If you saw Brass Eye on Channel 4 on Thursday night, then you probably made up your mind on how you feel about it within moments of tuning in. You may have turned it off or you may have kept watching in fascination, or disgust, or admiration, or all three. "Viewers might find some scenes in this programme disturbing," had been the warning. That was an understatement.

This week's special episode came in the middle of a repeat of the single series first shown in 1996. In that series Chris Morris satirised the media, celebrity and politics in a way so brutal to its subjects that for the viewer it was often difficult to fit laughter into the gasps.

In his first television venture, The Day Today for BBC2, he took on the laziness of television news and its obsession with flashy, elaborate graphics and star reporters instead of hard news. That, at least, could be classed as comedy, and included the television debut of chat-show host parody Alan Partridge.

With Brass Eye he took aim at these targets but widened the field to take in an unquestioning media and the gullibility of the public. He preyed on celebrities, often getting them to endorse and speak out on behalf of spurious, often ridiculous causes, just so they could be seen to care. It brought threats of legal action and complaints from the public, but it was brilliant, often uncomfortable television that took satire to new levels at a time when it seemed to be a forgotten medium.

In many respects Morris was only playing to form with this week's episode. There was the usual array of personalities (Gail Porter, Phil Collins, Gary Lineker) happily reading out ridiculous scripts without bothering to listen to what they were saying.

"Genetically, a paedophile has more in common with a crab than he does with human being," jabbered radio DJ, Dr Fox, while poking a crustacean. "There is no evidence whatsoever for this, but it is scientific fact."

It was a concurrent take-off of how the media report paedophilia, tabloid news shows, egotistical reporters, Crimewatch, telethons and public mob rule. In this it was sometimes on the mark, sometimes predictable, and, as ever, it didn't pull any punches.

It should have done. Playing the presenter, Morris produced his eight-year-old son and asked a paedophile would he have sex with him. There were "features" on child beauty contestants with false breasts, an Eminem-type rapper called JLB8 who sings about having sex with pre-teens but is idolised by fans of that age.

There was a briefly convincing trailer for an upcoming programme on Channel 4 called The Paedo-Files, advertised as following Paedophile Island: "One hundred children, one ex-paedophile on an island full of cameras. What will happen next?"

The programme ended with a children's choir singing a saccharine hymn to virginity, called Not Today, which included one girl crooning, "Not today, not tomorrow. But maybe the day after that".

You can't call these scenes misjudged, because there is no doubt that Morris knew exactly what the reaction would be. It was, though, pushing the limits of taste too far, even for somebody who has made a career out of doing it. Simply because the media have stoked up public fears over paedophilia cannot mean forgetting there are real victims.

He has gleefully sent up the media, while disregarding the ugly realities of sex abuse. In doing so Morris has betrayed a horrendous arrogance he normally reveals in others.

Nevertheless, don't expect this to be the end of him. Channel 4 is a natural home for Morris, even if he has had an unnatural relationship with the station.

In 1996, then chief executive Michael Grade ordered a Brass Eye episode that included a spoof musical based on the Yorkshire Ripper to be cut. Morris took such umbrage that in the editing process he managed to slip a subliminal message, highly offensive to Grade, into the programme when it was finally broadcast three months later.

This week's programme was to have gone out weeks ago, but Channel 4 delayed it, saying only that it "wasn't completed". It knows what it has in Chris Morris, had even scheduled a repeat of the paedophile episode for last night. The day they take him off the air for good will be the day nobody complains about him.