Straying close asking this in the 'Reading' thread. Concerning degrees of representations in fiction.
A lot of UK comedy has been removed. I think this is right - if a broadcasting organisation wants to (at very least appear to viewers) as actively inclusive surely flagship, splash-page, TV should not contain shallow representations by the most privileged minority trading in naff impersonations and stereotypes of under-represented groups.
Little Britain. David Walliam's representations/impressions are not good. Even, his 'Computer says no.' Is essentially a classist piss take of a tired bank worker. Lucas' 'Only Gay in the Village' might be given a little excuse (because of Lucas' sexuality) but add in the sharp class contrast - I'm not so sure it's any better. And that's before their representations of the differently abled are even touched on... (the same can be said for Ruth Jones' character in Nighty Night).
Gavin & Stacey is not without issues. One could make a defense of 'Chinese Alan' as a joke about small town casual racism being the butt of the joke (much like Walliam's 'Black Friends' sketch on Little Britain), but this is not good enough... what distinguishes this from the Clarksonesque 'its only a joke' mode of casual prejudice and bigotry? The fishing trip joke (a very weak leitmotif): what made this funny other than the school-boy snigger of a suspected/heavily hinted gay experience?
Enfield. Enfield and chums was merely a string of piss taking impressions. if HE wasn't hamming it up with a cliche or stereotype then what was he doing? Class, regional accents, 'foreigners' (Scorchio!), the dumb-rich, the lazy-poor, the camp, homophobic-dads, grumpy teenagers. Enfield's comedy was behind the times even then, perhaps much closer to his own object of ridicule in 'Women: Know Your Limits' than HE'd care to admit.