New academic research published

Comedy is sharply divided between acts that please the cultural elite and those who appeal to more popular tastes.

That’s the conclusion of new academic research into the rise of the ‘comedy snob’ officially launched at the London School Of Economics this week.

And in the candid words of one agent, the upshot is that however acclaimed a stand-up might be at the Edinburgh Fringe: ’You can’t tour an act that’s too cerebral or high-brow because the masses won’t get it.’

From his five years of research, Sam Friedman, assistant professor in sociology at the LSE, concluded that certain comedians have been elevated to ‘cultural objects’ with a gravitas that exaggerates the divide. And some fans are keen to associate themselves with the more elevated acts to raise their own status.

Friedman studied comedy history, conducted large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, and analysed stand-up reviews.

He discovered that the most powerful taste distinction, separate from gender or racial differentiations, were those with high cultural capital, ‘particularly the 18 to 45 generation who tended to prefer critically acclaimed comedians like Stewart Lee, but also Mark Thomas,’ and those with low cultural capital, ‘older generations who tended to prefer comedy that was much less critically acclaimed, like Roy Chubby Brown [and] Jim Davidson’.

However Guardian reviewer Brian Logan downplayed the significance of the critic, saying at the launch that broadsheet newspapers were not part of ‘a conspiracy to undermine populist tastes’.

‘But I do admit, as The Guardian’s comedy critic, I am the very acme of what Sam describes as “the purveyor of high comedy cultural capital values; the comedy snob who prefers formal invention to an uncomplicated good time”.’

However he also acknowledged that critics came from a very narrow demographic band, which he wanted to see widened.

Freelance comedy producer Lydia Hampson said her job involved finding and developing relationships comedians with enough commercial appeal to tour beyond the London circuit, which she called ‘the realm of the comic aficionados’.

She also stated in the book based on the research, Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour, that viable acts don’t have an ‘alienating quality’.

From this she concluded: ‘I realised what I was implying was along the lines of: you can’t tour an act that’s too cerebral or high-brow because the masses won’t get it - which is an embarrassing and illuminating thing to admit.’

Hampson also highlighted another important but often unspoken factor as to whether comedians would have success: their appearance.

She confessed that when she worked for a smaller scouting agency that focused on emerging talent she was looking for ‘looks; this definitely played a part. Particularly, and I’m sad to say, with women. You tend to get called in for more castings if you’re better looking.’

Published: 14 Nov 2014