The ostensible joke is on the academics, but one of Charlie Brooker's older characters was called ''opinion-haver''; that is a nobody without education whose committed views only skewered themselves, not they knew it. Morgan/Cunk plays this trope brilliantly while the clever talking heads who signed up to this series would be in on the joke.
That leaves the object of the series the unwitting viewer, the person who is not well educated, lacks curiosity and lives in narrow, parochial world, also without of any historical sense so they see everything anachronistically - they judge everything by current mores and is therefore ignorance incarnate. The butt of the joke are the opinion-havers, of social media, of tabloid TV and talk back radio, who last read a book at school - and cribbed it - whose cultural compass is set by pabulum and pop music awards.
The early episodes are best while into the modern era it races through and lacks enough good material to keep the level of jokes going. The anachronistic conceit also plays better with the distant past too as references to technology are more absurd and highlight the ignorance being ridiculed.
That leaves the object of the series the unwitting viewer, the person who is not well educated, lacks curiosity and lives in narrow, parochial world, also without of any historical sense so they see everything anachronistically - they judge everything by current mores and is therefore ignorance incarnate. The butt of the joke are the opinion-havers, of social media, of tabloid TV and talk back radio, who last read a book at school - and cribbed it - whose cultural compass is set by pabulum and pop music awards.
The early episodes are best while into the modern era it races through and lacks enough good material to keep the level of jokes going. The anachronistic conceit also plays better with the distant past too as references to technology are more absurd and highlight the ignorance being ridiculed.