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When will Comedy End?

  • 06-02-2022 8:04pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 75 ✭✭Amias


    When you think about it, Generation after Generation seem to be offended by the previous Generations take on what was acceptable as comedy & humour.

    With the power of Social media and the Internet, it seems that it’s highly likely that many comedians past acts ( which was acceptable in the past ) will and does come back to haunt them.

    I fear that comedy and humour are on their last legs.



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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,808 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    I think over the last year the woke fools who have proliferated this nonsense have been found out and people are just getting on with it…..

    imagine a young Billy Connolly trying to make his way now… “ ok Mr / Mrs / It / Them Connolly…. We will need a whole transcript of your comedy routine which you must not deviate from if sanctioned…if approved and sanctioned we will accept it as your show…injecting other material or differing from the approved transcript will result in a fine and possible imprisonment….”

    great thing about Billy’s comedy is that he offends, includes, laughs at….everyone.. including himself….

    but that would be lost now….





  • Comedy a genre or the comedy of old?

    if the former, no that’s a stupid assertion, if the latter maybe. Who knows.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 645 ✭✭✭Yakov P. Golyadkin


    The laughs will never cease while we have Current Affairs/IMHO. Fear not.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,793 ✭✭✭FunLover18


    Surprisingly there's actually plenty of comedy that isn't offensive or doesn't punch down.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,181 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    what's with all these weird takes that comedy is dying? there's plenty of black humour out there still; if you're the sort of person lamenting that you don't hear the sort of comedy that you want to hear, i'm going to jump to conclusions about your views.

    billy connolly has been mentioned above; i don't think i've heard anyone complain about his comedy ever?



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 865 ✭✭✭Icemancometh


    He got in some bother making a joke about a contractor who was kidnapped in Iraq I think.



  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Melissa Scary Meteorology


    People protested outside Billy Connolly's venues going back over the decades. He also had the Catholic Church whingeing.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Richard Pryor and George Carlin were also targets in their time but there was no social media that could effectively cancel you so that shows no longer book you and you don’t get anymore jobs. The best comedians make you think, they aren’t punching down. They may use absurd humour to do that but when taken at face value may look like punching down.

    It used to be if you were offended then you can leave the theatre no-one is stopping you, but now it turns into an argument about platforming and spreading hate. Comedians that actually spread hate generally aren’t funny.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,750 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,478 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    At least we can laugh at the permanently offended boards current affairs/thejournal.ie commenters who can't seem to cope with the fact that things change and society progresses



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,750 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


     They may use absurd humour to do that but when taken at face value may look like punching down.

    like that Jimmy Carr joke?


    yeah, that's not looking too good



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,597 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    What kind of stupid thread is this?

    Comedy evolves and changes depending on the context of our geo-political and socio-cultural environments

    Humour will end the day the last sentient being makes a sarcastic comment and gives a middle appendage to the situation that has caused the end of their civilisation





  • Ah no he did get into a bit of it a while back for something he said can’t remember what but yeah he pissed on a few cornflakes, but sure, most people have.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭John Doe1


    People have 100% the right to be offended by a joke or not like a joke but that does not mean that this same person has the right to ban that joke from being said. Saying a joke which might offend someone is the ultimate example of liberalism and free speech.

    Unfortunately the level of narcissism in the younger demographic especially on social media is off the scale these days so this minority are the loudest and the cowards within corporations pander to them as they are terrified of getting bad publicity.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,189 ✭✭✭Brucie Bonus


    Not so many years ago making fun of Irish, Jews and black people was prime time entertainment. I'm okay with that not being a thing anymore.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    But what if it's Irish people making jokes about Irish people? jews making fun of Jews? Or Black people making fun of black people?

    You know, a lot of our humour is generally reflective. It's often pointing out absurdities and idiosyncrasies and that's what makes things funny. The ability to laugh at one's self is probably the greatest sense of humour of all.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,998 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    It's a fine line, trying to tell comedians what they can tell jokes about, and what they can't.

    Can it cross into what might be described as hate speech?

    In the case of this Jimmy Carr joke, it seemed to get plenty of laughs in the audience, so plenty found it funny. Whether it ends his career, only time will tell. I still think he should be able to make the joke if he wants, as long as he is prepared to take any effect it has on his career with it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    It won't even come close to ending his career.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,132 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    It's an age old, the same argument was heard in the 50s as now, Comedians by their very nature will always want to prick the balloon of the type of individual that are Priests and activists.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,733 ✭✭✭✭TheValeyard


    Right now, Frankie Boyle is out there thinking of a way to make an even more offensive joke.

    All eyes on Kursk. Slava Ukraini.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,132 ✭✭✭✭Danzy




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,808 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Agreed….

    look at Jackie Mason, a hilarious Jewish guy whose main gag was ripping the pîss out of Jewish people… out of everybody….one of the funniest people to have lived.

    edit : I found a brilliant 5 minute clip on YouTube of him, just ripping into Jewish husband and wife relationships, piss funny, but….I wouldn’t even know if i could post it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,597 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    Hes already thought of a dozen of them, just trying to decide which to go with


    I don't agree that this was an offensive joke BTW. People who don't 'get' the joke think its offensive, but the target of his punchline are the people who are happy to think 'Dead jews are bad, but dead Gypsies... maybe they deserved it'


    And there are loads of threads on Boards full of people who would think like that



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,021 ✭✭✭✭anewme


    I was just going to say the exact same. The crowd here playing the WOKEY COKEY card and bleating that you cant say anything anymore, would have been the same having a meltdown at the likes of Jim Davidson/Bernard Manning telling racist jokes about the Irish - when the Irish were downtrodden and easy pickings.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,211 ✭✭✭✭Suckit


    I have always thought to myself that there will come a time when people will decide 'that's enough' and push back against this cancel culture bullsh*t. They are only really vocal on twitter and social media, and amongst similar minded people.

    They are just loud, and for some reason the mainstream media gives that a voice. Everyone seems to agree Twitter is a cess pit, so why allow it such a loud voice?

    This could be the beginning of the push back, this and the book 'Woke Racism'.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,750 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    Jimmy Carrs joke sounded like something Stewart Lee would come out with, to me.

    then i remembered this bit he does, about Jim Davidson, which also features Jimmy Carr coincidentally

    about 45 seconds watch, from the time linked, although the whole 10 mins is worth a watch




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,211 ✭✭✭✭Suckit


    IIRC Frankie used to write some of Jimmy Carr's material, so may even have written that, but probably not.

    Either way, I would imagine both of their acts are deconstructed and analysed bit by bit before giving it the green light. He might have said it and risked his career anyway, but I'm betting most of the people who needed to know what was in his show, knew. He probably won't even lose his presenting jobs.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,760 ✭✭✭Effects




  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Melissa Scary Meteorology


    Imagine how many 'thanks' Jimmy Carr would have gotten if he cracked that joke here on Boards.



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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,181 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    maybe it should have been left to a more talented writer and/or comic, if that was the intent.

    i have not seen it, just read it, and maybe i'm missing context, but there doesn't seem to have been all that much nuance to it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,750 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    we're in for a world of 'Peter Kay's and 'Michael McIntyre's ... and I, for one, welcome it



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,181 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    nah, stewart lee would have spent ten minutes building up to it and insulted the audience after delivering the punchline.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,256 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    I think the serious getting offended crowd about comedy now would have been the staunch anti-blasphemy catholic church crowd had they been born 50 years earlier



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,062 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Well on Boards the IMHO American obsessed anti "woke" obsessed whingers killed comedy on this site a few years ago now.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,062 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Billy Connolly would also hate people like you using him for politically motivated BS.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,750 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,062 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    The mods are not harsh enough. Some amount of loopers on Boards these days clogging up every thread.



  • Registered Users Posts: 61 ✭✭stellamere


    Wasn't a Scottish comedian arrested for teaching his dog to salute when he said " gas the jews". My first instinct was to say he had it coming.

    But the context behind it was that he had a very acrimonious breakup with his partner and that she was going to take the dog, a pug, the stocky ones with the flat noses.

    So being the bitter and juvenile chap he thought it would be good to corrupt the dog before she took it. He did so by getting it to do something absolutely shocking upon hearing an even more shocking prompt.

    There is something darkly amusing about someone coming up with such an outlandish and ridiculous plan just to piss off his ex. Also, the picture in my head of the poor pug doing a nazi salute, when prompted by an unbelievably offensive line is given is kinda funny.

    I don't think he was a nazi sympathizer nor was he having a laugh at the holocaust, which was used only for shock factor.

    It certainly not everyones idea of humour. However I think an arrest for this is way over the top and is not a good road to go down.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,808 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Not motivated by politics my friend, just discussing the topic at hand…

    Connolly spent a lot of last year absolutely lambasting the whole woke unculture…


    “How dare you start re-writing the rule book. There is no rule book!”

    “Funny is funny is funny.”


    And the subject matter doesn’t come into it….

    “You can talk about anything, and I intend to do just that.”


    So what’s that about Billy ? :)



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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,181 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Wasn't a Scottish comedian arrested for teaching his dog to salute when he said " gas the jews". My first instinct was to say he had it coming.

    you're the first person i have seen refer to him as a comedian.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,760 ✭✭✭Effects


    Not defending Carr, or his 'nuanced' approach, but it was a bit more than just the few lines that are being printed. There's an extended clip, and by extended, I mean 90 seconds. Worth watching to get a better idea of his point, but I don't think he comes off that much better for it all the same.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I don't agree that this was an offensive joke BTW. People who don't 'get' the joke think its offensive, but the target of his punchline are the people who are happy to think 'Dead jews are bad, but dead Gypsies... maybe they deserved it'

    Exactly. Apart from the offensive part I’d agree. People can take as much or little offence from jokes as they please but the butt of the joke is as you describe.

    The same is true of Meechan’s pug nazi ‘joke’ too though the butt of the joke wasn’t the Jews but the nazis.



  • Registered Users Posts: 506 ✭✭✭Freddie Mcinerney




  • Registered Users Posts: 61 ✭✭stellamere


    Ha, I thought the article I read described him as one. Anyway, I can't see him selling out the Royal Albert Hall anytime soon.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    I seriously don't know what all the fuss is about with Carr's joke. I mean it's pretty much along the lines of Ricky Gervais' joke about Nietzsche and Hitler and he didn't see any flak for it.



    Neither comedian is "punching down", nor are they commenting on any group's "worth" for want of a better word and they certainly aren't advocating to "positives" of killing anyone.

    However, the barb is clearly aimed at the people who do believe in things along those lines.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,549 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    Calling Mark Meechan a "comedian" is really stretching the limits of term TBH. However, his prosecution over the "Nazi pug" was absolutely ridiculous, and considered so by a large number of actual comedians too, including Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais and David Baddiel. In any case, all he ended up with was only an 800 quid fine and a ton of exposure for his YouTube channel. So, it kinda benefited him in a bizarre way.

    It was his later activities involving UKIP and hanging around with the likes of Tommy Robinson that probably ended up being a worse look for him.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,263 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    That Count Dankula guy? Don't know if he's genuinely a nazi sympathiser, he's fairly right wing. He's also about as funny as cot death, calling him a comedian is being very generous. Prosecuting him was counter productive though.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,493 ✭✭✭✭MEGA BRO WOLF 5000




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,023 ✭✭✭Ashbourne hoop


    Jimmy Carr's one was a joke, imagine that, a comedian telling a joke. It's obviously not his real views. It wasn't particularly a funny joke but there is some crackers on that show, and I wouldn't really be a fan of his tbh.

    The rush of people on social media to express how mad they are about it is bizzare, especially since the show has been on Netflix since CHRISTMAS DAY......

    The fact that it is called His Dark Materials should have been a clue....



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