When will Comedy End?

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119107622#Comment_119107622

Frankie Boyle went woke a few years ago, and seems to be determined to brush his old “offensive” humour under the carpet now.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/spare-us-frankie-boyle-s-lecture-on-offensive-comedy/amp

Becoming more of an establishment BBC luvie now

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tpkbm

riclad

theres more sitcoms being made than ever before ,theres loads of comedy podcasts, people still watch friends ,the office , and old comedys even though some of the jokes are not politically correct.comedy is like music ,every generation makes its own content, theres hardly any rock music being made, there seems to be no more irish trad folk groups. every older person thinks music ,tv,film, were better when i was a teenager .i don,t think its a problem that comedy is more diverse, with more female and minority groups represented. i don,t think its sad that comedians don,t make jokes about mother in laws, or sexist racist jokes are no longer acceptable.

right now theres not many big budget film comedys being made .

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119190258#Comment_119190258

I've no issue with female or minority representation on comedy shows. But I've always thought that what matters more is their skill and capability to do their job and actually make people laugh. And when you look at panel shows on the BBC and Channel 4, to take a few, they are overwhelmingly flat. Often, what gets passed as comedy is someone saying an expletive.

You mention racist or mother-in-law jokes, and I agree with you. What seems to have been lost is intent and the ability to laugh at ourselves. If the intent of a joke is to laugh at ourselves as a population, that's all good. But what seems to have happened is a bizarre conflation where just mentioning a racial or ethnic term is linked to hatred or dislike of the people themselves.

When will comedy end? It won't. But the people who are controlling what we can and cannot joke about ultimately have the last laugh.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119119151#Comment_119119151

It's where the money and power is.

50 years ago Frankie would have been kneeling to the Bishop while fighting the system.

Woke is not knew, mindset the same, topic different.

It's the latest manifestation of a highly righteous middle class morality.

Archbishop McQuaid would be talking about solidarity and equity today and still be the same boll0x he was in the 50s

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119191031#Comment_119191031

Isn't the problem panel shows themselves? Nobody thinks panel shows are a really good format for comedy or anything else except maybe more serious discussion. What they are is cheap and easy to make. So they can turn a profit without being anything more than meh.

Rothko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119190258#Comment_119190258

"there's hardly any rock music being made"

Well, that's just not true at all.

Count Dracula

It actually ended when Les Dawson died.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Comedy won't die. Comedians are just going to have to be clever and more observant. The shock jokes and toilet humour aren't enough any more.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192226#Comment_119192226

Depends I suppose, I thought Frankie Boyle was extremely good when deliberately provoking offense. These days, Mock the Week isn't the same - at least for me.

That said, humour is subjective. For example, I personally don't understand how Russell Howard and Michael McIntyre have massive shows on the BBC. I just cannot find anything they say funny. It seems many people find Loud, Shouting People funny. That's fine, but it's just not for me.

But the fact they have massive shows must surely mean that quite a lot of other people do in fact find them funny.

So maybe the problem is my sense of humour rather than comedy dying itself!

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119190258#Comment_119190258

Depends what you mean being “more diverse”. If they all have the same worldview, then it’s lacking diversity of thought.

And it’s easy to stereotype being cancelled as just “sexist racist” jokes. But it’s deeper than that. Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock aren’t the typical sexist far-right white supremicists, but since at least 2014 they say they won’t play US colleges any more as the students are too intolerant.

https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/USA/Society/2014/1202/Why-Chris-Rock-won-t-perform-on-college-campuses

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/thats-not-funny/399335/

Not my experience of comedians in college in Ireland in the year 2000.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192384#Comment_119192384

..The reality is.. Les Dawson was on the bbc tonight and he would have accusations of sexism, racism and every other modern ‘ism’..

he was just funny and laughed at everyone, himself included.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118595782#Comment_118595782

That person should never receive another vote ever again.

Amadan Dubh

I just popped into this thread to say that Russel Howard is one of the last funny comedians I've ever had the mispleasure of listening to. Inoffensive, bland and unintelligent, I can't stand him whatsoever yet seems to be relatively popular. They say comedy is subjective but I think there is still a certain threshold to reach and he does not reach it.

Suckit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119194180#Comment_119194180

I had no idea who he was about two years ago, and went googling because he was so bad. I guessed incorrectly that he was related to somebody involved in TV or the comedy business etc.

It turns out he was roommates with Jon Richardson during college, found out that Jon Richardson wanted to be a comedian and decided it would be easy to get in to and so that would be what he would do too.

riclad

Seinfeld is extremely rich he has no need to do college gigs, he gets paid well for doing gigs in places like Las Vegas. I don't watch stand up comedians on tv. I listen to podcasts like wtf, or watch snl clips or watch TV comedys. I can't think of any UK comedian who is funny at all. I cannot think of any UK panel TV show that's worth watching. I think there's plenty of American comedians who are funny , from what I can see there's about 20 middle class male comedians who appear on every UK TV panel show with 1 token female comedian. I can't think of any working class uk comedian apart from Billy Connolly.

If you go by the no of podcasts, new TV shows being made , sitcoms on Disney, hbo streaming services Netflix specials , comedy is booming .

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119194180#Comment_119194180

Possibly the unfunniest fûcker on TV and he’s all over it… why ? 😠😏

I don’t think in 2022 the job of a mainstream comedian is to be funny, more to be amusing, ‘relevant’ and relatable to their audience… ohh, and inclusive 🤪

God help Billy Connolly if he ever had to try and make it now, he’d be cancelled before he even got the mic off of the fûcking stand.

actually, he can tell you himself..

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/billy-connolly-says-cancelled-woke-21836679

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119194405#Comment_119194405

You're probably right about that; the need to appeal to what's considered relevant is more important when choosing a comedian than their actual skill at making people laugh. Pretty pathetic when you think about it.

The one TV channel that has thrown that principle to the four winds is GB News.

Only a few days ago they had Jim Davidson on and - for me at least - I found his 15-minute segment far, far funnier than any of the overly LOUD so-called comedians on the BBC (Russell Howard and Nish Kumar being prime examples). It's almost as if they think trading comedy value for being loud makes up for the loss of humour.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195049#Comment_119195049

https://youtu.be/eGeQO1mTdRw

Is this the bit you're talking about? I watched the first 5 mins and it had a stand-up bit about current affairs, aren't wives awful, fame is a double edged sword, talent shows and woke killed comedy.

You don't think that's trying to be current or relevant? Woke is the most current iteration of the culture war from the right wing perspective.

People often site old comedy like only fools and horses as being timeless and not part of the current trend of being lefty or current. But that's total nonsense. The writer John O Sullivan described it as being about a community of people who were marginalised and failed by governments and now work in illegal trade to make a living. It was explicitly anti-Thatcher.

But that gets lost so now peoppe look at it and think it wasn't trying to be current when it explicitly and obviously was.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195317#Comment_119195317

Well, it's not always about the content though.

Some comedians are simply far wittier than others.

I'd say that, no matter what the subject matter under discussion, comedians of old were wittier and weren't constrained by ideas of offense or political correctness. In fact, you could argue that comedy shows are the one place where politics is left at the door, and you go in and laugh at even the most extreme things going on in society.

I don't think you can do that in the same way today, as we've seen with Jimmy Carr a couple of months ago with his joke about the Travelling Community.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195351#Comment_119195351

I just gave an example of a classic comedy which was explicitly political. The comedy skit you referenced with Jim Davidson was explicitly political in parts including the opening 3 stand-up jokes and the parts about WOKE. I only watched the first 5 minutes and I saw those things. How did you watch it and not notice them?

When you say they left politics at the door, do you mean they only discussed politics you agree with?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195499#Comment_119195499

I mean to say that interpreting things in a serious manner - like serious political interpretations - are left, or should be left, at the door before entering or watching a comedy event.

If you enter a comedy event with almost the intent to find something offensive, that is bringing hard-line politics into the comedy show. That kind of attitude should be left at the door, and instead comedians should be left pretty much a la carte to say whatever they like (within reason and the law, of course).

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195534#Comment_119195534

So did Jim Davidson leave politics at the door in that skit?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195540#Comment_119195540

You're missing my point.

I'm not saying comedy and comedy shows should go politics-free. No subject should be off limits.

What I'm saying is that people intent on taking offense are dragging serious political interpretations into what is simply just a comedy show.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195561#Comment_119195561

Ah, the viewer should leave politics at the door? Doesn't that also go for the people who give out about Frankie Boyle going WOKE? Shouldn't they have left politics at the door too?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195729#Comment_119195729

It's a matter of choice.

If someone wants to get offended, that's their right. But they should exercise that right by simply not attending a comedy event or by not watching a TV show with the "offensive" comedian.

But everyone else should have the right to hear these jokes.

The same works with your Frankie Boyle example. Given that he almost acts as a Labour Party activist these days, I don't find him funny; and so I don't tune in to his latest work and I definitely wouldn't buy a ticket to one of his events.

In either case, the breadth of what comedians are allowed to say should remain constant. One side shouldn't seek to reduce that breadth of discussion by deliberately causing a kerfuffle over some issue they have.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195989#Comment_119195989

That's consistent. Fair enough.

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195729#Comment_119195729

The main issue I think is that Frankie Boyle looks like a very bad hyprocrite, with his new "woke" posture. A quick sample of his old material shows this, jokes about Katie Price marrying a cage-fighter to stop her mentally disabled son from raping her, possibly being the last uk comedian to use the n-word in a tv sketch (2010?), Madeline McCann, etc.

I never liked Jim Davidson, his politics, his jokes or his personality. Same with most people I know. But each to their own. The difference is that a "woke" puritan can't accept the presence of someone like Jim Davidson who's an old fashioned comic and Tory supporter.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196651#Comment_119196651

I thought comedy should be allowed to explore any area the comic wants. Why does a comedian have to avoid hypocrisy? Can't they just make jokes?

I'd have thought comedy has to evolve. That's why I don't find Jim Davidson funny. He's doing comedy from 40 years ago. He's stopped doing Paddy and Paki jokes though. Does that make him a hypocrite or has he just evolved a bit because that's not really funny anymore?

Frankie Boyle still does harsh comedy. Are you sure you're not just cross about the content of the jokes?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196767#Comment_119196767

A comic should be allowed look like a hypocrite if he so wishes.

It's not a good look. But it absolutely should be allowed.

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196767#Comment_119196767

Did anyone say Frankie Boyle (or any comedian) is not allowed be a hypocrite?

I think the main issue is the ridiculousness of him preaching about others being “offensive”, or even offending minorities , when that was a big part of his act.