Iain Duncan Smith was riled to be "ambushed" on a radio programmed (not guilty) and challenged to survive on the £53 a week that a benefit claimant said he had to subsist on. It was not really an ambush as such - Iain's job is being a politician, and so talking to people who might not agree with his every utterance and who might have issues with his policies and the direction the government is taking is, sort of, his job and deliberately going on a radio programme to talk about benefit scroungers does rather leave one open to that sort of thing.
Twitter is a goldmine for newspapers, and websites like this one, that have a humour space to fill with topical material. And it's not all the preserve of the professionals anymore. Twitter has become the great leveller, bridging the gap for the wannabes like me and providing a more intimate relationship for the professionals with their fans.
Satire needs a standpoint, an alternative perspective, and Brooker does not really have one: just a keen sense of the ridiculous nature of the established order. He is not trying to bring down the system: with his dramas, panel and review shows, newspaper column and tweets, Charlie Brooker is the system.
So ridiculous was Gray's hypothetical nonsense that the phrase began to take on a meaning of its own. Combining a healthy dose of xenophobia with a misguided faith in the homegrown underdog, "could they do it on a wet, Tuesday night in Stoke", came to signify a partisan view - predominantly used ironically - in which good old fashioned British traits like 'brute force', 'bravery' and 'blokishness' put pains to pesky foreignisms like 'ability', or 'talent'.
Newsjack, the topical sketch show now in its seventh series, is back on the air this month and its open format means aspiring writers like me and you - yes, you over there, with a joke in your heart and Wotsit crumbs in your beard - can submit jokes or sketches with the possibility of being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra.