Friday, December 24, 2021

Right on, not right-on

Caroline Raphael may have moved on from Radio 4, but it seems she's finally getting her wish: a right-wing comedy programme to balance out all that lefty nonsense. According to Chortle, "anti-woke" show Unsafe Spaces (see what they did there?) is set to feature the, ahem, talents of Andrew Doyle and Leo Kearse and is predictably using the descriptor "provocative" as a defensive shield.

As ever, it's worth quoting at length the conclusion of Stewart Lee's 2013 New Statesman piece on the dearth of right-wing stand-ups: "You can't be a right-wing clown with some character caveat, some vulnerability, some obvious flaw. You're on the right. You've already won. You have no tragedy. You're punching down. You can be a right-wing comedy columnist, away from the public eye, a disembodied, authoritarian presence that doesn't need to show doubt. Who could be on a stage, crowing about their victory and ridiculing those less fortunate than them without any sense of irony, shame or self-knowledge? That's not a stand-up comedian. That's just a cunt."

As others have pointed out, when (not if) Unsafe Spaces falls flat on its unfunny face and is ditched, you can guarantee that the cry will be all about  "cancel culture" and "political correctness gone mad"...

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