Yes Minister Is A Successful Satire. Discuss. Essays -

Yes Minister Is A Successful Satire. Discuss. The British comedy Yes Minister is a brilliant satire in which the characters are creatively manipulated to form a humorous program. It deals with the wheeling and dealing of political life behind the scenes and attempts to expose its true nature. Although the series is set within the British political scene, it deals with political games and clashes between politicians and the civil service that could be found almost anywhere in the world. Yes Minister started airing in 1980 on BBC 2 with each episode running for about 30 minutes. With its astounding success it ran for six years until Jim Hacker finally became what he always dreamt of throughout the course of the series: Prime Minister. At this point the BBC started a new series called Yes Prime Minister. The series is still shown on television today and people continue to enjoy the satirical British humour. In the third season of Yes Minister and for the first time on 11 November 1982, two years into the series, ran an episode called Equal Opportunities. As its title suggests it encompasses the issues to do with Equal Employment Opportunities, focusing on the Civil Services and their attitudes towards women in the workforce. As in other episodes of Yes Minister, Equal Opportunities aims to educate and summon change, while simultaneously entertaining the audience it is targeted towards. Clever incorporation of a variety of different types of humour creates a jovial fa?ade for the underlying issues. In Equal Opportunities it has allowed the exploration of each sexes emotions and thoughts towards each other in the workforce. A twist of irony occurs when Sarah announces that she is leaving the civil services. She explains to Jim Hacker that she wants a job that will appreciate her as a person and where she personally can achieve things and therefore has accepted a job at a merchant bank. She is absolutely not charmed by the fact that she would be part of a 25% quota and does not appreciate being patronised: Quite honestly, Minister, I want a job where I dont spend endless hours circulating information that isnt relevant, about subjects that dont matter to people who arent interested. I want a job where there is achievement rather than merely activity. I am tired of pushing paper. I want to be able to point to something and say: I did that. Sarcasm is used to cunningly say what is really meant without saying it straight out. What it does say straight out often defiantly contradicts its true meaning: We must, in my view, always have the right to promote the best man for the job, regardless of sex. Sir Humphrey makes out that hes being fair but by calling everyone man and then saying regardless of sex it appears as a contradiction. The use of dialogue allows the viewer a deeper insight into the characters involved in the show. While the male characters in Yes Minister deny being sexist and claim to be looking out for the best interests of women in the workforce, it is obvious through their use of sexist dialogue that this is not the case. Terms such as feminist touch and dear lady are frequently used when referring to women throughout the script. Sir Humphrey often uses circumlocution to confuse the issues. Euphemisms are used by many of the Public Servants involved to get around an issue or to make the issue sound better than what it really is: a pause to regroup, a lull in which to reassess the situation and discuss alternative strategies, a space of time for the mature reflection and deliberation. Yes, you mean drop the whole scheme. Attitudes of people who work in the Public Services are cross-examined and mocked. It is shown that many of the people within the Public Services are lazy, only care about their own success, and believe that advancements happen as a matter of turn: Minister! It takes time to do things! This plays on the fact that because so many people in the Services are caught up doing useless things or are so slow and lazy, it takes a long time to achieve anything major. Jim Hacker mentions Alexander the Great ruling at a very young age,