The Policing of Humour

Published: June 20, 2019, 9:37 a.m.

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Comedy is a serious business, as Jo Brand discovered when she made a joke about throwing battery acid at politicians. The police have now dropped their investigation into her and she has not been sacked by the BBC \\u2013 unlike Danny Baker after his apparently \\u2018racist\\u2019 tweet last month. Guardians of free speech worry about the policing of humour and the erosion of the right to offend. Yet we live in politically-febrile times and a joke may provoke more than mere amusement or even offence. Jokes can be deemed to trivialise political violence, encourage hatred and excuse rape. With that in mind, do comedians have a social responsibility to rein themselves in, even if they believe they\\u2019re \\u2018punching up\\u2019, not \\u2018punching down\\u2019? Or should they follow their comedic instinct when it\\u2019s telling them to let rip? After all, humour is by nature subversive and, from Martin Luther to Mock The Week, it has always been an important part of political discourse. Beyond politics, where should we draw the line on funny lines? It could be argued that a joke becomes unacceptable when it dehumanises minorities or incites violence. Yet aren\\u2019t these criteria themselves subjective? Context and tone are everything in comedy but they\\u2019re fiendishly difficult to define. Does it matter that the intent behind a gag is benign if the consequences of telling it are harmful?

Producer: Dan Tierney

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