Is the Daily Mail Dead Yet?

“Why run a campaign when you can launch a crusade?” reads the text on William Hammer-Lloyd’s t-shirt, emblazoned below an image of the Daily Mail’s masthead; surely liberal hatred of the bastion of middle-England attitudes has never been more in vogue. As Hammer-Lloyd’s show tries to demonstrate, the UK’s best-selling newspaper – or is it its worst-selling tabloid? – has a greater impact on British society than the sum of its lazily researched, poorly written parts would suggest.

Unfortunately, despite being both fairly well written and researched, Is the Daily Mail Dead Yet? falls short of having a similarly significant impact on its audience. Hammer-Lloyd is a likeable, engaging performer, and his energy never flags in the sweltering heat of his grotto venue. He is also fearless in using the intimately-sized crowd to his advantage, and must be one of the few performers on the Fringe to willingly invite physical violence from hecklers. However, his underlying confidence is undermined by a breathless, nervy delivery, particularly in the linking segments between his more effective, scripted material.

It’s a shame, because Hammer-Lloyd tackles the larger themes of his set with intelligence and irony. Pleasing the boozed-up punters at the late night show with depraved anecdotes of erectile dysfunction, bestiality and child abuse – with a healthy dose of Mail-esque cultural and racial stereotypes – Hammer-Lloyd's set leaves open the question of whether comedy as a form of reflection on society is any better than the tabloids. You get, it seems, the press you deserve.