Academics claim British comedy "is bigoted"

Experts attending a comedy conference at Salford University have claimed that British comedy is as racist and bigoted as it was back in the 1970s; dismissing claims that post-modern irony makes the jokes acceptable. Shows that have come under attack include Little Britain, in particular the Thai character Ting Tong.

One professor, Guy Redden of Lincoln University said, "Pleasure is derived from the expression of aggression against a target." Redden also said that Britain had moved from, "stereotype comedy with unflattering gags about social types where the white nation was working through the meaning of immigration," to a new area of, "Post-PC comedy."

Redden, along with Lloyd Peters of Salford and Susan Baker of the University of Teesside presented a paper, saying that stereotypes are perpetuated and compounded by comedy. They also said that," Comedy is utilising stigma. A sign or mark which designates the bearer as less than normal people [lies] at the heart of the joke."

Redden later said that he accepted that, "Unlike the discriminatory humour of the Seventies, [today’s] performers are aware of the power and meaning of the taboos they choose to break," but argued that did not make the humour acceptable.

But some people, such as Nigel Mather of the University of Kent claimed that the fact that Ting Tong turned her husband Dudley’s flat into a Thai restaurant is empowering.

The conference is still continuing.