Why the BBC can't kill off Mrs Brown's Boys: Comedy chief finally appears to admit show isn't funny, but commissions MORE episodes because 'millions still watch it' By Rory Tingle Published: 12:21, 20 June 2024 | Updated: 12:28, 20 June 2024 e-mail View comments It seemed an easy question for the BBC 's director of comedy: Does he find one of the sitcoms he oversees funny? But Jon Petrie's silence when quizzed about BBC staple Mrs Brown's Boys at a Q&A session earlier this week throws light on a bigger question: Who does actually like the show, and why does it divide TV audiences like nothing else? The slapstick comedy, which has been on air since 2011, is regularly panned as 'unfunny', 'predictable' and 'vulgar', yet it still pulls in millions of viewers and has been a BBC mainstay for more than a decade. A cheeky audience member prodded at the controversy at a Q&A for the BBC Comedy Showcase at Soho House on Tuesday, telling Petrie: 'Can I ask as comedy chief, do you actually find Mrs Brown's Boys funny? And would you watch it if you didn't have to?' Mrs Brown's Boys is regularly panned as 'unfunny', 'predictable' and 'vulgar' - yet it remains a long-running hit Characters Cathy Brown (Jennifer Gibney), Mrs Brown (Brendan O'Carroll) and Father Damien (Conor Moloney) in the 2020 Christmas Special The TV executive awkwardly giggled before the host, comedy writer Michelle de Swarte, waded in to rescue him by saying: 'It's a trap. It's a trap.
Look at me. That's a trap. Next qu.
