Comedy: Speak out

Freedom of speech at the forefront of comedy

Last year there was a big hoo-hah about a certain character on the comedy circuit called Dapper Laughs. He was accused of encouraging rape-culture, cultivating a safe zone for sexism and the objectification of women, and generally being more offensive than funny. He also had a TV show on ITV2.

Now, there are a lot of comics out there who are deemed ‘offensive’. Many of them are also deemed to be incredible comedians, such as Frankie Boyle, Sarah Silverman, Doug Stanhope and Jerry Sadowitz, to name a few. The difficulty here seemed to be Dapper Laughs had gone from being a Vine sensation to a few live gigs, and then straight to the tellybox. He hadn’t paid his dues and honed his craft, and – more quizzically – he was being given a TV show of his very own at a reasonably prime time spot when other, more experienced, comics were being kept out of the small screen limelight due to the apparently inflammatory content of their material. Does anyone remember a certain rising in comedy in the 1980s known as ‘alternative comedy’, with the bastion of all that was seen as good taste and morality Mary Whitehouse being roundly lambasted by those pushers of the frontiers of censorship? Hmmm.

I’m not saying that Dapper Laughs is the new Rik Mayall, the very thought urges me to spit the sentence away in disgust. However, I am saying that the live comedy circuit is supposed to be a place where boundaries are tested and ideas blown apart. Where freedom of speech is pushed beyond tastes, and familiar ideas smashed without respect. That is what makes it different from the telly. The telly has to be more subdued and honorable – anyone can see it, even after the Watershed. Whereas in something that is being eroded on the live circuit, by the stealthy smartphone video clip and recordings, is the chance to play fast and loose and hear some really confrontational and uncomfortable ideas – sometimes from really big names, and sometimes from really big brains. Chris Rock has complained that with this current danger of a new piece of material ending up on YouTube without your permission, there’s less of an opportunity to take risks. And he has some great risk-taking material.

Comedy is there to entertain and make you laugh, but also challenge the status quo. You don’t have to like what it says, but it must have the freedom to speak and push in all directions – not just the ones we’re comfortable pushing in. And in celebration of that, one of California’s most outspoken and cutting comics, Scott Capurro, is this week’s recommendation. Described by critics as ‘vaingloriously poisonous’ and ‘the best way to spend an hour!’ Step out of your comfort zone.
Scott Capurro – Islamohomophobia: Reloaded, Komedia, Sunday 19 April, 7.30pm, www.komedia.co.uk/brighton