Beard Liberation Front
3rd October
Media Release
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Beard Liberation Front says Spitting Image has outdated pogonophobic tendencies
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the new series of Spitting Image which begins on 3rd October has unfortunate echoes of the pogonophobic tendencies of the original 1980s programmes.
In 1986 the programme caricatured ZZ Top with a ‘We Got Beards’ sequence, although beards were generally less common in the 1980s than now.
The new series has puppets of well-known hirsute characters such as Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Prince Harry but the campaigners say these don’t really work because the relationship between beards and humour doesn’t seem to have progressed beyond the 1980s ‘ha, ha, he’s got a beard’ school of pogonophobia.
The BLF says it is absolutely right that beard wearers are satirised but just like their clean shaven counterparts this should be based on their quirks not just the fact they wear a beard.
Prince Harry for example almost certainly spend ages trimming and styling his beard, possibly with professional help, while Jurgen Klopp is an organic beard wearer, absently minded growing facial hair while his mind is on higher matters.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are all for satire, the more biting the better. However in 2020 the fact that someone has a beard is not funny in itself. More is needed.
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