Satire has long been controversial, from the 18th century satirists such as Jonathan Swift who lampooned the wealthy Irish by suggesting that the children of the poor be eaten, to contemporary comedians who make jokes about the sex lives of the royal family. This has back fired for Jack Whitehall and others who appeared on Channel 4's annual show 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year', after 160 complaints were made in protest to jokes made about the Queen, reports the Guardian.

"I have a theory: [The Queen] didn't sit down for the entirety of that thing, and then people were talking about that. It was the day after the night of her anniversary and Prince Phillip woke up with a urinary infection" Whitehall said. "I'm just saying what everyone's thinking, people!" It wasn't just the Queen who was mocked, Usain Bolt, Susan Boyle and Gerard Butler couldn't remain safe from the boundary-pushing quips. 

MP Conor Burns has questioned why this was shown so close to the watershed, airing from 9pm-10:30pm. He has said that he'll be writing to the network to air his query. Both Ofcom and Channel 4 received complaints about the jokes, but neither the channel nor the comedians are yet to comment on the controversy.