From news article https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/11/bbc-cuts-prince-andrew-joke-from-rupauls-drag-race?utm_term=62d76ba0ad428fbd729a6cadebde17fe&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email of The Guardian.

“Viewers of the original Australian broadcast [of Ru Paul’s Drag Race Down Under] saw performer Anita Wigl’it, dressed in full drag as the British monarch, ad-lib the comment: “I wish a dingo would have taken my baby, then I wouldn’t have anything to do with Prince Andrew any more.””

Now, Andrew Windsor is clearly an appalling human being and there is no need here to repeat what he has been accused of by both legal authorities and self-proclaimed victims. We need only mention that he has clearly lied in public about events that did happen.

Further, I should state that as a democratic republican and a humanitarian, I find the institution that is the British Monarchy to be abhorrent and offensive an an absolute affront to any mature society, especially to a supposedly democratic one. Here is the not the article to discuss this. In many ways, I find the person that is Elizabeth Windsor to be admirable, but I regard the office she occupies as an impediment to a democratic society and, even if the post of monarch is not abolished, then it needs to have its powers and privileges removed.

Do I take offence at Wigl’it’s joke? Yes, but not for any offence caused (or supposed by the BBC to have been caused to the UK’s Royal Family. I am offended by the idea that the violent death of an infant should be considered to be funny.

How should I react to the joke? And by this I mean how should a reasonable person who has had this joke reported to him and has not seen the actual routine (nor really intends to see the routine) react? I do not know the context of the joke; perhaps it was a piece of legitimate satire, perhaps a stupid thing to say and Wigl’it now regrets saying it. I would think ignoring this joke would be best and not placing Wigl’it high on my list of people I should wish to see. Unreasonable people will be taking to Twitter with hatred and mock offence. Many of these will be the same people who watch You’ve Been Framed, a programme whose staple seems to be infants getting hurt.

How should I react to the censorship? This joke has been removed from British edit, so it seems like censorship has been carried out. This is much more serious. As a mature human being, I do not like being told what I should or should not hear or see, even if it is something I would not look at nor watch.

[You’ve Been Framed is not a BBC programme.]