No wonder Chris Morris had trouble funding his upcoming Jihadi comedy (see Warp films for the latest—more positive—development)—satire, it seems, is dead.

I recently moaned about the unbelievably stupid, over-the-top public reaction to Brand and Ross’s telephone prank, where tens of thousands of people who hadn’t witnessed the incident nonetheless complained, which has led to the powers-that-be saying we need a register of ‘high risk’ programmes. Whether this means killing something like Brass Eye (or even Mock the Week) at birth remains to be seen—probably, as we enter another Mary Whitehouse era.

However, what totally bowled me over today is how, without even a hint of irony, ITV replaced Jonathan Ross with Angus Deayton at the Comedy Awards. For those of you with memories presumably as short as ITV’s, Deayton was kicked off Have I Got News For You? six years back after revelations regarding links with prostitutes and cocaine. Therefore, they’ve replaced a disgraced presenter who was rude to an old man with one who once had a penchant for ladies of the night and sniffing exciting white powder.

It’s quite possible the Daily Mail and all its readers will self-combust upon hearing the news. Good.