Chris Morris – Four Lions

by Andy Ball on January 25, 2010

Chris Morris, the genius behind witty satirical comedies such as Brass Eye, The Day Today, Nathan Barley, On the Hour and his short-lived but excellent Radio 1 music show, is known for his intelligent yet often highly-controversial brand of comedy.

He is soon to make his big screen debut with his movie Four Lions, the film received its debut at the Sundance festival recently and its release date hasn’t yet been confirmed. It is said to be a kind of Islamists’ Dad’s Army and it follows a group of howlingly inept Islamic would-be terrorists who yearn for jihad without really understanding what it means or how properly to achieve it. The Four Lions film looks set to be as controversial as it is funny, and Chris Morris could well be in for a difficult few months in the media. Here’s a clip from Four Lions:

Chris Morris is no stranger to controversy and media debate following his now famous “peadophilia” episode of Brass Eye, which caused a media shit storm in 2001. The episode recieved over 2000 complaints, was condemed by MP’s as “unspeakably sick”, and led to people asking the Independent Television Commission to revise its rules to reinstate censorship powers to ban similar programmes from broadcast. There was also a vociferous tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue. The episode went on to win a Broadcast magazine award in 2002 and the complete series, including the 2001 special, was released as a bestselling DVD later that year. The media seemed to forget that this is satire, thats what makes it so funny. And controversy is often the best form of advertising. Here is a clip from that episode:

I’m looking forward to seeing the movie and it may be the last thing we see from Chris Morris for a while, as if the the film generates the controversy that is being touted already, he will probably need to keep his head down for a while. I just hope it doesn’t all go too far, because at the end of the day its just satire.