The humour of the show is usually based on sarcasm and cutting remarks, in a similar style to ''
Harry Hill's TV Burp, or The Soup. Screenwipe'' can be characterised as being intellectually more harsh with Brooker often making surreal moral comparisons between the so-called 'real-world attitude' of certain programmes, and the logical conclusions of that attitude if it were turned towards real life. It often forms the basis for analysis of programmes - such as his review of the ITV musical drama
Britannia High in which he describes the characters as "irritating show-offs" and that the school which they inhabit "in any sane world would have its windows bricked up by the government before the self-satisfied inmates could get out and infect the rest of the population." Brooker is known to be critical of reality television shows such as
Big Brother and
The X Factor, and often makes scathing remarks about the sort of people who watch these shows. One example in the 2008 Christmas Special involved a remark about X Factor winner
Alexandra Burke's cover of
Leonard Cohen's "
Hallelujah", which Brooker went on to claim is now "ruined forever as a song destined to be played at thick people's funerals". Brooker often displays archive footage of various shows, but alters the viewer's perception through near
stream-of-consciousness narration and/or ironic juxtaposition with contrasting footage or sound, e.g. highlighting what he believes is the
organised crime feel of a scene from ''
Dragons' Den by running the trumpet solo from The Godfather'' over the original dialogue. He has also been known to make jokes at the expense of his own show and himself, in particular making light of his resemblance to
Laurence Fishburne, and in the first episode of the third series he claimed he had "a face like a paedophile walrus". Also of note was the deliberate mention of
Victor Lewis-Smith, described by the 'TV Insider' being interviewed (and presumably written by Brooker) as "kind of like a rich man's you". Lewis-Smith co-wrote and presented a similar show in the late nineties called
TV Offal which Brooker sarcastically and knowingly claims to have no knowledge of. Despite his derogatory and insulting remarks aimed at many television shows, people, and near enough everything and everyone, Brooker does show his happier side and has spoken of his liking for certain US drama series including
The Shield;
Deadwood;
The Wire;
Mad Men; and the most recent version of
Battlestar Galactica; as well as the current series of
Doctor Who; and older documentary programmes such as
Jacob Bronowski's
The Ascent of Man,
Civilisation, and
The World at War. Brooker singles out Bronowski for praise regarding his style of presentation describing it as 'a bit like taking a warm bath in university juice'. In a more solemn example, at the end of the final episode, Brooker paid tribute to children's programmes creator
Oliver Postgate, who had died the week before the programme was aired. Brooker often makes a point of laying light praise upon unlikely targets, such as Milkshake,
Five's morning programmes aimed at pre-school age children, stating, "There isn't a single piece of negativity in the whole thing and that's what you need at this time in the morning." == Annual Wipe ==