Treading the Line
Between Funny a
Luke Chapman
Unlike other subjects balancing on the line
of ‘Is that ok to say?’ becoming increasingly
prevalent in modem stand up comedy, racism
appears to be on such a steady decline, it’s
almost extinct.
The emergence of political correctness in society could be argued as the reason behind this,
however, a ten minute segment of Jim Jeffries’
show ‘fully functional’ would suggest that political correctness doesn’t hold much bearing
with many comedians. Yet despite Jeffries’
willingness to live his comedic life as close
to the edge as possible, not once among his
repertoire of jokes about rape, pedophilia and
sexist remarks, does he mention race. So how
has racism become ‘the unmentionable’?
Perhaps the reason other taboo subjects get
a little more leeway, is the unspoken code between comic and audience; the comic obviously does not actually condone these things, so
it’s acceptable to joke about them. For example, a pedophile joke can go down a lot easier
safe in the knowledge that there isn’t going to
be a known pedophile in the room, or anyone
defending one.
The collective disdain towards these subjects
puts the audience and the comic on the same
team, feeling safe to laugh freely despite how
distasteful the joke may be. Compare this to
the line a comedian walks when making a racist joke which, regardless of how relatively mild
they believe it to be, is a hell of a lot thinner.
The opinion of the public, regardless of the
myriad of other media outlets, is still generally
the most accurate way to determine if a joke
has gone too far. Of course when people are
placed in large groups, they’re prone to conforming to opinions that differ from their own,
however, if the entire audience thinks a joke is
inappropriate, then it probably is.
Arguably the most high profile example of a
comedian losing his cool, and consequently
the audience, is when Michael Rodgers infamously crossed a boundary and failed to climb
back over it in 2006. After several years in the
comedy industry after his role in Seinfeld, Rodgers would have been viewed as a veteran of
the stand up scene, adopting many fans along
the way. However, after his blatant racial attack, even his most ardent fans were left leading the cause for his comedy career to come to
an abrupt end.
A similar scenario to the Michael Rodgers incident occurred in the UK involving popular
comedian Jim Davidson, although the affair
differed to the Rodgers incident; the unrest
gathering pace with a quiet murmur, sparing
Davidson an indelible stain to his name. The
discontent was, however, enough to have his
career in comedy slowly pushed to one side,
resembling more of the shrugging aside of an
inconvenience as opposed to the brutal dismissal of a pillar of comedy.
It wasn’t that Davidson’s material had become