Matt Hancock’s World Cup warm-up action is a TV nightmare – The Irish Times | Tech Reddy

The fish-eye tacos were a first. The dishes were served in quick succession, poured in the interest of the producers: cow excrement, sheep’s wheel (“tastes like lamb”), camel’s penis (“soft and crunchy at the same time”), a skein of mixed dead cockroaches. the whole dip.

But can Matt Hancock put down his I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! bad taste like Qatar 2022?

It seems impossible. The ITV show is simply preparing viewers’ palates for the nausea ahead.

It’s a strange and uncomfortable night to be a TV consumer, and the UK health secretary’s warped vision of a jungle jungle foray is set to bleed seamlessly into a World Cup of shame, the nadir of FIFA’s month-long slow-moving scandal.

Nobody’s dead in the making of the original monstrosity of skill, but that shouldn’t be the height of the bar to cross. I’m a Celebrity, since 2002, has become a winter entertainment destination. Released overnight in the ITV schedules, it is presented in a red haze of mind and light humor by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, and is loved by viewers and advertisers alike. Last year, its finale was the most-watched non-sports program on Virgin Media Television, its Irish broadcaster. Every commercial break is overflowing with freshly hatched Christmas spots.

As the dark evening movement goes, I’m a celebrity I feel good and harmless, or at least since its producers stopped offering live insects as food and competitors were told not to slaughter rats in the name of rodent risotto. .

Alas, this year, after two seasons of the Covid-obligatory hold on the Welsh castle, ITV has gone in a different direction: the negative one. It paid a hefty fee for Hancock, a sitting MP, to come to Australia to have his brass neck tarred and feathered – literally – at prime time.

Predictably, the voting public chooses Hancock in every trial and, equally as predicted, ritual torture is redefined by him as opportunities for heroism, attention only feeds the harmless heroism and self-deception of devotion that was the hallmark of his political career. He is bitten by scorpions, bitten by snakes, he loves every minute.

That’s more than can be said for his camp mates. Within seconds of his arrival, he could see from their faces that their experience would not be the comical mix of humiliation and dignity they had signed up for, but a terrible ordeal where their reaction to Hancock would be their test. integrity.

Those who suffer from post-epidemic trauma are in for a shock. The most famous people correctly expected that the public sentiment in Britain to the man who presided over the debacle of the house, was on his knees in the accusation of shopping in the “VIP lane” and broke his own guidance on the social reduction is one of anger and frustration, and this is very true and recently that his presence is redefined as happiness.

After spending last year’s series ripping into Partygate to scathing effect, Ant and Dec can’t help but laugh at their misbehavior, unable to fully explain the motivations of viewers or their producers. I mean, who’s going to be next year? Suella Braverman? Sepp Blatter?

Blatter, the former honorary president of Fifa, has appeared in Fifa Uncovered, a compelling new Netflix series. Convinced that his lack of personal support for Qatar’s bid in 2010 puts him off the moral hook, he is more cheerful than Hancock, using phrases such as “my conscience is clear” and “I can sleep well”.

No one is forced to watch Hancock’s mindless attempt to rehabilitate himself in jungle khaki, nor does he have to accept a winter World Cup held in a sports bathroom that tramples on all human rights.

This series of Fifa cheats consists of four parts of an hour-long format. It begins with Blatter’s predecessors in the 1970s, a decade when Fifa was no stranger to dictators, and traces how football’s governing powers arrived at the nightmare theater of Qatar. The short answer is greed, but let’s ditch the venality and megalomania while we’re at it.

The tournament will go ahead despite the documented harassment, abuse and death of migrant workers since Qatar’s victory – a shame too great for anyone associated with Fifa to contemplate.

Instead, we hear repeated claims next to sunlight that it is the best disinfectant and reasonable assurances that because the Qataris finally promised labor reform – thanks to the efforts of human rights groups, not Fifa – this is enough to justify their trip to the desert. .

Then there’s Qatar’s criminalization of same-sex relationships, another concern that Fifa ignores. Let’s not rehash how the World Cup ambassador, former Qatari soccer player Khalid Salman, came out as gay last week, but it’s safe to say that it wasn’t the kind of message that FIFA sponsors Adidas, Coca-Cola and Visa, among others, often endorse.

The broadcasters who will deal with the tournament will admit all this boringness in passing or extended, in bad sections between team selection talk and tired legs. But agreeing should not be automatically equated with helping. The media have been affected by FIFA’s decision-making, Qatari journalists have been banned from filming anything beyond the pitches and teams have been ordered by FIFA to “let football take center stage”.

Of course, no one is forced to watch Hancock’s absurd attempt to rehabilitate himself in jungle khaki, and he doesn’t have to accept a winter World Cup held in a sports bathroom that tramples on all human rights. This quagmire has an easy way out for many – the option to delete.

And I’m sure it was just news that left people depressed. Now it seems that the big, commercially important television schedule is obsessed with their goals that exclude some viewers and make others feel involved. That seems worth noting. Viewers want to enjoy what they are watching, not feel contaminated by it. Isn’t that right?