(UK) The "woke comedy is no laughing matter" proposal

[C C]

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/03...ng-matter/

EXCERPT (Tim Dawson): . . . Tim Davie is correct that there is a problem, but it is not simply that comedy is controlled by the ‘left’. It is that it is controlled by the ‘woke’: militant identitarians who despise Brexit, despise the ordinary people of this country, and see it as their moral duty to criticise and sneer. It is a great irony that so many identitarian comedians believe right-wing comedy is ‘punching down’ – what have they been doing for the past four years? Maligning ordinary Britons – accusing them of stupidity and prejudice while trying to neutralise their votes – is hardly ‘punching up’.

Furthermore, people who believe everybody who disagrees with them is ethically repulsive probably aren’t the sort of characters you want in charge of a national programme-making machine.

I used to work on shows which were popular with less well-educated, working-class people. [...] they were serving an audience which also paid a TV licence, and also had a right to programming they enjoyed. As working-class audiences were forgotten, so the elderly were left behind, and family audiences were abandoned, too...

It is impossible not to see what has happened as a kind of class erasure – the broad tastes of the masses overwhelmed by the niche interests of a dominant few. Ultimately, if your main interest in making television comedy is impressing your north London mates, you are unlikely to dish up the goods effectively for viewers with ‘normal jobs’ and ‘normal lives’, who really aren’t interested in dark HBO rip-offs or identitarian sermons.

Davie’s reforms, if he’s really serious about returning comedy ‘to the people’, will need to be very wide-ranging. Traditional sitcom – always sneered at by the elite, but beloved by many millions [...] has largely been killed ... Sketch comedy has all but disappeared. ... If comedy is going to resonate with the average punter again, the changes will have to go far deeper... (MORE - details)

[Zinjanthropos]

Got paired up with a couple of jokesters while golfing the other day. Play was slow and at one point there were 3 foursomes at one of the tee blocks. So one of the guys in our group makes a Jewish rabbi joke, loud enough for everyone to hear. Some guy from another foursome calls out the comedian claiming the joke was inappropriate because one of his playing partners is a Christian pastor. It got a little tense for a few seconds until the pastor said he thought it was pretty funny. One of the few times in my life where I respected a man of the cloth. 

So I started thinking. Comedic content change from people to actual subjects. I can find a drunken Irishman, a Jamaican who likes pot, or a 50 year old Italian man still living with his mother, etc. IOW I can prove they exist. However I can’t prove a goddam thing about a belief. If I could then it wouldn’t be a belief. IMHO belief is fair game for comedians and perhaps this is where all this is heading. Belief may come under greater comedic pressure so perhaps it’s better all round if you can laugh at it.

I think you can still comedically attack subject matter like men living with their mothers, pot smoking, alcohol consumption etc without mentioning a nationality. It would be even funnier to have certain cultures complain about subjects when no one is singled out specifically. Be like admitting to a comedian/world that your culture is guilty and worthy of ridicule, an absolute about face to what comedy once was.

[Syne]

Some guy from another foursome calls out the comedian claiming the joke was inappropriate because one of his playing partners is a Christian pastor. It got a little tense for a few seconds until the pastor said he thought it was pretty funny.

There's nothing worse than presuming you know when someone else is offended and take it upon yourself to speak for them. Even if you happen to be right, you're presuming they can't stand up for themselves, which seems demeaning to them.

We can see that right now with Black Lives Matter. A majority of white people presuming they can speak for black people, while plenty of black people try to tell them they don't. There was even a black cop on a protest line who said any time a black protester tried to ask him why he was there some white person would tell them they shouldn't be talking to him. That seems very condescending to me. A kind of "I'll protect you because I know better than you".

[Zinjanthropos]

Some guy from another foursome calls out the comedian claiming the joke was inappropriate because one of his playing partners is a Christian pastor. It got a little tense for a few seconds until the pastor said he thought it was pretty funny.

There's nothing worse than presuming you know when someone else is offended and take it upon yourself to speak for them. Even if you happen to be right, you're presuming they can't stand up for themselves, which seems demeaning to them.

We can see that right now with Black Lives Matter. A majority of white people presuming they can speak for black people, while plenty of black people try to tell them they don't. There was even a black cop on a protest line who said any time a black protester tried to ask him why he was there some white person would tell them they shouldn't be talking to him. That seems very condescending to me. A kind of "I'll protect you because I know better than you".

Good point , never thought of it that way.

[Syne]

Besides, who needs to be importing other people's offense and drama into their own lives? What, life's going too easy for you? Or is it just that misery loves company?