By Lindsay Ash
BEFORE you start reading this column I think it is only fair to say that it “contains language and attitudes from a different era and may cause offence … to idiots”. I am sure you have all heard or seen this on your television sets (OK, maybe I added the idiots bit.) It got me thinking as to how the woke humour police have got hold of our sense of comedy and sent it underground .
One of the great things that the British have been famed for is our sense of humour. This is mainly because traditionally we have had an ability to find most things funny and to find humour in nearly every situation. Not maybe a bloke in a stripey sweater and mask with painted face pretending to clean windows I grant you but most things. This has been eroded by the ability of a small but loud section of society who have set themselves up as the “humour police” and decided if they find it offensive you may well lose your job and be prosecuted for expounding it. This has had the effect of driving a lot of comedy into a sort of underground movement where people gather with their mobile phones to share the latest quip while looking over their shoulder in case someone likely to find offensive is lurking.
The technique used by the thought police was well demonstrated in the excellent black and white film School for Scoundrels (if you haven’t seen it, do so) where a bloke goes to this college where they teach you how to be one step ahead of the opposition. In the first lecture the tutor asks for a joke and the student tells an amusing story about a chap with a limp. This gets a laugh from the group and a smile from the tutor who then gets up to walk to the front and happens to have a limp, causing an awkward silence in the room and an apology from the joke teller. This is precisely what has been happening to us and few have protested about it.
The woke have managed to widen this net though to include a wide range of topics. One of the targets for these attacks are the traditional seaside postcard films known as the Carry On series.
These provided some great lines such as in Carry on at your Convenience, which centres around a toilet factory Boggs & Co run by the owner WC Boggs who comes out with the great line when they suggest making bidets “never shall the name of Boggs be associated with bidets” but it is the film Carry on Up the Khyber that receives the most flak, even though it actually pokes fun at the British Empire it features Kenneth Williams as the Khazi of Khalibar made up and dressed as an Indian. This is apparently “cultural appropriation” – basically pretending to be from a culture that’s not yours. However, this doesn’t apply when protesting wearing Arab scarves as indeed is nicely demonstrated by some leading political figures in Jersey. Who decides what’s offensive then Lash? They do, of course, the humourless minority in the shadows… you then play by their rules or face the consequences.
They also have the advantage because when humour is stripped down to it’s non-humorous form it may not be as funny.
The stretching of comedy boundaries has always been part of our fabric from The Life of Brian to Alf Garnett.
Alf is a particularly good example as nowadays there’s a “shocking how was this ever shown” from certain quarters completely missing the point that Johnny Speight had created the character to be laughed at and show the absurdity of his views. The same could also be said of one of my favourite bits of Fawlty Towers where the Major says: “Took a woman to see India once”. “Did you Major?” “Yes, at the Oval” and then goes on to detail how she referred to the Indian team. This is no longer shown, although all it reflects is the ignorant attitudes of some in bygone years, which is exactly what it was supposed to do. Showing the Major as a bit of a buffoon and ending with the wonderful line “she left at the tea interval… took my wallet.”
Of course, jokes have always been likely to cause offence and always have done. Some comedians were deemed too risqué for mainstream television and made a living purely in the clubs, like Jimmy Jones and Chubby Brown, but being caught listening to them or Derek and Clive then repeating their lines was not breaking the law for being some “ist” or other. This is my problem, this edict from some higher moral movement telling us what genre of humour we may or may not laugh at… how dare they.
There are times, of course, where some gags now cause offence to different people than they would have years ago. Billy Connolly caused a riot with his last supper staged in Glasgow, which nowadays would be fine as Christianity is fair game for humour (maybe not so other religions though – be careful, don’t want you blaming me for getting nicked).
Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000.
Feedback welcome on Twitter @Getonthelash2
