LAST year a short clip by comedy trio Muriel She’s Asking For It became the most-watched
BBC3 video on Facebook and Twitter, racking up a combined 45 million views in just 10 days. It shows two British lads in a cafe as one of them puts down a local tabloid on the counter. “That’s awful,” he says, pointing to the headline, ‘He Said She Said, University Sex Scandal’, with a splashy image of an ample bosomed young lady in tight jeans. His friend scoffs derisively: “Yeah, but look at what she’s wearing. She’s asking for it.”
This insensitivity infuriates the waitresses who begin to imagine ‘asking for’ something without saying it. One barges into another company’s conference room in a red pantsuit, expecting a promotion; the other starts her vacation in the middle of a working day as she is in a sarong. The camera then zooms back to the offensive lad whose slice of chocolate cake is knocked off his plate by his server. “You won’t want this then,” she s