A bumper crop of gongs for our comedy brethren in the Queen's Birthday Honours List this morning. Tony "Baldrick" Robinson gets a knighthood for his public and political work and Rowan Atkinson is awarded a CBE for his services to drama and charity. Rob Brydon bags an MBE, while veteran producer Jon Plowman pocketed an OBE and founder of the Leicester Comedy Festival Geoff Rowe trousered a BEM.
Honours always seem odd, but particularly these, which means that Baldrick now outranks Blackadder. I was quite surprised to discover that Atkinson had not already been given some letters to put after his name. His sitcom chums have certainly fared well in the past. Richard Curtis has been honoured with a CBE, Hugh Laurie has an OBE. Producer John Lloyd has a CBE. Bizarrely – according to Wikipedia anyway – Stephen Fry is not Sir Stephen Fry yet. Some awards have been for services to acting and comedy, some have been for charity work. One would have thought Stephen Fry had achieved enough in both areas to not just get a medal from the Royal Family but to be made a member of the Royal Family. I don't think Ben Elton has an award for services to comedy, but if he has maybe he should give it back after The Wright Way.
I have to admit I feel uncomfortable about awards given out by the Queen. I've always had a romantic, foolish notion that comedians operate by a different set of rules. They are society's misfits who will never be fully accepted. Jesters in royal courts may have enjoyed the patronage of kings in ye olden days but they were still somehow outside of society, an escape valve at liberty to say things that ordinary citizens would get their heads lopped off for saying. That tradition continued with Spike Milligan when he was able to describe his chum Prince Charles as a "grovelling bastard" at the British Comedy Awards and live to tell the tale.
Given that some of these latest awards were for charity rather than for comedy work, it does appear as if some names have been strangely overlooked though. David Walliams, Eddie Izzard and John Bishop have performed amazing money-raising feats in recent years but as far as I can see they don't have a gong to rub together between them.
I don't know why, but it always surprises me when comedians become part of the mainstream establishment. One of the few times I've taken Alistair Campbell's side was in 2012 when he criticised Armando Iannucci for accepting an OBE from an establishment he tended to mock in his work. Maybe it depends on your comic style. Iannucci is known as a satirist, Rob Brydon is well on the way to being an enduring Forsythian family entertainer and his MBE fits into the CV neatly. Having said that, I'm not sure if the Queen is actually a fan of Would I Lie To You?, let alone Human Remains.
This generation somehow seems more ambitious and driven than the original alternative comedians, playing arenas, making movies in Hollywood, so maybe royal patronage is part of that package. We have a jokey exaggerated habit in our family, always pointing the finger at people who we think end up becoming the very thing they set out to destroy. Comedians seems typical of this, starting out as critics of society but ending up seduced by the trappings that success brings. Not that the comedians mentioned here were particularly notorious as republicans or revolutionaries in their early days. And of course, comedians have entertained the royal family for generations. From court jesters to Dan Leno performing for Edward VII to Max Miller and George Formby performing for George VI to the current crop performing for the current branch of the Windsors.
It is possible to resist though. Some do turn down honours. Alan Bennett was reported to have declined this kind of recognition. Lenny Henry rejected an OBE under the Tories in 1994 but accepted a CBE from New Labour in 1999. Dawn French rejected an OBE along with Jennifer Saunders in 2001. I guess Jerry Sadowitz need not have any sleepless nights in turmoil over whether he should accept an OBE, but I wonder what Stewart Lee or Josie Long will do if the brown envelope from the Palace drops on their mat. Good for Tony Robinson though, let Baldrick have it – after all those years of abuse now Blackadder finally has to call him "Sir".
