tomcandance replied to your post “I know I shouldn’t be surprised but I can’t believe people at BBC are...”
Can I ask what is the problem with this sketch? It's making fun of the British women that go over to marry the members of ISIS, extremist muslims not ordinary ones, the ones ordinary muslims wouldn't consider followers of Islam or so I am led to believe. It even includes a clip in the show just before the sketch that the problem is with the radicalisation over the internet not with just being a muslim. I'm not a muslim but I'd like to get some thoughts
FWIW I’m also not Muslim so you might be better seeking out posts that are written by people who are. I live in a super homogeneous area and I know a lot of people who make these same jokes, use the same language, hold the same generalisations/stereotypes, and who would find this sketch hilarious because it conforms to that. A lot of people don’t see a distinction between ISIS and people who are Muslim, and I don’t think “The Real Housewives of ISIS” does any work in differentiating between them either.
Like you said, it’s intention is to satirise ISIS (which, like, good - belittling and undermining them through popular culture is something I support) but instead of doing that, it punches down by putting women who are victims of ISIS* - rather than ISIS fighters themselves - at the centre of the joke, which is a problem because it (and most of the jokes in the sketch) relies almost entirely on tired jokes about Islam (eg my husband bought me an 8ft long chain; he won't stop talking about his 40 virgins) rather than anything that specifically targets ISIS or other Islamic extremists.
It's boring and offensive at best but it's also really irresponsible because entertainment doesn't exist in a vacuum: the sketch is directed at an audience which, on the whole, has a very limited knowledge about ISIS and political Islam but is very familiar with the stereotypes that the sketch employs, and it does very little to avoid connecting the two.
* I assume the writers intended to parody women from the West who willingly travel to become ISIS brides (they mention chat rooms a few times, being from Birmingham, etc) but, again, that's ignorant at best and dangerous/fucked up at worst because (a) they don't represent the vast majority of women who are forced into marriage or sex slavery by ISIS and other groups; and (b) most of these women are groomed, and that's not funny.
