Yearning for a little bit of politics...

Dave Cohen on toothless topical comedy

One of the many myths about live comedy in the Eighties was that the circuit was awash with left-wing feminists spouting man-hating, racist-bashing polemic. If there was any misogyny, then it was levelled at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the mere mention of her name was enough to induce guffaws of right-on laughter.

My own memory of politics and the circuit was that they rarely went together. There were plenty of lefties performing comedy and in the audience – in the Eighties and Nineties most people under 30 were either left-wing or anti-Tory – but by the time I began performing in 1984, political jokes were about as popular as Michael Foot. I often found myself saying ‘Yes indeed ladies and gentleman,’ a phrase Ben Elton used all the time in his stand-up, but when I said it the audience generally got that I was commenting on the fact that what I had said was polemical rather than funny.

In the late Eighties the most political acts of the time, the ‘three Marks’ – Thomas, Hurst and Steel – regularly stormed every gig they played, from college to Comedy Store, but most of their material dealt with the everyday topics that are still the staple of all live comedy – no, not paedos and gays, but friends, family and relationships.

By the time the Tory party succeeded where her enemies had failed and got rid of Mrs Thatcher, people were so relieved to be shot of her that they took a collective sigh of relief and stopped being scared and engaged by politics in general. And up until the start of the coalition, there has been very little in the world of politics to engage audiences since.

The dark comedy and scaredyness offered up by Blair, the Iraq war and George Bush created a few knee-jerkingly obvious liberal responses, and at some clubs the mere mention of Richard Littlejohn or Jeremy Clarkson elicits enough of a laugh so the comic doesn’t actually have to be funny about them. Even the expenses scandal, which was huge, and Wikileaks, which was huger, felt like they merely told us things we already suspected about politicians.

The truth is, live comedy audiences are just not that interested in political comedy. Never have been. The two TV shows I have been lucky to work on over the years – Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You – have consistently drawn the biggest TV audiences of any comedy show, yet with one or two notable exceptions – the Comedy Store’s Cutting Edge and the increasingly popular No Pressure To Be Funny, a weekly topical show created by Nick Revell and Alistair Barrie – the circuit is usually a topical-free zone.

This hasn’t stopped TV executives and production companies trawling the clubs in search of performers to create THE new topical comedy show that will bring audiences in their millions. For years there’s been much fancy talk of someone over here creating the equivalent of the US Daily Show, with little understanding of the incredible expense and material turnover involved.

Channel 4’s latest attempt has been brave but even before the pilot episode of 10 O’Clock Live, that show was scaled back from three days a week to one day. Channel 4 knew from their experience of the 11 O’Clock Show that three days a week is pointless, it has to be five days or nothing.

Why do topical TV shows fall so often? TV critic Mark Lawson reckons people wanted 10 O’Clock Live to fail, but everyone I knew was desperate for the show to succeed, and be a hit so Channel 4 would make more comedy. I think the reason it doesn’t quite work is it reflects a kind of cuddly liberal sensibility that something is wrong but there’s not a lot we can do about it. So you end up with 10 O’Clock Live, well-meaning but too predictable to create a stir, or Mock The Week, a better class of panel show packed with jokes about the week’s news, but still a panel show at the end of it.

I am hugely impressed by Russell Howard’s output on BBC Three. It takes enormous energy and a titanic performance to maintain so much TV around one person. He has the charm and skills to make it look easy, and it has become one of BBC Three’s most popular shows. But it doesn’t feel like it is doing anything new with topical comedy. It stands or falls on Howard’s likeability, not his point of view.

In my opinion the attitude that is most missing from today’s topical TV shows is anger. David Mitchell’s indignant exasperation and Charlie Brooker’s magnificently verbose sneers come close, but I miss the kind of explosive rants that bring so much live comedy to life.

There’s a lot of anger in comedy. It’s an emotion that seems especially suited to the form. We all get angry on occasion, and most of the time we do it for a very stupid reason. When we’re angry we say stupid things, we say horrible things, but because we look stupid when we’re being angry those horrible things just sound silly.

Anger is great for stand-up. It gives the performer an instant point of view, and an exaggerated emotion that people can relate to. There’s a wealth of material to choose from – anger at rude people, people who stand around and do nothing, telly programmes, stupid products, built-in obsolescence, useless instructions. Surely the events of the last year have made an impact on performers and audiences? Maybe I’m going to the wrong clubs, but with a few notable exceptions (Doug Stanhope, when he turns his anger away from himself and the more obvious targets) the one anger I’m not seeing on stage is that one directed at politicians.

Spitting Image had many great things going for it – incredible visuals, funny jokes written by the top writers of the day, great impressions from Coogan, Enfield, Bremner and the rest. But the embodiment of the show, and its unique point of view, came from one man, Roger Law.

I was talking recently to David Tyler, one of the producers of the show, and he recalled watching the huge, bearded, angry-faced Law (who I always thought resembled one of his own grotesque caricatures), bringing one of his puppets to life. David remembered how Law was looking at the mould, shaking his head, not happy with the image. He then pounced, changed an eyebrow here and a cheekbone there, and suddenly, there you had a politician, shown in the most mocking light possible.

Spitting Image won’t be coming back, but I’d love to see a little bit of politics back on the agenda. Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen.

>>Dave Cohen's website

Published: 15 Apr 2011

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