The phenomenon that was... The Suicide Journalist

As a TV researcher working in a busy development team for the past four months, I've found myself ever more exposed to the farthest backreaches of the electronic landscape.

`The publisher needs all copy by August, so I am having to write about the end of my life now'

While working on a completely unrelated project last week, I accidently stumbled upon a website revealing possibly the quirkiest column ever published in an English newspaper. Part of me thinks that even this website is a wind-up, but even if it is, the pieces of writing you can find by clicking on the link below are some of the dirtiest, bad-taste, all-round hilarious ramblings you've ever read in your feebled existence. And there's a great story behind it.

`The door of my flat is opened by a bird in a T-shirt and pants. I'd forgotten about her.'

The tale goes that back in 1999, Chris Morris (of The Day Today and Brass Eye fame) teamed up with The Observer newspaper to produce a spoof column purporting to be written by a suicidal journalist, named Richard Geefe.

`We agree that we would one day end up sharing breakfasts of hate.'

The column was called Second Class Male, and featured the rambles of a terribly confused and irrational journalist who had (supposedly) promised his editor that he would kill himself but not before he had written a series of cutting pieces for the newspaper. It incited great controversy among people who had no idea that the whole thing was a hoax!

'I am at best a Brian Wilson, but a Brian Wilson who went to bed before making Pet Sounds.'

Halfway through the column's run, and after an 'aborted suicide attempt' by the writer (supposedly) the column changed its name to Time to Go! When the journalist finally did 'kill' himself, the last column featured the comments of people who had been around him before his demise - including a TV documentary crew, who said, with regret -

'I should also point out with regret that we are taking legal action over Geefe's breach of the new BBC honesty contract. He was being filmed on the understanding that he would kill himself in November. His death this week seriously contravenes that agreement.'

The column eventually lasted three months and produced numerous letters of complaint from its readers. Others saw it for what it was, an elaborate hoax using the shock tactics that have become a trademark of Chris Morris's television and radio career. You can check it out for yourself at the link below - but try not to get offended!

http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~cow/studio/geefe.html