Anton Savage: The idea that nothing is offensive if people laugh is grossly ill-conceived
The ‘I was only joking’ excuse should not be used by anyone over the age of six, and certainly not by high-profile comedians
Originally published in the Business Post.
It’s time to relegate stand-up comedy back to where it belongs: a grand way to pass 90 minutes if you want to get out for the evening, not an art form of such cultural and societal significance that it must be held in awe, which is where it has ended up.
Jerry Seinfeld is mostly responsible for stand-up finding itself on the same plane as neurosurgery. The multimillionaire lay dormant like a cicada after his eponymous show ended in the 1990s (bar brief forays into animated movies) until he re-emerged with his online offering Comedians In Cars, Getting Coffee.
That show was a number of things – innovative in format and funding, cleverly edited and brilliantly cast. Ironically, given Jerry Seinfeld’s background and the title of the programme, it was rarely funny. But the A-list guests and extraordinary shooting-to-broadcast ratio (film for a day, upload 12 minutes) created engaging viewing.
Most of that viewing was made up of discussions of comedy: what’s funny? How do jokes work? How did various comedians get their start? With Seinfeld providing a steady drumbeat of assertions that comedians are different to other people: special, important, unique.
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