A blessing in disguise?

Dan Cardwell on the new morality

I won’t bore you with the details, should God or the Devil be in them or not, as we have surely all had enough of Sachsgate hysteria. But, safe to say, the increasingly pathetic BBC has been snivelling at the boots of the vocal minority who love nothing more than to voice their moral outrage from under their umbrella of righteousness. Other broadcasters have joined in a bid to demonstrate that they, too, understand what ‘the public’ wants.

But, as many comedians worry about how this will affect their act, is it just a little possible that this new question of moral decency is, in fact, a blessing in disguise?

Since the day of Lenny Bruce comedy has often been known for its challenge of the zeitgeist, its standing up to authority and its ability to highlight society’s occasional hypocrisy and strangely skewed view of ‘moral’.

And yet, as the ‘moral’ standards of mainstream media began to loosen their view on what was acceptable material, the live comedy world has found it harder and harder to be the forum in which the unsayable can be said. For me, being offensive for its own sake is as valid as a Richard Littlejohn column, of no artistic or literary value. Please, let us heed the warning of Sir Daniel Kitson: ‘Is it edgy, is it breaking the rules, are you a maverick? – why not try to be funny?’ I, for one, would much rather hear Mr Kitson musing on the importance of love than a comic thinking he’s being ‘edgy’ because he said something naughty about Mohammed.

But, for those comedians who can find the funny in social comment, this could be a moment of reawakening. If you look at Bill Hicks today, very little of his material is particularly offensive and yet he is held in high regard for his social commentary.

Ignoring issues of his early death and the zealots of America’s religious right, Bill Hicks still struck a chord with British audiences because the boundaries of acceptable material were still tight enough that there was something to rally against, while still maintaining integrity to his own set of high moral values (and, of course, because he was funny.)

Television and radio has always been a strange medium – it still amazes me that a TV show can be full of violence and yet a sex scene can be considered taboo – but let us see this as a potential blessing to move the unsayable back to the realms of live stand-up, where we can highlight society’s hypocrisy with an audience of like-minded souls.

Published: 13 Feb 2009

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