malicieux

18:17 Oct 9, 2017 

I think that you can say that it appears mischievous in the light of current events, but that was unpremeditated.

16:29 Oct 9, 2017 

...about the contradiction. But maybe you could use his "fortuitous", e.g. "in a fortuitous and cheeky/sly/playful nod/reference to..." ("playful" = another alternative).

16:18 Oct 9, 2017 

OTT may depend a bit on your intended audience. My impression is that "naughty", for example, is more naughty for a UK audience than a US one, where naughty most commonly refers to mildly negative behavior of children.

Otherwise, Charles' comment about intentional holds water.

16:15 Oct 9, 2017 

I see that in your note to Nikki you say that you have doubts about "tongue-in-cheek reference" because it goes on to say that it was not an intentional dig.

That objection applies equally to the other suggestions too, as well as to "sly", which you've just suggested, or "arch", which occurred to me (though I don't think I'd propose it), or really any accurate translation of "malicieux". If you read this as saying that the "écho" is "malicieux" but "non prémédité", you have an insoluble contradiction, because "malicieux" cannot denote something involuntary: it is always intentional. But it doesn't say that the choice of programme is "malicieux"; it says that in the current climate it looks "malicieux"; one would think it was deliberate, but actually it isn't, the coincidence is fortuitous. That's the sense of "comme": "as if".

Personally I prefer mischievous or sly to cheeky here, but it's a very subjective matter.

16:09 Oct 9, 2017 

would this sound too ironic?