From ‘man in the pub’ Mark Randall

I best start by explaining that I am not a comedian but merely a fan of stand up comedy. I am the proverbial bloke in the pub who doesn’t have to worry about being ‘hack’.

There is no pressure on me to be inventive or original. I can just see a joke in a comedy club and repeat it verbatim without any fear of judgement from my friends, who are also probably just repeating jokes that they have just seen or heard.

As the average audience member in a comedy club, I sincerely hope that comics do not take the advice of Luke Fox’s earlier Correspondent’s piece and steer clear of making Michael Jackson gags. From my bar stool perspective, I feel that making crass jokes his life and demise is a much more healthy reaction than the media's hysterical response to this troubled man’s death. This is the same media that was up until very recently enjoying their lynching antics and having a great laugh at the freak show that was Michael Jackson’s life. You cannot blame people for reacting with humour and thirsting for satire when faced with such clear hypocrisy.

We live in a country where an ignorant mob witlessly attacked a paediatrician after mistaking the word as paedophile. We live in a country where a woman who has the misfortune to look a little bit like Maxine Carr is routinely beaten up by her neighbours. Obviously I am not condoning such behaviour, but isn’t it amusing how all of a sudden everybody is OK with a major pop star that paid for the silence of children when faced with child molestation charges? Again the hypocrisy evident in the public reaction to Jackson's death is wide open for ridicule and satire.

The media saturation and this overwhelming hypocrisy is like a big balloon waiting to be popped and the average member of the public is sticking in the pin the only way that they can – by telling and sharing all of the best paedophile and plastic surgery gags that they can think of. This is happening in offices and pubs up and down the land, and good on them I say, as it all helps to restore the balance and is downright refreshing in the face of the Sky news and BBC coverage.

When I next go to a comedy club I will look forward to hearing the jokes and views of people far wittier than myself and my friends on this subject. I have already been enjoying the sophisticated commentary from one of my favourite comedians, Richard Herring. However, to be completely honest I don’t care if the next comic I will be watching is joking about the news reports, the hysterical public reaction, allegations of paedophilia or his funny looking face. I just care about it being funny.

So please all you stand up comics, don’t steer clear of the Michael Jackson jokes. Where else am I going to get any new material?

Published: 28 Jun 2009