It is not quite Barbenhemier… but you may have a decision to make next Friday when you settle in for some television.
Mike Tyson will likely be battered by the younger and fitter Jake Paul in what some are calling a circus event that will nonetheless be streamed by millions of people on Netflix. But if you think that the supposed mega fight at the AT&T Stadium in front of 80,000 fans in Texas is controversial, wait until you hear about what is being released on Amazon the same day.
Shannon Matthews: The Musical… The Movie has already been branded “sick” and “bang out of order” and has got tongues wagging on Loose Women.
But the brains behind it – K**t and the Gang – told naysayers to stick to Ed Sheeran, Candy Crush and Mrs Brown’s Boys if they wanted to avoid offence.
And after learning of the clash with the boxing, we asked K**t about it – and he told the Daily Star there was only one winner.
He said: “On paper, a muscly man with tribal tattoos smashing in a social media influencer would usually be exactly the kind of thing I’d be watching on a Friday night.
“But next Friday (November 15) I will not be tuning in. With the oversaturated coverage of the US presidential election this week I have had enough hype and madness from across the pond.
(Image: K**t and the Gang)
“Nothing that could happen in Paul vs Tyson will be more entertaining or surprising than over half the American electorate deciding the best person to be their president is an orange-faced snake oil salesman with hair like a bowl of Shredded Wheat.”
Inevitably, K**t said he will instead watch his Shannon Matthews dark comedy on Amazon and here he explained why Brits should do the same.
He said: “The movie has ten toe-tapping earworms like Shannon Ain’t Dead (She’s Under My Bed), You’re A Paedophile and I’ve Got A Plan (Based on Maddie McCann).
“Paul vs Tyson will be two blokes trying to batter each other in the ring. Shannon Matthews: The Musical… The Movie features the song Different Dads where Karren Matthews lists the circumstances surrounding the conceptions of her seven children by five different fathers.
“Paul vs Tyson will be quickly forgotten about. Shannon Matthews: The Musical… The Movie could be the most talked about British film of the year.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“For anyone with a dark sense of humour there is only one winner. That’s why I for one will be sat on my sofa with a bowl of popcorn watching Shannon The Movie the night it comes out.”
Shannon Matthews: The Musical started as an audio CD in 2010 before it reached the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022.
The movie version was filmed in Yorkshire and it pokes fun about the girl’s bizarre disappearance.
Shannon was just nine when she vanished in Dewesbury, West Yorks, in 2008. But the little girl was found alive three weeks later in the home of Michael Donovan, the uncle of Karen Matthew’s then boyfriend. It was revealed that the pair hatched the evil plot to pocket the £50,000 reward money.
In a press release ahead of the film, a line read: “The language used is brutal and outrageous, while the dark humour of the plot, the staged kidnapping of Karen’s daughter in an attempt to cash in on the reward money and the subsequent police search, is even more ridiculous and unbelievable for being based on real events.”
Despite not yet being out, some people have already dismissed it, with Dewsbury West Councillor Amma Anwar previously saying: “The musical is sick and bang out of order. Imagine being that poor lass Shannon and reliving these cruel and sadistic moments again.”
(Image: K**t and the Gang)
And a former criminal who was in jail with the likes of Shannon Matthew’s mum also gave her take on why the musical is “sick”.
However, independent artist K**t told us: “This country has always had large swathes of the population who seem to be just waiting for something to get offended about.
“I don’t know what it is about setting something to music that gets people’s backs up, but I guess it’s good for them to have something to focus on now and then, otherwise they’d only be sat around playing Candy Crush.
“Having seen some of the reactions from people who haven’t seen it, I am dreading what they would say if they actually did. But then if, like a lot of people, you’ve been spoonfed a diet of tepid diarrhoea like Mrs Brown’s Boys and Ed Sheeran, anything a bit different or challenging will be hard to digest.”