Mr Bingo on using humour to get through the pandemic

Known for his funny and sometimes cynical drawings, here Mr Bingo discusses people’s appetite for humour during this time and how he uses social media to test the waters

“I walk around the streets a lot and I was starting to get bored of the constant positive messages for the NHS,” says Mr Bingo on the inspiration behind his Fuck the NHS poster created last month. “Although I completely agree with them and I love and support the NHS, I have a dark side to me that just finds a lot of humour in doing the opposite to what everyone else is doing, to do the total unexpected, literally to confuse people.

“There’s no clever political message or statement behind it, I just thought to myself wouldn’t it be funny and crazy if someone just put a poster up in their window saying ‘Fuck the NHS’ as a contrast to all the other positive messages around them. I was laughing to myself at the sheer outrage that would cause, so I scribbled it down on a piece of paper and put it on my Instagram stories.” 

Mr Bingo’s Fuck the NHS poster

To Mr Bingo’s surprise, he was flooded with support from doctors, nurses and other NHS workers who were messaging him to ask if it was available as a print. He obliged and created a limited edition of 100, and gave 100% of the profits to the NHS. “The other bit that was interesting was that I made the public (non NHS workers) buy them all, but as gifts to a stranger working in the NHS,” he explains. The prints sold out within a few hours and the piece is typical of Bingo’s dry, sarcastic yet approachable work, as well as being a great example of the artist being able to channel the public mood.