Maureen Lipman says cancel culture could destroy comedy

As Mitch Benn put it on Twitter, there has always been something like this looming over comedy over the decades - political correctness, etc - and it's still here. But this demand to see people's career's ended is an escalation that does seem to be new.

Maureen Lipman's contribution was one of the least interesting bits in that story! It was interesting to see Simon Fanshawe quoted at the end (talking sense as always), and Gervais.

Unfortunate to have GC thinking conflated with anti-immigrant sentiment as something you 'can't say these days' though.

I read a thread on twitter yesterday by a woman who took her niece/s to the panto to with her wife and left because the ‘jokes’ were so revolting and sexual she was horrified.
I read that too - the examples she gave of "jokes" were appalling. Not entertaining at all. I also think there is a big difference between making fun of trans people (not acceptable) and coming from the point of view that women are biologically female!

I read a thread on twitter yesterday by a woman who took her niece/s to the panto to with her wife and left because the ‘jokes’ were so revolting and sexual she was horrified. But these are ok. Men dressed as hideous women and making jokes about sex and genitals is absolutely hunky dory.

I do remember Bernard Manning. We used to go along to his shows and disrupt. He was really offensive but he found us very intimidating. That was the sort of sexism we could deal with, because no one was trying to pretend it was something other than misogyny.

I worry that people aren't being forgiven minor errors. An example would be Change UK (not related to comedy) where an MP became very confused about her wording. She had to go, apology not acceptable. I find the relentless search for offense to be very off putting. There are lots of things I don't want to hear jokes about but my solution is not to buy tickets for the event, or not to laugh when someone tells a joke I don't like. This was always a better way. Purity spirals drag down the whole of society and prevent progress.

Why she would be given airspace on 8am BBC new I have no idea.
What a marvellous line, given the topic of this thread

She's talking toot isn't she? I can't think what she could mean really.

My first thought was James Acaster and Michael McIntyre and concluded she's a deluded out of touch attention seeker. Why she would be given airspace on 8am BBC new I have no idea.

There's an article in the Times today about Armando Iannucci defending 'the right to offend'.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/armando-iannucci-thick-of-it-creator-backs-right-offend-comedy-satire-fqkwqq8x5?shareToken=b8a70cf6c8ff052458611a09f9129090

I should add that I don't think everything offensive is funny or that everything funny is offensive.

Russell Kane.... grin How anyone can earn a living as a comedian while having so little self awareness is a bit of mystery to me.

I remember him on an after-show episode of IACGMOOH. A celeb, I think Britt Ekland, made a playful jab at something he said about her, and he appeared on screen very po-faced to earnestly explain why she should not have been offended at his joke. Total buzzkill.

This bit is utter bullshit:
"Something has to be forbidden to make you laugh, really belly laugh. It's when you shouldn't be laughing," she said.

Well as a consumer of comedy, all I can say about that is that it resonates with me very strongly.
I think there's something almost primal about laughing about things you're not supposed to laugh at. It takes me back to my childhood and sniggering in quiet corners about bums and willies and once getting a fit of giggles during a funeral. It's much bigger than political jokes though.

And Russell Kane.... How anyone can earn a living as a comedian while having so little self awareness is a bit of mystery to me.

I don't think it's a bad thing if comedians stop telling jokes at the expense of gay people, trans, disabled, poor, female.

Oooh sorry meant I agree, but i also think that etc…

I also don't think it's that big a thing to hear that people self-censor themselves even they have viewpoints that go against the norms of the people they are in company with

People self censor even before they know the viewpoints of the people they are in company with

I rolled my eyes very hard at Russell Kane saying he doesn't think so, no one's saying you can't be offended.....then admitting he signed up to a service that deletes his tweets after 6 months 🙄

I am an amateur stand up. The world of comedy has been moving towards less offensive for a few years now and I think that's no bad thing. I don't want to hear jokes about dead migrants, and much though I'm gender critical I don't want to hear jokes at trans people's expense any more then I want to hear jokes about GC people.

This bit is utter bullshit;

"Something has to be forbidden to make you laugh, really belly laugh. It's when you shouldn't be laughing," she said. "All the things that have been cancelled out by being correct are, I'm afraid, all the things that make people laugh."

I also don't think it's that big a thing to hear that people self-censor themselves even they have viewpoints that go against the norms of the people they are in company with. TRAs have done an impressive job of making it seem like acceptance without exception is the social norm, when that's perhaps.. not accurate.

Yes it's a problem that women with GC views are unable to voice them for fear of being ostracised, criticised, and downright bullied and threatened. I just don't think this is an article that speaks to that very much.