Upstart Crow | William Shakespeare | A Jab at Social Media and Big Tech Companies

Upstart Crow is a British sitcom based on the life of William Shakespeare written by Ben Elton. The show premiered on 9 May 2016 on BBC Two as part of the commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Its title quotes "an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers", a critique of Shakespeare by his rival Robert Greene in the latter's Groats-Worth of Wit. (Source: Wikipedia).

It is worth mentioning that "the sitcom is not historically accurate. Much of the comedy derives from a playful dramatic irony about Shakespeare’s future reputation, a knowingness about what is to come" according to a blogpost at the University of Kent's website. The same source informs that "there is also lots of humour in ironic similarities between Elizabethan and contemporary society, or characters speculating about England’s future."

In this clip we see David Mitchell's William Shakespeare and his Land Lady's daughter, Kate, played by Gemma Whelan (also known for playing Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones) talking about how short sonnets have rendered longer pieces of literature old fashioned and less on demand. Although the show was produced back in 2016, years before YouTube Shorts were introduced, the parallel between sonnets edging out longer poems and YouTube shorts gaining people's favour over long form content is hard to miss. The show also takes a jab at big social media platforms' only concern over capitalizing on what people should be worried about: the shrinking attention span of the general people (especially the youth), as they show that while Kate is worried about their future, Shakespeare is only happy to keep publishing pamphlets of short and "easily digestible" sonnets to cater to the need for instant gratification, thus rolling the vicious cycle of diminishing attention span.
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