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3 August 2011updated 17 Jan 2012 8:52am

Jon Stewart reacts incredulously to the Daily Show’s British ban

"I've seen the s*** you air on Channel 4," says the comedian.

By Helen Lewis

And so the serpent of news eats its own tail. On Monday’s Daily Show, the host, Jon Stewart, reacted to the fact that Britain couldn’t show a recent episode of the Daily Show.

As Stewart points out, Channel 4 can show live autopsies, oversexed teenagers and Gillian McKeith’s toilet talk but can’t screen footage of the Commons in a satirical context — even when our parliament is being praised.

By contrast, the other 84 countries that show the Daily Show Global Edition — “including such free speech havens as, I don’t know, Chad, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen” — could air the clip.

Is our parliament, Stewart asked, “too fragile to withstand a gentle parody, a good-natured kick to the clotted creams?”

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He adds: “Here’s the thing. I’ve seen the shit you air on Channel 4. It’s basically a non-stop suck-and-f*** fest of teenage shagging, gay orgies and live autopsies and, of course, this lady . . .” At this point, he cuts to McKeith telling a victim, “If you switch to fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes . . . you will produce completely different poo. A poo that is aromatic.”

You can watch the video of the segment on Mediaite and the original blog on the ruling (featured on the show) is here.

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There’s also a discussion of the subject on the Today programme here and Graham Linehan, who set the whole story going, did a whizzy Storify rendition of it here.

PS. Has anyone actually seen that horrifying sausage advert on television? Thankfully, I haven’t.

You can follow Helen on Twitter: @helenlewis.

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