When Did We All Stop Learning How To Take A Joke?

I love stand-up comedy. Before I ever picked up the mic myself, I was obsessed. I would re-watch my favourite routines dozens of times, savouring every punchline, pause and provocation. It wasn’t enough to enjoy and experience it - I wanted to study it, to get inside it.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that “each man kills the thing he loves”. I think I know what he was on about. My relationship with comedy has been a lot like my relationships with women: high hopes, broken dreams and of course the inevitable “allegations”. Obviously that’s a joke - I’m not a sexual predator, or to use the more precise term, ‘male feminist’.

Unfortunately, the British comedy industry is currently killing stand-up in a more literal sense. The UK used to lead the way in all things comedy - it was a haven of hilarious, creative and insightful work. But nowadays, the only thing the UK leads the way in is cancellations.

We love cancelling comedians in this country. Not for things like sexual assault (as that would mean getting rid of most of the left wing ones), but for the far more heinous crime of making jokes. Which is fair enough - after all, what business do comedians have telling jokes? Why don’t they stay in their own lane?

Comedian Andrew Lawrence landed in hot water recently with a venue ironically named Hot Water Comedy Club. Shortly after the terrible incident in Liverpool, where a man drove his vehicle into a crowd of football fans, Andrew posted the following joke on X:

‘To be fair, if I was in Liverpool, I’d drive through crowds of people to get the fuck out of there as well.’

Hot Water promptly issued a statement condemning Lawrence, banning him from all their venues, and urging other comedy clubs to do the same. It didn’t take long for the Comedy Store (arguably the most prestigious club in the UK) to heed this call and ban Lawrence too.

I’m not going to waste time here explaining the concept of ‘gallows humour’, or whether Andrew’s joke was good or bad. That’s a subjective matter. The point is: all Andrew did was make a joke. He didn’t drive the vehicle himself. But these comedy clubs saw a chance to make themselves look good - and it was a gesture that cost them absolutely nothing, considering Andrew hasn’t even played either venue in almost a decade.

Seriously, you would think calling your venue Hot Water Comedy Club would throw down some kind of gauntlet - commit you to supporting edgy, problematic humour and promoting performers on merit. For years, Hot Water did exactly this. But here’s the thing: the club is in Liverpool, and lots of scousers got very upset at the joke. And ultimately, Hot Water gave in to mob pressure - thinking they were saving their reputation, but actually dealing a fatal blow to their own integrity. It’s a sad state of affairs.

If a comedian or venue can’t understand the difference between a joke and a sincere statement, they obviously have no business being in comedy. And if they pretend not to know the difference - to save their own skin or to virtue signal - that’s even worse.

But all of this is a sadly familiar pattern now. In 2022 Jerry Sadowitz’s show at the Edinburgh Fringe got pulled due to complaints over the use of a racial slur in the set. If anyone had bothered to find out anything about Sadowitz before condemning him, they’d know that on stage he plays a character - a pathetic, mentally ill man ranting against the world. But once again, most comedians chose to ignore this distinction. Not even Stewart Lee - apparently Sadowitz’s biggest fan - expressed support for him. Must have been too busy looking for his spine.

The Sadowitz affair is in line with what you’d expect from Scotland - the country that brought in hate speech laws that mean you can now be arrested, charged and imprisoned for saying things on stage that a “reasonable person might find offensive”. Only, reasonable people don’t go to comedy shows and come away wanting to complain about jokes. That’s the behaviour of the pathetic, odious little gimps that now run amok in our society.

These people act like victims, but they weaponise their apparent offence to attack and bring others down. They’ve implemented laws and company policies that threaten people’s livelihoods in the name of ‘kindness’. They’ve shamed and punished people for having legitimate concerns about societal changes. And worst of all, they’ve attacked and degraded one of the most essential joys we have in life: enjoying a joke.