And now this...

[avevale_intelligencer]

Here is a post by cherylmmorgan about the response of the BBC, and government regulator Ofcom, to complaints about comedian Russell Howard and a particular item on his show in which trans people were portrayed as ugly and grotesque.

She's absolutely right, of course, but the problem goes much deeper than that. It's not, as Christine Burns claims in the article to which Cheryl links, a case of one man having a flawed personality. Comedy has been going this way for a while now--look at Little Britain. Conservative values have crept back in, while the loud, brash façade created by the "alternative" comedians remains, creating a false impression of continuity. This is "new" comedy, as in "new" Labour.

My personal opinion, of course, is that much comedy has in recent years increasingly failed to be funny, and my theory is that the people who write it have forgotten how.* Another possibility, though, is that there has been, on some level, an epiphany caused by the Alternative comics; some of us have woken up to the fact that some things should not be laughed at, and attempts to make us laugh at them don't work any more.

But imagine, for the moment, a Two Ronnies take on the trans stewardesses. Of course they would do it, because trans people were just as mockable in the seventies as they are now. But. They'd come on impeccably turned out, as they always did. They'd make fun of their own appearance--the shortness, the fatness--because they always did. There would be innuendo, because there always was. But never, at any point, I think, would they appear pathetic or grotesque, the way Walliams and Lucas's trans characters do. Never at any point would they invite contempt or disgust for their characters, the way Howard did. Never, at any point, would they give the slightest suggestion that they thought, either in character or out of it, that what their characters did was in any way wrong.

But those days are gone. Alf Garnett, created as a parody, was seized on as an idol and role model by conservatives all over the country, and now we have Al Murray, doing the same job (but probably with irony, which of course makes all the difference). Comedy, once always funny though sometimes cruel, is now always cruel and seldom funny. And the targets may be the same as they have been since the 1950s, but now the sucker cups are off and the arrows are dipped in vitriol.

And of course Ofcom will say there's no offence in it. They work for a Conservative government. I mean, they would, wouldn't they?


*There is a kind of comedy that has always eluded me, which is the "pin-sharp observation of human frailty" kind that made Eleanor Bron and John Fortune famous, and to be honest this may be a factor in why things like The Office don't appeal to me. Although it may also be that Ricky Gervais is an unpleasant, unfunny person.

Comments

[pola-bear.livejournal.com]

One of the things about all the stand ups doing stand up stuff on tv, is that they are doing their stuff to get noticed and to make the widest range of people laugh (which of course belittling and insulting people does, because it's ironic!), rather than doing crafted stuff to make people interested in their style laugh. I'm not sure if I made that point clearly, struggling with getting words in the right places. Basically, with so much competition for this style of comedy it means many people are just going to cheap, easy laughs.

I think what you are saying about the Two Ronnies version is right. I heard about this when it originally happened, and if fact made a complaint after seeing it, which is not necessarily something that I will often do, even if I mean to. I can't load that page right now, but I expect it says that once again trans people don't deserve not to be mocked and it's ironic anyway and oh shut up, you are just looking for something to be offended by.

I heard a very astute comment about Ricky Gervais recently, "Does he ever tell jokes, or does he just say what he really thinks and then smile." Which is a style of 'comedy' which thanks largely to him has spread and spread.

Ok. I'm going to stop rambling here. I have too many thinky thoughts and not enough brain to express them.

Oh, I will say that I had thought RH was alright before because he was one big name comedian today who did comedy that wasn't just about reinforcing stereotypes and putting people down and was less lazy with his comedy than some others. Since this I have avoided his work completely.

[howeird]

While over on this side of the pond, I don't think I have seen any comedy on TV which was trans-related. It would not get past the censors, I don't think. The censors being each station's marketing people.

I can't stand Gervais. Both the UK and US versions of The Office lost me after the first 5 minutes. I tried to watch the UK season one DVD, but there was no comedy in it.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

I have to say, having just followed the links to see the clip on YouTube, it's pretty shocking that Russell would do or condone a piece like that. As you say, I'm used to thinking of him as one of the good guys. (In general "Russel Howard's Good News" manages to do what it says on the tin, and give a much more positive / less cynical view of the weeks events.)

Now, if Frank Skinner had done it, I'd have been utterly unsurprised. =:o\

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Ofcom's incompetence has nothing to do with the current Government. The previous two Governments, Tory, then Labour, relentlessly knocked the stuffing and the teeth out of proper media regulation.

Dismantling the once strong and vital regulation we had. Decades. And there is nothing left but a paper tiger.

It's one of my buttons. Do Not Press. *gnash*

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, as I've said before, I think Conservative government can be traced in unbroken succession all the way back to 1979. Only the names have been changed to protect the illusion of the democratic process. But whether that's true or not, yes, you're right, the process of disempowerment has been going on at least that long.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

I like the Office. But Gervais is a complete twat.

Although, interestingly, he was recently spotted saying he's had to realise he wasn't a very nice person, as he got too much fame too quickly, and had to change. He does have a good observational eye. But he focuses it to strongly through his own personality, for it to be fruitful. I think he ht the moment of cultural confluence, where his personality matched the moment.

The moment has moved on. Maybe he will too. Who cares, since he's so unpleasant as a human being.

[aunty_marion]

With you pretty much all the way there. I've given up watching 'comedy' stuff on TV, because it just isn't funny any more. Morecambe & Wise, the Two Ronnies, yes. Ricky Gervais, Walliams & Lucas? No.

[hrrunka]

Aye, with you on this. And as for Ofcom; they're in the pockets of big business and powerful people, and they've failed to act time and time again when issues they're supposed to control are brought to their attention.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on this, very largely.

Can't abide Ricky Gervais at all. Not funny. Just repellent. What I've seen of Little Britain (which thankfully is not much) made me turn the TV off.

However, there is some comedy I've seen over the past few years - thanks to my sister's gifts of DVDs - that I'm very impressed with. Let's see if I can remember the titles: "Outnumbered", "Big Bang Theory" (American), "Miranda", "Green Wing", um... Mind's gone blank. I also like comedians such as Bill Bailey and Eddie Izzard, whose comedy is often quite gentle and unlikely to wound anyone, plus there's a great deal of intelligence in both performers' routines.

One thing I noticed very strongly last Christmas when we were in the UK is the prevalence of cynical mockery as a vehicle for comedy. Individually, each commentary/political monologue/whatever might be very, very funny and very, very clever, and make me laugh. But the relentlessness of this cynicism depressed me somewhat. It's all very well to point the finger and laugh at what's wrong with the world, but it betrays a certain fatigue, a lack of hope that anything can actually be changed for the better. There's both self-satisfaction and laziness inherent in the approach.

I could go on and on and on but I won't.

Suffice it to say that while I like to mock as much as the next person, I also like to laugh in a way that shows I'm happier for watching the thing that makes me laugh.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Bill Bailey is a lovely person (and a pretty hot musician as well). For some reason I'm not very fond of Eddie Izzard (but humour, as they say, is a funny thing). But I've never liked the sort of 'comedy' which gets off on mocking people (unless the person is telling the joke about themself), which was why I wasn't as keen on "Not the Nine O'Clock News" as I was on Monty Python, the jokes seemed more 'aimed'. "Little Britain" is further down the same road, it seems to me, and I can't stand it.

Paul Merton (of "Have I Got News For You" among other things) did a show recently which I liked, he took sets of stand-up comics and put them into skits where they had to improvise, interspersed with his own dry wit. It was pretty much 'clean', not only in the "would my mother obect" way but also in that it wasn't mocking anyone, it was more the sort of humour I expect from good pantomime (or, let's face it, old-fashioned stand-up comedy back when it was funny and not merely gross). And I like some of Armstrong and Miller, especially their "WW2 RAF" shetches. So there is some good comedy out there, it's just that there's so much of the "cheak laughs" sort which plays on belittling others.

Much like the Intarwebs, actually...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

For the Two Ronnies sketch, look at their "The Worm That Turned" and several other sketches where they did cross-gender humour. It was funny but never intentionally cruel. Oh, some people didn't like it, but that always happens (look at the complaints about Dave Allen making fun of Catholicism -- himself a Catholic, and none of the complaints from Catholics, all from Protestants).

My feeling is that the rot started somewhere around "Not the Nine O'clock News", but everyone will probably put the marker in a different place. I felt that NtNON was where I started noticing the cruelty masquerading as comedy (I never thought that Alf Garnet was at all funny, I didn't think of it as comedy but as a soap in bad taste). As I said elsewhere, I don't think that all is lost, quite possibly there is still about the same amount of 'good' comedy around, I just think that we are so swamped in the other stuff that the actual comedy can get lost. Much the way that good information gets swamped on Google searches by the amount of incorrect stuff.

(For some reason 3rd seasons of comedy seem particularly prone to pulling up smut and cruelty instead of comedy. "Not Only But Also" (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore), Monty Python, NtNON, and several others I've seen over the years (The Goodies as well, thinking about it). It's as though the writers start panicking around then and lose it.)

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

I vote for "unpleasant, unfunny person".

A lot of comedians these days seem to go for "edgy", mocking humor, where they say prejudiced and cruel things and then claim they're doing it in an "ironic" fashion. They seem to forget the fact that comedy at its best, and certainly irony at its best, is a tool for challenging prevailing attitudes and the people in power. Not for serving them and then claiming "it was totally irony!"

[allan doodes (from livejournal.com)]

Is it me? Or is the fact they tell you it's ironic raises the suspicions that they think we can't recognise irony? Or maybe as a justification - "if they think it's ironic they will think it acceptable" - for their humour?

I got fed up with TV "humour" based on cruelty to or, embarrassment of, others way back in the 1960s and 1970s, and so have tended to avoid "humour" on TV for most of my adult life.

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

I just feel that so much comedy, particularly of the modern sort, is based on cruelty, and that's enough to make me walk away fast...