An interview courtesy of the Onion AV Club:
http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/steve_coogan
He discusses taboo in comedy - a subject that may be of interest to anyone who's been reading Critique the last couple of days...
Steve Coogan Interview
Quote: Griff @ August 21 2008, 2:07 PM BSTSuperb quote from Coogan:
I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view.
I tend to agree with him. People trying to be sick and tasteless and dark for the sake of it are quite tiresome.
Quote: Griff @ August 21 2008, 2:07 PM BSTSuperb quote from Coogan:
Comedy works on so many levels. Take an example from The Onion, like "Loved Ones Recall Local Man's Cowardly Battle With Cancer." You could say that's terrible. What if someone you care about just lost someone to cancer? You can't do jokes like that. You can't do comedy like that. But pointing out the lazy journalistic cliché of battling with cancer is a brave thing to do. There's a point behind it, and it's all about context. But is there a threshold? I think some people have a threshold and some people don't. I don't have a threshold. I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view.
I hope he never reads Critique.
Hey I stab them with with my intellectual point, after I cudgle them with my crudeness.
Another interview with Coogan, this time in podcast form...