On Sunday’s Pop-Ups I felt very aware that we had submissions from writers brave enough to try to make us laugh, who were often struggling - and that as a judge I was sometimes wondering if there were points at which I or others would or should take offence?
So I thought I’d throw this question out to the colony: should we? Or indeed, should we try not to?
Writers have doubtless been causing offence, and not just for comedy, forever. Indeed I grew up in a time where political correctness was at the forefront of a shift in comedy taste. We were thankfully moving away from tired tropes of mother-in-law jokes and more importantly overt racism, sexism and misogyny. Yet also at the heart of this - what seemed most sacred - was the right to freedom of speech. In fact I remember going on a march against Clause 28 where all these ideals were rolled in together.
Now, however, we live in very different times where it can seem those same ideals are often in conflict. For the sake of debate, at least, I could argue that that same freedom of speech has been eroded by that very movement that once sought so passionately to protect it.
On the flip side - we can so easily and have always been able to say and write things that are hurtful to others. Personally, I’m now a Christian. I could take offence almost hourly when I hear Jesus’s name - the name of the one I love so dearly, worship and am thankful for - being used as a derogatory term. Worse, I’ve been to see comedians I love like Eddie Izzard and Tim Minchin do whole routines about Him that left me quite hurt.
So how do we deal with offence in 2022, when I can so effortlessly write ‘Fuck X, Y and Z’ on a public board like this, and progressively - both individually and as a collective? Obviously I don’t have the answer - as if there could ever be one that satisfies an issue far more nuanced and subtle than I’m able to broadly outline here. But there are two things that, for me, come to mind:
Firstly, regarding the above example, I’m reminded that I myself have a mouth like a sewer, and love to shock
That Jesus himself, perhaps contrary to opinion, loved a joke and is of course far more capable of loving, and wiser than me in all situations. He also tells me when I’m offended to turn the other cheek, which is a challenge but then life is. I’m also reminded how much I agreed with Ben Elton and others back in the day that we need to change - and that freedom of speech is indeed so, so fundamental to a fair and functioning society. In fact it’s what gives me the opportunity to worship freely in the first place, when many other countries and other religions don’t have that. Plus, Eddie Izzard and Tim Minchin are still bloody funny.
Secondly, it reminds me that writers need space to hone their craft and get things wrong - and that there’s good reason in a place like Pop Ups, even when the jokes don’t land, even when they make us feel uncomfortable, to protect their right to do that. And also that it’s not just the characters on the page that say and do the right things, but also the ones that say and do the wrong things - that, for example, expose our own prejudices, because personally I think we all battle with them, that none of us mortals are perfect - that can teach us so much.
Someone’s kindly already directed me to a thread in this area that’s well worth a look, and I guess I’m echoing some of Anthony Horowitz’s concerns:
https://colony.litopia.com/threads/trigger-warnings.11349/
And while I’ve been pondering this (and, irony of ironies, checking with a friend on here that this actual post wasn’t offensive) I’ve listened to a film reviewer I used to greatly admire question whether jokes about a Japanese toilet were ‘acceptable’ - both of which force me to my point: No, jokes about a Japanese toilet, though old, laboured or hackneyed, are not by default ‘unacceptable’; and that I think as writers, though it may be painful, we should try wherever possible to cultivate a high bar to offence, however tempting it is right now to present in public a low one.
So I thought I’d throw this question out to the colony: should we? Or indeed, should we try not to?
Writers have doubtless been causing offence, and not just for comedy, forever. Indeed I grew up in a time where political correctness was at the forefront of a shift in comedy taste. We were thankfully moving away from tired tropes of mother-in-law jokes and more importantly overt racism, sexism and misogyny. Yet also at the heart of this - what seemed most sacred - was the right to freedom of speech. In fact I remember going on a march against Clause 28 where all these ideals were rolled in together.
Now, however, we live in very different times where it can seem those same ideals are often in conflict. For the sake of debate, at least, I could argue that that same freedom of speech has been eroded by that very movement that once sought so passionately to protect it.
On the flip side - we can so easily and have always been able to say and write things that are hurtful to others. Personally, I’m now a Christian. I could take offence almost hourly when I hear Jesus’s name - the name of the one I love so dearly, worship and am thankful for - being used as a derogatory term. Worse, I’ve been to see comedians I love like Eddie Izzard and Tim Minchin do whole routines about Him that left me quite hurt.
So how do we deal with offence in 2022, when I can so effortlessly write ‘Fuck X, Y and Z’ on a public board like this, and progressively - both individually and as a collective? Obviously I don’t have the answer - as if there could ever be one that satisfies an issue far more nuanced and subtle than I’m able to broadly outline here. But there are two things that, for me, come to mind:
Firstly, regarding the above example, I’m reminded that I myself have a mouth like a sewer, and love to shock
That Jesus himself, perhaps contrary to opinion, loved a joke and is of course far more capable of loving, and wiser than me in all situations. He also tells me when I’m offended to turn the other cheek, which is a challenge but then life is. I’m also reminded how much I agreed with Ben Elton and others back in the day that we need to change - and that freedom of speech is indeed so, so fundamental to a fair and functioning society. In fact it’s what gives me the opportunity to worship freely in the first place, when many other countries and other religions don’t have that. Plus, Eddie Izzard and Tim Minchin are still bloody funny.Secondly, it reminds me that writers need space to hone their craft and get things wrong - and that there’s good reason in a place like Pop Ups, even when the jokes don’t land, even when they make us feel uncomfortable, to protect their right to do that. And also that it’s not just the characters on the page that say and do the right things, but also the ones that say and do the wrong things - that, for example, expose our own prejudices, because personally I think we all battle with them, that none of us mortals are perfect - that can teach us so much.
Someone’s kindly already directed me to a thread in this area that’s well worth a look, and I guess I’m echoing some of Anthony Horowitz’s concerns:
https://colony.litopia.com/threads/trigger-warnings.11349/
And while I’ve been pondering this (and, irony of ironies, checking with a friend on here that this actual post wasn’t offensive) I’ve listened to a film reviewer I used to greatly admire question whether jokes about a Japanese toilet were ‘acceptable’ - both of which force me to my point: No, jokes about a Japanese toilet, though old, laboured or hackneyed, are not by default ‘unacceptable’; and that I think as writers, though it may be painful, we should try wherever possible to cultivate a high bar to offence, however tempting it is right now to present in public a low one.
