Editing Whack-O! (section)

==Theme of school corporal punishment==
{{Original research|table|date=February 2022}}
TV comedy historians have written that the central theme of ''Whack-O!'' and ''Bottoms Up!'' was corporal punishment and specifically the caning of boys’ backsides. This however was largely absent from the revived series in 1971, as by that time corporal punishment was becoming less acceptable in Britain and was eventually banned in state and many independent schools in 1986.

''Whack-O!'' tended to glorify a ritualised form of punishment that  had been an accepted practice in British schools, but by modern standards the popular humourizing of corporal punishment is an anathema, and it may seem somewhat perverted in the way it was featured in the series.  

The comedy of the series was built around whether boys would be caught and punished for minor misdemeanours, and the size and effectiveness of canes and the building of caning devices. In one episode a device and long cane was made so six boys could be punished together. In another a device was made so the teacher carrying out the caning did not see the boy, and it turned out that all the backside seen to be caned were that of deputy headmaster Pettigrew (when played by Arthur Howard). A feature of Edwards carrying out punishment was the clear enjoyment he exhibited. 

Both Jimmy Edwards and Arthur Howard were gay men and Anthony Slide, in his biography of Edwards ''Wake Up at the Back There! It’s Jimmy Edwards'' (BearManor, 2018), has written: "I know I’m a little perverse, but I cannot find it anything but fascinating and decidedly weird that two gay men were starring in a BBC series involving the use of a cane on the bottoms of young boys."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Soares |first=Andre |title=Jimmy Edwards - Outed ‘Conservative’ Gay British Comedian: Q+A with Biographer Slide |url=https://www.altfg.com/jimmy-edwards/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |website=Alt Film Guide, thinking cinema}}</ref>

The BBC sums up this aspect of ''Whack-O!'' on its official website as: "Watching the series now is a little painful in one respect – we're too sensitive to find canings amusing – but it's right on the money in other ways, mainly because finding over-privileged kids vile hasn't gone out of fashion."{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}