Brendan O’Carroll has been the star of Mrs Brown’s Boys for over a decade, but he’s never been afraid to hit back at the show’s critics – of which there are many
Hit comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys, which first aired on the BBC 14 years ago, has consistently split opinion. Brendan O’Carroll’s creation, with its unabashedly bawdy humour, initially captured audiences’ hearts, but critics have often derided the show for its “old-fashioned blend of silly voices and slapstick”.
Despite the polarised reception, the sitcom has clinched Best Comedy at the National Television Awards an impressive six times, and creator Brendan O’Carroll is unfazed by detractors.
Brendan has a blunt message for those who aren’t fans, as he told podcaster Gerry Kelly: “The ones that love me, I love them, and the ones that don’t, f*** them.”
He also suggested that viewers not fond of his work should simply “pick up the remote and change the station”.
Although the show once boasted a staggering 11.52 million viewers for its 2013 Christmas Day special, recent times have seen a dip in its popularity.
Kicking off its fifth season tonight, Mrs Brown’s Boys last made the top 10 Christmas Day ratings in 2020 with 3.8 million viewers, and since then, numbers have waned.
The production of the 2024 Christmas special even faced a setback when rehearsals were paused due to the use of a “racial term was implied”.
While Brendan regrets the ensuing controversy, he maintains that the contentious material was voiced by the character, not reflective of his personal stance. He believes comedy should push boundaries, stating: “Comedy should offend somebody somewhere,” and “Otherwise, I’m not doing the job.”
Brendan added that, at the very least, the controversy had reignited a conversation about racial prejudice in society.
Speaking on Mrs. Brown’s character, he explained: “in the situation of Mrs. Brown, she doesn’t get a lot of stuff,” and elaborated, “The idea of that thing was to poke fun at intergenerational racism, how she didn’t get racism.
“And she doesn’t, Mrs. Brown doesn’t get racism. She doesn’t get gay, even though her son is gay, and she now acknowledges that he’s gay and accepts it, but she doesn’t really know what gay is. There’s no idea.”
Brendan stood firm against criticism regarding the profanity in his show. Recalling a 2018 confrontation with BBC executive Danny Cohen, he recounted: “You want me to stop saying ‘f***’ so you can put the show on at eight o’clock?’ And he said: ‘Exactly.'”.
His response was unequivocal: “I said: ‘The show is the show. Put it at eight o’clock, or put it on at half 10, put it on at half 12, the people who want to see it will find it. But the show is the show. I don’t care when you put it on, we are not changing the show’.”
He declared his intention as a writer to continue “keep pushing the envelope” and challenging societal norms through his work.
