Charlie Brooker is best known for his science fiction television series Black Mirror. These darkly comic dramas are set in the near-future or an alternative present. One of the main themes of the show is the impact on society and people of new technology. But, like a lot of science fiction, the aim is not to speculate about the future but to satirise the present.
For example, in the episode “Be Right Back” a young man dies in a car accident. Martha, his pregnant girlfriend, uses his social media presence to create a virtual replacement on her computer. Eventually she uses an online service to transfer her digital boyfriend into a synthetic body. Will the virtual boyfriend be a substitute for the real thing? Will the android be able to act as a father to her daughter, and what will Martha herself sacrifice through living with an electronic partner? This is typical Brooker: the use of a disturbing storyline to examine fears about how technology affects modern life.
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Another episode in 2013 featured a cartoon bear called Waldo who ends up standing in an election. Several commentators noted that until the rise of Donald Trump, this seemed far-fetched even by Charlie Brooker’s surreal standards.
Brooker was born in Reading, a town 50 miles west of London. In a long career he has worked in television, newspapers and online broadcasting. The thing that connects all his work is a unique and satirical sense of humour. He started to write for The Guardian newspaper in 2000 where he produced a column called “Screen Burn” that reviewed and mocked the previous week’s television. He was also very active online where he continued to make fun of contemporary popular culture.
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His savage wit sometimes got him into trouble. When George W. Bush was President of the US Brooker wrote a column for The Guardian where he addressed John Wilkes Booth (who shot Abraham Lincoln), Lee Harvey Oswald (the assassin of JFK) and John Hinkley Jr. (who tried to kill Ronald Reagan). “Where are you now that we need you?” asked Brooker.
DEATH THREATS
This caused a furious reaction from people who didn’t recognise the joke and thought Brooker was calling for an actual assassination. Brooker issued an apology and The Guardian was forced to delete the article from its website. Brooker said that he received “an inbox full of death threats” because of the joke. “I’ve had better weekends” he said. It would be a mistake to think that Brooker hates the subjects he writes about. Although his writing takes delight in being rude about celebrities, he obviously loves the popular culture that he satirises so cruelly.
