The Death of British Comedy

Who can remember Bernard Manning, Les Dawson, or the Saturday night London Palladium on TV? Mr. Bean, Black Adder, the 'Carry on" series or Monty Python? Before that, Jimmy Clitheroe (the Clitheroe Kid) on the radio on Sunday afternoon?

Yes, it shows my age but I had the pleasure of listening to (and when TV went mainstream in the early 70s), watching some of the greatest comedians Britain ever produced.

Fifty year later, Mr. Bean is still popular across the world, not so Romesh Ranganathan, Alan Carr or John Bishop. Who are they you might ask? Exactly. They're the next generation of 'comedians' tied down by political correctness and about as funny as a broken leg, although we don't dare say it in public for fear of offending the minority of the population with broken legs. 'Britcoms' and Netflix my backside, with their diversity quotas and PC 'speech codes' ...

As our culture changed, so too did our values and it's those previous values of being able to laugh at others (and by definition ourselves) without restriction, which made British comedy so appealing. Remove our national character, our tribal identity, and the global melting pot killed our sense of humour.

Perhaps it's just me, but I find the non-judgemental PC scripts of today utterly boring and devoid of any humour. Your thoughts?

I admire your pluck, and agree with most of what you say, but you'll raise the Kraken PC brigade.....................

stands back to watch the maulings ?

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 10:08 AM

Your thoughts?

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All the above are still available to watch.
Not sure what you're complaining about.

Quote: Lazzard @ 11th February 2022, 10:48 AM

All the above are still available to watch.
Not sure what you're complaining about.

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And rapidly fading into history. There's nothing of that calibre coming out anymore. Give it another decade and the oldies will be collectors items for private viewing only. Can you imagine an episode of Bernard Manning being shown on the BBC today?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 11th February 2022, 10:29 AM

I admire your pluck, and agree with most of what you say, but you'll raise the Kraken PC brigade.....................

stands back to watch the maulings ?

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They shouldn't take it too seriously, but the evidence is in todays scripts which pose as the new-age PC comedy. It's a bit like watching an episode of 'Friends' which only those under 30 find funny.

Stop moaning.
Things change but the old stuff's still there.
The good stuff stays in favour - Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Python etc - they're never off the telly.
And nothing fades away - it just gets looped on UK Gold.
But what you're asking for is like insisting artists paint like they did "in the old days", when a horse looked like a horse.
Christ, if we don't move on we'd still have Arthur Askey pretending to be a bee.
(Sexism and racism, however, have gone slightly out of favour, so don't hold your breath re Bernard Manning.)

Quote: Lazzard @ 11th February 2022, 1:00 PM

Stop moaning.
Things change but the old stuff's still there.
The good stuff stays in favour - Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Python etc - they're never off the telly.
And nothing fades away - it just gets looped on UK Gold.
But what you're asking for is like insisting artists paint like they did "in the old days", when a horse looked like a horse.
Christ, if we don't move on we'd still have Arthur Askey pretending to be a bee.
(Sexism and racism, however, have gone slightly out of favour, so don't hold your breath re Bernard Manning.)

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It's not a moan, more of an observation and I'm not alone.

Yes, I miss the days when a horse looked like a horse, because that's what a horse looked like and not what a minority insisted we should see it as.

Moving on? That's my point. We've moved on to a dreary and controlled 'canned laughter' type of comedy that isn't in the least funny, but we're expected to laugh because its inclusive and diverse.

Sexism and racism? You forgot gays, lesbians, feminists, gender, disabilities (Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman jokes) ...

If you take the individual and all their differences out of comedy, what you're left with is a political statement from an equality collective and that's what comedy has now sunk to.

Eventually, it ends like this. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/british-man-arrested-making-nelson-mandela-joke-charles-c-w-cooke/

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 3:22 PM

If you take the individual and all their differences out of comedy, what you're left with is a political statement from an equality collective and that's what comedy has now sunk to.

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Who is doing this to comedy?

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 3:22 PM

.. we're expected to laugh because its inclusive and diverse.
/

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Laugh if it's funny, don't laugh if it's not.
You're just inventing problems that don't exist.

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 12:33 PM

And rapidly fading into history. There's nothing of that calibre coming out anymore. Give it another decade and the oldies will be collectors items for private viewing only. Can you imagine an episode of Bernard Manning being shown on the BBC today?

They shouldn't take it too seriously, but the evidence is in todays scripts which pose as the new-age PC comedy. It's a bit like watching an episode of 'Friends' which only those under 30 find funny.

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Friends is a quarter of a century old and in many ways not very PC.

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 3:22 PM

It's not a moan, more of an observation and I'm not alone.

Yes, I miss the days when a horse looked like a horse, because that's what a horse looked like and not what a minority insisted we should see it as.

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Unless you're 120, you weren't around when a horse looked like a horse.
Modern Art isn't exactly modern anymore.

I'd say that the best outlook to have is that 'It is what it is' so if you want to be commercial you have to follow that remit. I understand many of the frustrations , god knows I have had moments where I could scream. So I can emphasise with your view , while asking you to review it.
I think the rule of thumb should be once 'Police officers' start looking like kids, you have to realise that the next generation are already here. And that their views and their world will predominate. So you either adjust and travel with them or just sit on a rock and complain.
That's why I wrote 'Police Officer' five years ago I would have wrote 'Policeman' without batting an eyelid, adapt that's the way forward.
The past will always be there for you if you need a few breaks , but you can still move forward, its hard god knows but its a more positive direction.

I take the general consensus onboard, but the 20th century teaches us that progress is not always beneficial to societies and those who dissent often have a habit of returning and saying 'I told you so.'

I'd prefer to sit on a rock rather than join in and/or adjust to our new-age enforced political culture because:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti (Indian philosopher).

I suppose that's just a preference as I'm too old to worry about the commercial side of it, which is why I now write political satire. Yet I can understand (and sympathise with) those who have to as it's their livelihood, but that doesn't make it right.

I'm from an older generation, one that would have thought it funny if someone had said that one day the British police might come knocking on your door if you offended someone by telling a joke and what you said needed regulating.

Needs a punchline.

I'll leave you to it then as you obviously have a slot for political satire that allows you talk like its the 60's. But don't let me put you off as you'll find plenty of kindred spirits on here who are attracted more to the word British than they are to the word Comedy or Guide for that matter.

Quote: Rupert Bear @ 11th February 2022, 3:22 PM

Yes, I miss the days when a horse looked like a horse

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You mean horses don't look like horses any more? That could be the root of my on-going financial problems with Betfred.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 11th February 2022, 6:22 PM

You mean horses don't look like horses any more? That could be the root of my on-going financial problems with Betfred.

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Horses have always looked like horses, except when it's demanded that you don't say so in public for fear of offending someone. Perhaps you should stick to BetFred instead of comedy? https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/industry/peta-beating-dead-horse-politically-correct-animal-sayings

Quote: Teddy Paddalack @ 11th February 2022, 5:54 PM

I'll leave you to it then as you obviously have a slot for political satire that allows you talk like its the 60's. But don't let me put you off as you'll find plenty of kindred spirits on here who are attracted more to the word British than they are to the word Comedy or Guide for that matter.

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British and comedy, they're linked. I'm certainly not stuck in the 60s and in fact my new website is up-to-date political satire. https://oddsprocketsweeklyherald.com

I simpy don't find PC humour funny with its insistence on defined speech codes and pretend outrage at anything that doesn't conform. I also don't think it's possible to write world beating comedy anymore in a censored society with someone looking over your shoulder and saying, "you can't say that." More's the pity, but that's progress for you.