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Brass Eye

Chris Morris' parody of television news-magazines. This ran for six episodes, plus one special on Channel 4 in the UK. Each episode had a theme, taking a look at a particular issue. Every episode would make fun of the various tropes of the genre; overly complex graphics and charts, interviews with experts and celebrities, and news packages. The episodes, in order, were:

Many episodes ended up being controversial – in the "Moral Decline" episode, a segment was cut for broadcast by Michael Grade, head of Channel 4. This time, Chris Morris didn't air it anyway (as he did during the run of Blue Jam), but did slip in a one-frame message reading "Michael Grade Is A Cunt". However, the biggest controversy was easly over the 2001 "Paedogeddon" Special. The topic alone triggered a flurry of articles denoucing the show (including many by people who admitted they hadn't seen the program) – ironic, since the show wasn't about pedophilia, but the media's approach to stories about pedophilia. For example, a UK newspaper had published a list of known pedophiles, with the intent of letting their readers harrass them… unfortunately, they included some known pediatricians in the list; this was parodied in the show by reports of a Peter File being attacked.

Another segment featured Chris Morris (in disguise) asking a policeman if various types of artwork would be considered child pornography (mostly poorly made collages; for example, a child's head pasted over a much, much smaller nude woman's body) – after the show aired, the policeman actually said that some of the material show in the article would indeed be considered child porn. (However, nothing ever materialized of this; probably because of how silly the police would have looked prosecuting the examples given in the show.)

Also, Brass Eye interviewed celebrites, getting them to say incredibly stupid things (for example, DJ Fox said "Pedophiles have more genetically in common with crabs than with you or me; there's no real evidence for this, but it is scientific fact!"), and again, after the broadcast, Phil Collins threatened to sue. (Again, nothing came of this, presumably because it probably would have made Collins look even worse than the original show did.)

Currently, Chris Morris hasn't returned to the faux journalism format since the 2001 special, but at some point he might.