The BBC’s remit is to inform, educate and entertain. Apparently it is also now to confuse.
A couple of days ago, BBC Business published a video: ‘A cheaper, tastier way to eat lunch at work?‘ In the video, reporter Dougal Shaw makes a shocking revelation: making your lunch is cheaper than buying it.
Sit down, take a moment. No doubt your mind has just been blown apart by this incisive exposé. Friends, it is true.
Put your brain back together and have a look at the video, see what you make of it.
Lunch Hack – A good solution for working parents, more on top of things at work than at home? #food #BritishSandwichWeek pic.twitter.com/fc8n4WET8G
— Dougal Shaw (@dougalshawBBC) May 15, 2017
The immediate response to this is to grab a megaphone, climb the nearest mountain and shout “DUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH” in general direction of Broadcasting House, but there’s more to it than that.
I mean, there has to be.
The BBC can’t just have put out a piece of content explaining one of the most basic economic principles, that doing something yourself is cheaper than getting someone else to do it for you. They can’t have, can they?
Yes, they have.
The video takes us through the basic principles of the apparently lost art of making a sandwich…
…as well as the opportunities to choose the cheese that you – that’s right, you – can have on your sarnie.
Say no to bulky butter!
And we will never forget the day we saw this video…
It’s an absolute tour de force, we think you’ll agree.
The reaction has been mostly divided between two responses: mock shock and genuine disbelief.
And the funny thing is, it’s genuinely hard to decide which camp to pitch your tent in.
You’re either in Camp Sarcastic…
https://twitter.com/ADHamilton91/status/864427145178775552
https://twitter.com/funkadunkalunk/status/864425158714503173
BREAKING NEWS: Packed lunches and bring your own food to work concepts uncovered by intrepid BBC journalism…. https://t.co/X2EYsx9eKj
— Roland Moore-Colyer (@RolandM_C) May 16, 2017
…or Camp Satire
THIS. CANNOT. BE REAL. https://t.co/UUE5Yj40DL
— Bottomless Pit Supervisor (@whiskeytits24) May 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/samparkercouk/status/864418728150216705
Sorry @bbcbusiness can you confirm is this a spoof? The office is divided (we love it either way) https://t.co/cJ69uLbklG
— Hannah Varrall (@hannvarr) May 16, 2017
But before we go any further, let’s make one thing clear: whether by accident or by design, this video is fantastic.
Many would decry this as a waste of licence-payer’s money, but on the contrary, this is a source of unbridled joy.
Someone at the BBC spent a week making ham and cheese sandwiches – perhaps the most quintessentially British thing you could spend a week doing – and decided to make a little video about it.
And why not?
The short film (for this is surely art beyond contestation) was shot on Shaw’s phone, so no crew or equipment was needed. The subject of the film was lunch, which if expensed totalled no more than £10.
There are roughly 65 million people in Britain. Divide 10 by 65 million and you get 1.53846154e-7, a small number that I don’t understand and am not sure really exists.
In other words, this was cheap to produce and represents spectacular value for money (ignoring the thousands no doubt spent on risk assessments).
People can get very irritated by fluffy internet things that, in their eyes, are a waste of both the viewer and maker’s time, and there’s a simple response to that.
https://twitter.com/MartinBelam/status/720642984165908480
Sometimes things don’t need a justification to exist, they can just be fun and nice and good and not have to explain themselves.
But even fun, nice and good things can invite questions. This has sparked many, the largest and most honking of which is: come on, this is a spoof, isn’t it?
It seems not. I spoke to my friend Jay who works at the BBC, who confirmed the video’s legitimacy, or ‘legitness’, if you will. “Not a spoof, guy just can’t make sandwiches,” he said.
He evidently can make sandwiches, so I’m inclined to ignore this.
Shaw himself has said that the video is 100% real, responding to a question on Twitter from an equally confused viewer.
A Sunday feature it is, but a top news item it is most definitely becoming.
Outside of April Fool’s Day, spoof material is not really within the BBC’s purview; its editorial output is normally the subject of satire, not the source.
We have no choice but to conclude that ‘A cheaper, tastier way to eat lunch at work?‘ is for real. It is neither taking the piss nor pulling your leg.
So what is the point of it then? What have we learned from all this?
We now know that, yes, making your own sandwiches is indeed cheaper than buying them. There are no prizes for arriving at this conclusion.
But I don’t think that’s the point of this video. I believe the motivations to be innocent and therefore funny, but it does have something worth saying, whether it meant to or not.
Of course everyone knows that making your own sandwiches is cheaper than buying them, but a big chunk of those people are going to watch the video, scoff, then go off to Sainsbury’s and buy a meal deal anyway.
Time is precious. I know I can’t be arsed making lunch for work when I get home, but if I did it at work, I could save a few quid, create less waste and probably have a healthier meal.
The point is not to draw back the curtain on the whirring cogs of food economics, stunning a nation into action. We can all see the cogs, we just ignore the whirring.
The video isn’t telling you that you’re mugging yourself, it’s making you ask why you’re doing it.
Words to live by.
