'huge, queer and tawdry' but 'much admired by the public'

I'm not agreeing with the way things are, but that is pretty much how it goes. You want something offensive on telly, make it 10 times more offensive in the first draft so they think they've knocked you down. And while it's not quite on to make something offensive justify itself more than anything else, it does have the bonus effect that a lot more writing gets done and occasionally some of the extra bits slip through (I know there's a particular example I'm thinking of but I'll have to hunt it out tomorrow because I'm cold and still not writing that CRB form...)