Media analysts are warning that the impending release of the film ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ could lead to a sudden spike in spurious, made-up tosh in newspapers that could be used as an excuse to print a picture of a half-naked woman tied up and blindfolded in order to sell a few extra copies.
‘Recent days have seen stories in the press linked to the release of the film – that London’s fire chiefs are braced for an increase in calls to release people trapped in handcuffs and that B&Q in Tamworth issued a memo to its staff to be prepared for increased requests for items like rope, cable ties and duct tape,’ said Media Studies professor Colin Wade. ‘Except that it’s all a hoax and none of this really happened because even the British people aren’t that stupid. Well, not all of them anyway.’
’50 Shades of Grey’, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, is an adaptation of the inexplicable best seller by E.L. James, which took its title from the fact that 50 copies of it are currently available for 50p in every charity shop in the entire country. Cinemas are expecting huge crowds to come and see it on its Valentine’s Day release in order to check rumours that it isn’t quite as awful as the book and then go home together to have mildly disappointing sex.
‘Basically,’ added Professor Wade, ‘there is not going to be a spike in sales of chains, riding crops or anything else that sounds vaguely arousing until they actually try it to people who want to think they are a bit kinky. Ladies, there is not going to be a spike in the sudden availability of handsome, sensitive, mysterious multi-billionaires who have been waiting all their lives to meet you. And men, there is not going to be a spike in the number of unworldly 22-year-old virgins who’ll let you spank them. Not even from zero to one.’
‘The only thing there is going to be a spike in is stupid crap. And actually it might be a fairly ordinary day in that respect too, come to think of it. This is Britain in 2015 after all.’