Sounds a lot like a satirical mock up of a US news story by Brass Eye, a British satirical comedy show (chiefly written and presented by Chris Morris, who also wrote the film Four Lions, and who can be seen at the start of the sketch, and again playing the part of “Austin Tasseltine”) which sent up pretty much everything, mostly around media, government and public hysteria and hypocrisy, and over the course of a series of episodes in 1997 or so, and then returned for a special edition in 2001. There was a sketch on that about a US politician who had pulled out certain parts of himself and made a mess over the crowd, causing a major media storm. A link is attached:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER0zKTGI2g8

It’s not really a hoax, because although Morris was pretty great at tricking gullible and ill prepared government ministers, TV celebrities, sportsmen and other poeple who it turned out would sign their name to literally anything for the free publicity, without cheking it out first, into appearing on his show, supporting non existant and ludicrous causes and charities with names like AAAAAAZ, WAFTCAPP, Nonce-Sense etc, * and the public and media have occasionally been fooled by him when the broadcasts went out, anyone who was able to see the sketches in context of the whole programme, and was paying attention, should generally have been able to see that the intent was satirical.

I really do recommend Brass Eye incidentally, it’s a shame there is only one series, although he also did a previous programme, “The Day Today”, and as I mentioned, Four Lions. All of which you can get on DVD and likely online.

*(one episode had celebs lining up to raise money for an East German elephant, East Germany not being a country anymore by this time mind, who had got its head stuck up its own anus, while another discussed a new drug from Czechoslovakia, which also no longer existed at the time, called things like “Cake”, and “Joss Eckland’s Spunky Backpack”, which looked like an enormous yellow pill and allegedly slowed down time. Another discussed a decision by Broadmoor Secure Hospital, which is a hospital but takes seriously mentally ill people convicted of serious crimes and who have to be confined for public safety, to let a convicted, infamous serial killer, Steve Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, who will never be released, write and perform a musical about his own life in London, with the information given to the politicians, celebs etc in all these cases being clearly absurd if they were paying attention, checked their facts before agreeing to be filmed saying the stuff on the script, and weren’t so gullible.)

That’s definitely it… looks like my recollection of it wasn’t terribly off. I’m absolutely certain I didn’t see it with the clearly fake “news” stuff that happens before and after, otherwise it would have been quite obvious it was satire.

Thanks!

Glad I could help! As you say, your recollection was pretty close, that’s how I knew it was this sketch. You’re right, if you’re shown the whole sketch, better still the whole show, it’s clearly satire, but unfortunately these things happen so often online, that people post videos with anything that would give you context trimmed off, or overdubbed, or whatever. Not sure why people think they’re improving the sketch by doing that, unless deliberate hoaxing is what they have in mind.

Interestingly, Chris Morris and Brass Eye are often misunderstood for various reasons. His episodes frequently stung several celebrities, media figures, politicians etc, who regularly resorted to the sort of tactics you might expect to get back at him. So, using highly skewed views of his episodes, and out of context quotes, clips and pictures, the media often gleefully accused him of things like being ‘pro paedophile’, making light of victims, trying to decieve the public and destroy the reputations of his duped guests etc. I recall one of the UK tabloids resorting to fairly desparate, irrelevant and ineffectual tactics,  by themselves making light of the fact that Morris is surprisingly reclusive when not on screen, and rarely appears out of character, by showing paparazzi pictures of him, and childishly mocking the facial scars and disfigurements that cause him to wear heavy makeup when in character. Consequently you still encounter people who believe he’s some sort of malicious hoaxer, trying to make the public and celebrities believe his daft stories, or make fun of genuine victims, whereas he’s always said his intention, besides satire and getting a good laugh at the foolishness of people in the public eye, was to make people think about serious issues.

For example, his infamous paedophile episode pointed out the confused and misguided attitude of the press and public, believing that threats to children always come from distinct, easily identified bogeymen who prey on strangers, and on one hand demand sterner measures to protect children from ‘filth’, but on the other hand happily buy newspapers and watch TV shows that heavily sexualise teenagers, and depict nearly naked 16 or 18 year olds for the public’s amusement.  (Not sure if it’s from the same episdoe, but while discussing declining morality, Morris stands in front of a neon sign proclaiming “Youngest 16 Year Olds Ever!” among other bizarre smutty messages.) One controversial segment discussed, in an exaggerated manner, how common paedophilic attitudes were in the 1960s and 70s media, something that was rubbished when the show first came out, but given how many British public figures of that era have since been outed or investigated for paedophilia or sexual offences, he seems to have been justified in this point.

He was also fond of pointing out how celebrities, politicians etc, in a quest to be admired and seen as being ‘the good guys’, would happily sign up to any crusade, regardless of the actual validity of its tactics or aims, if it got them the right attention. So his guests would be asked to endorse the work of non existant charities with silly names, with ludicrous aims and methods (such as paying someone to bang on pipes in Sri Lanka, in order to comat ‘Heavy Electricity’, which could ‘fall out’ of overhead cables and crush villiages and children), as though they were passionate, long term supporters of the charity, when of course no such thing could exist.

Cake anyone?

Don’t mind if I have a slice.

Is it chocolate mint slice?

Dangerous cake!!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WwylBRucU7w