Humour is not being cancelled!

As a lover of humour and someone who has used humour throughout my life, and in my work, and sometimes 'paying the price' for it, it is a fine line I shall say. I've been that 'soldier,' but I often hear comedians say that it's the end of humour if you can't make fun of anything or anyone. I really don't subscribe to this at all – such a claim is quite a gross exaggeration.

If a comedian can't find humour without poking fun at something that can be quite sensitive to others does suggest they perhaps have quite a limited imagination. It's like saying singers will need to start plagiarising the work of others because they've run out of material.

For Ricky Gervais to equate a woman suffering from alopecia as being the same as a man going bald, no I'm afraid it's not the same thing. It really isn't. This highlights a lack of understanding of the issue on his part. Some men are sensitive about it of course, but it’s like equating the death of a parent with that of losing a child. It’s just not the same. Men historically, traditionally, and regularly lose hair. By and large women don’t – there are clear reasons normally when they do, for men, it tends to be hereditary.

Highlighting irony, hypocrisy and incompetence is a given, it’s one of those things that comedians do, be that in stand up or in sit coms, or on the stage. However, when you single out someone in an effort to make a joke of something that they have not given their consent too, or do not or cannot be part of, in terms of a 'right of reply,' or that you do not have an existing relationship with that person already which gives you permission to say what you say – with ‘their blessing’ as it were - it stops being about humour, and becomes a form of bullying.

Anything that is designed to belittle, humiliate, or give you power at the expense of someone else moves beyond humour. It may be funny to others, but that’s because they’re not part of the joke.

I say this, and in Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland, where we use humour as a means of coping with our past, our collective trauma and inability to deal with our feelings and emotions, banter and 'taking the piss' out of one another is a form of endearment, a greeting, a virtual hug, and forms part of our culture.

But it's part of a culture where there's an understanding, that below all of it, and when all is said and done, there's an appreciation, a warmth, an authentic love for one another, or a ‘common ground’ that has an implicit permission to poke fun of one another.

This is because we have all suffered, and this collective suffering is released through humour, which has been built up over time, over generations, centuries even, which is pervasive and arguably forms part of our DNA; that it effectively communicates connection and fondness, and even then we know when to stop, and when it strays a little bit too far or if it crosses a line, or when it's no longer about expressing warmth but rather is designed to hurt, we tend to know when that is.

Not all jokes are funny, not all jokes are designed to be funny, and if we believe that we can't tell jokes any more about people, and that this signals the end of humour as we know it, because of some kind of imaginary cancel culture 'out there,' which is often articulated by comedians that have just had their wings clipped, then this is just nonsense; there is no end of humour coming, but there is no end of humour material waiting to be unearthed, every minute of every day, of every year.

Anyone that suggests humour is being cancelled, has suddenly realised that not everything is fair game, that not everything is ok to say, that there are limits and boundaries, that not everyone is prepared to stand by and accept that it’s ok to say certain things. You can't claim freedom of speech and expression, and then complain when others exercise the same right.

Just in the same way that Jimmy Carr took flack recently for his ‘joke’ about Gypsies and the positives of the holocaust, just in the same way that Frankie Boyle was rightly criticised for his joke about Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey some years ago, just in the same way that making racist jokes from bygone eras were challenged and, just in the same way that Benny Hill was quietly phased off our television screens because of his depiction of women, there are some things that are no longer acceptable, nor funny.

The protestations of certain comedians about ‘cancel culture’ and ‘wokeness,’ or the death of humour and the 'stand up,' I would suggest is as much about projecting onto others and away from themselves, to avoid the humiliation they might feel when the spotlight is upon them - the very spotlight that they were happy to shine on others for cheap laughs.

Comedians get over yourselves, if you can't find humour in other things, then go find another job.