Fake News: NO Post-Brexit Remake of Fawlty Towers, NOT To Star Idiot English Waiter

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: NO Post-Brexit Remake of Fawlty Towers, NOT To Star Idiot English Waiter

Is a post-Brexit remake of the iconic British show Fawlty Towers in the works and does it star an idiot English waiter named Manny? No, the rumors about a remake were based on a satirical news article and are not real. Basil Fawlty is not to become a woman named "Basila" from Barcelona, that's simply not true.

The satirical article appeared on The Daily Mash on April 6, 2018 and was titled "Post-Brexit remake of Fawlty Towers to star idiot English waiter" (archived here). The spoof opened:

A REMAKE of Fawlty Towers has been criticised for stereotyping the English as stupid and gormless because they voted for Brexit.

The updated version of the series is set in a Torquay hotel run by Basila, a 36-year-old woman from Barcelona with a first-class degree in management studies who is fluent in four languages, including German.

Her staff includes local Brexiter Manny, an idiot incapable of following simple instructions 'because he's from England'.

The original 1975 Fawlty Towers starred John Cleese and was about incompetent and arrogant hotel owner Basil Fawlty who frequently got into all sorts of amusing mix-ups often made worse by bumbling Spanish waiter Manuel from Barcelona (played by the late Andrew Sachs).

People who only saw the summary of the story on social media might have gotten offended by it for describing the English as "stupid and gormless" (or might have liked the news because of that description):

Post-Brexit remake of Fawlty Towers to star idiot English waiter

A REMAKE of Fawlty Towers has been criticised for stereotyping the English as stupid and gormless because they voted for Brexit.

You can follow the rections to the story on Twitter live below:

The Daily Mash is a satirical website from the U.K. which sports following disclaimer on its about page:

About the Daily Mash

The Daily Mash is a satirical website which publishes spoof articles, i.e. it is all made-up and is not intended, in any way whatsoever, to be taken as factual. Glad we've got that sorted.

Their articles are generally quite funny but now and then they get interpreted as real news by people who should know better.

We wrote about thedailymash.co.uk before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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