it, I'm Spazticus has people talking.

I'm Spazticus - Episode 1.4 review

After four nights of causing controversy and offence but undoubtedly entertaining, I'm Spazticus finished its run tonight and it was much like it has been for the past three: peppered with humour, but mainly heaped with damp squibs.

I'm Spazticus - Episode 1.2 review

The sketches in it make me raise a smile but seldom laugh. I think if it hadn't been for the creators tapping into the niche of disability in comedy, it wouldn't stand out in the prank or hidden-camera show genre.

I'm Spazticus isn't offensive, it's just awful

I pity the able-bodied people who stumble across I'm Spazticus, Channel 4's hidden camera comedy show in which disabled people play pranks on the public.

TV review: I'm Spazticus

There's a real charm behind the sketches, and the disabilities are never the target of the humour.

Review: Taking hidden camera pranks to non-PC levels

The controversial comedy I'm Spazticus - featuring disabled performers playing hidden camera pranks - was unashamedly un-PC, but only sporadically funny.

I'm Spazticus - Episode 1.1 review

I'm afraid I found a lot of the sketches very repetitive and dragged-out: I 'got it' within the first ten seconds of a sketch beginning - it didn't need to be dragged-out for a further two minutes or more.

A good number of people are likely to be offended by I'm Spazticus, a hidden camera prank show featuring people with disabilities. 'Really?' they'll ask in incredulous italics. 'Just before the Paralympics, of all times?' To be fair, this isn't everyone's cup of tea with milk and sugar. A blind man returns a dildo to the cider shop beside the sex shop. A dwarf pumps iron at the gym shouting, 'No buff, no muff!' And a dude with cerebral palsy... Well, you get the idea. Remember, though, that the 2005 pilot of Spazticus (screened as part of C4's 'Comedy Lab') won the Superfest International Disability Award. This isn't the able-bodied laughing at disabled people - it's just the reverse. And it's really, really funny. Look out for three more instalments across the week.

The deterioration of Channel 4's comedy output is indicative of an overall slide in standards at C4, a sorry state of affairs that its Funny Fortnight season inadvertently illustrates. Boasting over 30 hours of new pilots, one-off specials and numerous repeats of former glories, it does at least offer some glimmers of hope, while at the same time neatly encapsulating everything that's wrong with C4 these days.

The worst offender by far is I'm Spazticus, a jaw-droppingly witless and misconceived hidden prank show in which disabled performers humiliate able-bodied members of the public.

Its title - taken from an Ian Dury protest song, but shorn of its original context for maximum shock value - is the least offensive thing about this disaster. What point is it trying to make exactly? That disabled people can be involved in woefully uninspired prank shows too, especially ones that define them solely by their disability? Wow, what a heartening message. Or, seeing as its flustered 'victims' are well-meaning innocents, is it saying that able-bodied people will go out of their way to help disabled people no matter how absurd the situation? Well, that's good isn't it?

Only one prank - a spoof vox pop in which members of the public are asked to choose which disability they'd least like to have - could reasonably be taken as pointed satire, although all it really proves is that dim people will partake in any old crock if there's a camera involved. But hasn't Chris Morris already made that point, albeit in a more imaginative way?

This is what C4, hosts of the 2012 Paralympics, regards as inclusiveness: a comedy show starring disabled people in which they're reduced to comedy props. The producers would doubtless pull a Gervais - an unfortunate phrase, but let's not dwell - and argue that it isn't problematic as they're willing participants and in on the joke. But all that proves is that some disabled actors are as desperate for work as able-bodied ones.

Actually, maybe that's the hidden genius of I'm Spazticus. Maybe it's a cleverly subversive comment on how Channel 4 will exploit anyone for profit, whatever their physical ability. And that, when you think about it, actually makes them the most trailblazing equal-opportunities employer in television. All hail C4, defender 
of minorities!