The Daily Mash was launched in April 2007 by
journalists Paul Stokes and Neil Rafferty. Stokes is a former business editor of
The Scotsman and has also written for
Scotland on Sunday and
The Daily Record. Rafferty is a former political correspondent for
The Sunday Times, has also written for the
Press Association and
Business AM, and is a former spokesman for the smokers’ lobby group
FOREST. The site was originally inspired by
The Onion, a US satirical publication, as Stokes and Rafferty saw a gap in the market for a similar publication in
Britain. Both journalists worked mainly for Scottish newspapers. Stokes and Rafferty earn salaries from the site, and lead a small team of
freelance writers. The site earns revenue through
advertising and
merchandise, and is a successful profit-making enterprise. It presents a niche opportunity to advertisers because of its apparent target audience of procrastinating office workers (
Citi employees complained to
The Daily Mash and independent publications after the company banned them from accessing the site). both to acclaim and to complaints of unintelligent, overly crude humour. According to an online survey, the site's readership mainly consists of
university graduates who also read newspapers such as
The Independent, The Guardian and
The Times. According to the same survey, 65 per cent of its readers have incomes of more than £30,000, with 22 per cent earning more than £70,000.
The Mash Report In July 2017, a TV show spin-off of The Daily Mash, titled
The Mash Report, first aired on
BBC Two. Its first series comprised ten episodes, and it ran for four series until it was cancelled in 2021 amid a debate about political content in comedy. ==Content==