Comedy needs its limits
Jack Cooper wants a break from offensive gags
Comedy needs its limits
Itâs almost becoming old hat hearing comedians defending what is considered âoffensive comedyâ in the aftermath of Sachsgate and Adlingtongate.
By now, everything that needs to be said has been: If youâre offended, switch off. Comedy needs to challenge taboos etc etc etc... All valid opinions I might add, but opinions that now almost feel stale due to how tiresome the debate has become. The Daily Mail and their brigade will never change, and neither will the rest of us.
Recently Iâve been re-watching Stewart Lee and Richard Herringâs 1998 series This Morning With Richard Not Judy, and itâs fascinated me that two of the most âoffensiveâ and challenging stand-ups in the country had a LIVE show on Sunday morning TV.
Nowadays the idea of any comedian, let alone an âedgyâ one, having a live comedy show in the Country Tracks slot seems like something from a mad parallel universe, yet it did actually happen and not that long ago at all. Even though I was only a kid at the time, I knew the show was funny, but this time around Iâm finding it fascinating for a different reason.
You only have to listen to Herringâs As It Occurs To Me podcast, or watch Leeâs latest live show, to see that the two of them love playing with taboo subjects and tackling difficult material my mother would be disgusted by.
Yet here, on a Sunday morning, the reins are tied in. They can only flirt with the edgier material and, in a way, the restrictions make it funnier, especially since there is the added element of danger due to its live broadcast. There are sketches, such as The Organ Gang, that are hard to imagine Lee and Herring writing nowadays, while even The Ironic Review and Jesus scenes, perfect examples of their humour, must have had to been softened due to the time the show was aired.
Despite this restriction, all of these skits are hilarious and memorable. It is testament to the writing that Lee and Herring donât âsell-outâ at all; the material still manages to be thoughtful and challenging in places, but without the element of âoffensivenessâ. One could argue that Lee and Herring wouldnât get away with such a show in the current climate, but thatâs to forget that they DID get away with it without anybody taking offence.
I donât think the Consider The Lily routine would have gotten Daily Mail readers as quite as riled compared to what happened to poor old Manuel. Yet that childish routine still manages to be a scathing and funny attack on Christianity.
Itâs hard to imagine, impossible even, the likes of Frankie Boyle or Russell Brand doing a similar show. Obviously softer humour isnât their forte, but neither is it Lee or Herringâs You could argue that the restrictions that Lee and Herring faced due to their showsâ timeslot forced them to create material and jokes they never would have if they had a completely free rein â and the comedy world would be a worse place without TMWRNJ for sure.
In comparison Brand and Boyleâs controversial jokes seem crude and unfunny, but Iâm pretty sure these talented individuals could produce something far more subtle if working under such restrictions. Maybe the next taboo comedy should break is for âcleanâ humour by comedians we donât expect it from. It would be fascinating to see the what likes of Boyle et al out of their comfort zone if forced to be more creative. If Lee and Herring have proved they can still be funny while heavily editing themselves, then maybe itâs time for other comedians to do the same too.
After all, if comedy keeps going down the offensive route it will be in danger of becoming predictable. Comedy shouldnât have to bow down to unfair boundaries and be scared of the consequences of offending people â but thatâs not to say there canât be great benefits from a little restriction too.
Read more:
http://www.chortle.co.uk/correspondents/2010/01/10/10309/comedy_needs_its_limits#ixzz0dS58ywsZ
