In a civilised if occasionally heated debate yesterday entitled That's Not Funny! Are Offence-Seekers Killing Comedy? comedians and writers took part in a talk about the rise of political correctness in comedy and the question of whether comedians should have the right to say anything onstage. The event, which took place at The Stand, was organised by online magazine Spiked and chaired by writer Tom Slater.
Critic Kate Copstick was particularly outspoken, describing the political correctness brigade as “left wing fascists who want to tell me what to think.” She did not name names but voiced concerns about some people's attitudes to comedy. She also spoke out about the issue of gender politics and went on to say that while she admired Bridget Christie she could maybe do something more practical for feminism than talk about “pink pens”.
Comedian Andrew Doyle described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and was worried that there was a rising tide of censorship in the air at the moment among young people in particular, citing Goldsmiths College cancelling a gig by feminist Kate Smurthwaite earlier this year. At the other extreme there was also the Dapper Laughs case, where a public outcry had a huge impact on his career. While none of the panel were fans of Dapper Laughs, there was a general feeling that he has the right to do his act, albeit, it was said, not on ITV2. Doyle’s fear is that this climate is in danger of spreading beyond comedy. Comedians, he said, should have the “freedom to fail”.
Blogger and comedian Janey Godley suggested that it was a class issue too. If Dapper Laughs had been middle class with middle class fans he might have been OK. But he had a large working class following and it was the middle classes who objected to him. Godley also pointed to double standards on social media. When ordinary people posted criticism of about celebrities on Twitter they had their door kicked in in the night and had served prison sentences. Godley cited cases of threats being made to her after she posted something online. When she told the police they didn’t take any action, they just told her to stay off Twitter.
It was performer Shazia Mirza who had a story that highlighted the way society may be going and the way that people are determined to find something to be offended about. She recently did a serious Pause for Thought piece for Radio 2 about the burqa in which she made one joke that the women in her family all wear the burqa which is great because it means that they can share bus passes. Radio 2 got a Clarkson-level of complaints for this. It was clearly a joke but a knee jerk reaction seemed to prompt people to complain. Yet they didn’t complain on religious grounds, the objectors suggested that Mirza was advocating theft.
