Ben Elton - Criticism

Criticism

In 2006, Toby Young summarized often repeated criticisms of Elton, writing:

Stewart Lee devoted about ten minutes to his dislike of Ben Elton's later work in his 2005 act, "Stand-Up Comedian," and provides a transcript to this material along with footnotes further specifying his complaints in his 2010 book "How I Escaped My Certain Fate". Lee expresses his disappointment about Elton's abandonment of his early 1980s political ideology in favor of commercial work, and his specific hatred of Elton's work on the musical We Will Rock You. The live set included an extended back-and-forth with the audience in which Lee brings them to the comical conclusion that Elton is less liked than Osama bin Ladin.

Elton has also been criticised for writing a musical with Conservative Party supporter Andrew Lloyd Webber. In his defence, Elton has said "if I were to refuse to talk to Tories, I would narrow my social and professional scope considerably. If you judge all your relationships on a person's voting intentions, I think you miss out on the varieties of life." He is also one of the few items to have been put into Room 101 twice: first by Anne Robinson in 2001, and then by Mark Steel. In 2009, his ad hominem jibes at Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were deemed by Peter Hitchens to be lacking in "wit, style or substance."

Elton says of criticism towards him "I would have loved a honeymoon period, but I've been irritating journos from the beginning. Originally I was knocked for being too left-wing, and now apparently I've sold out and I'm too right-wing, but all the time I've been being me, and that certainly isn't the person I recognise in anything that's written about me." He denies being anti-establishment though, "I wrote a sitcom for the BBC when I was 21! How the fuck can I be anti-establishment? From the first interview I ever did, I talked about Morecambe and Wise, and every time they wanted me to talk about Lenny Bruce I'd say, 'Yeah, he's fine, but he doesn't make me laugh the way Eric'n'Ernie do." He also points out he was a socialist at a time when "the media was on the whole slavishly worshipping of Thatcher". He said of his political views "I believe in the politics of Clement Attlee. I'm a Welfare State Labour voter."

He parodied himself though in the sketch 'Benny Elton' for Harry Enfield's Television Programme in 1994, which saw him sending up his 'right on' Socialist image as a politically correct spoilsport chasing Page Three models around a park to chastise them and tricking heterosexual couples into becoming gay.