Comedy: Seriously funny?

When you can’t tell the fools from the kings, is it still funny?

Politics and comedy are odd bedfellows. On the one hand, there is a strong and respected history of satire and plain-talking – from Shakespeare’s fools dressing up the hurtful truths to Ben Elton laying into “Mrs Thatch”, with cartoons in Punch and Private Eye tripping up politicians along the way too. On the other hand, it’s rather odd that the fools are now being invited to the war table and being asked to join those they mock on an equal footing, as seen on Newsnight. Is Russell Brand a revolutionary or a man who has spent many years honing an articulate and charismatic show? That would be a comic, then.

It first started working the other way around in recent history when Ronald Reagan became president of the United States in the 1980s. An actor? Being a politician? Can anyone take him seriously? Well, considering how chilly the Cold War got under his beady eye we’d be fools not to. Then we had the same thing again with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And finally in this country when Boris Johnson – editor of comment and satire-filled weekly magazine The Spectator – became Mayor Of London.

Coming up, Eddie Izzard has said that he will throw his hat into the ring to be London Mayor next time around and that – for some reason – doesn’t sound odd at all.

Politicians have been trying to earn ‘cool’ kudos with appearances on Have I Got News For You and pop stars at Number Ten for a while now, but some have asked whether it’s the kids with the ‘cool’ parents that really benefit, or if boundaries really are a good thing. Who else misses being able to rail against authority that stuck by its unpopular guns, alongside Spitting Image puppets and punk comics that hit each other over the head with saucepans?

It’s not all left-wing voices calling from the stand-up stage pulpit either. In recent months Andrew Lawrence caused quite an stirring amongst the comedy community when he voiced his criticisms of “moronic, liberal back-slapping on panel shows” on Facebook. And he claims he’s not a political comedian.

And he’s not. The only way to keep satire separate is to allow off-stage its own arena in these enlightened days of social media. There is no ‘private opinion’ any more. So perhaps you should just judge the comedians on their jokes and the politicians on their actions. Now there’s a revolutionary idea.

Andrew Lawrence: Reasons To Kill Yourself, Komedia, Monday 15 January, 8pm, £14, www.komedia.co.uk/brighton/

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