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Queen’s English Society not amused by BBC ‘grammar Nazi’ sketch

By Anita Singh ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

THE Queen’s English Society (QES) has complained about a BBC comedy programme that described members as “grammar Nazis”, saying the comparison was offensive.

The society, which campaigns for the “correct and elegant usage” of the English language, was mentioned in a skit for BBC Radio 4’s Sketched Out, a comedy show written by and featuring Gemma Arrowsmith.

One segment of the show, broadcast last week, featured an impressionist playing broadcaster Louis Theroux, who has reported on actual neo-nazis.

In Sketched Out, he went “inside the shadowy world of grammar Nazis”, who were heard flying into a rage over the misuse of apostrophes, pointing out that “five items or less” should really be “five items or fewer”, and fuming about the number of people who do not know the proper usage of “affect” and “effect”.

In the spoof feature, “Theroux” met a teenage girl who “has been brought up in the grammar Nazi world and doesn’t know anything outside of it”. Rather than a bedroom decorated with posters of pop bands and film stars, she has a poster of Dr Bernard Lamb, president of the Queen’s English Society.

“Isn’t he dreamy,” she asks. “Super dreamy,” replies Theroux.

The society said: “While we have no objection to the description of our president, Dr Bernard Lamb, as a ‘super dreamy’ pin-up, we firmly disassociate ourselves from any Nazi, fascist or other extremist organisation and consider this random, glib and inaccurate use of the term ‘Nazi’ to be repugnant and offensive to Holocaust survivors and Second World War veterans.

“The Queen’s English Society is a global, progressive and multicultural charitable body that seeks to promote the maintenance, knowledge, understanding, development and appreciation of the English language.”

The QES was founded in 1972 by Joe Clifton, an Oxford graduate and schoolteacher. The society regards itself as “a guardian of proper English”.

In 2012, it was reported that the QES was closing down due to lack of interest. However, it continues to exist.

The BBC declined to comment.

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2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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