Where are all the right wing stand-up comedians?

[clapham_gull]

I'm a massive fan of Mark Thomas but having seen him live on a number of occasions I struggle to view him as an outwardly left wing comedian.

You really need to see him live, especially his last thing about his dying father. Very little politics there.

 

[HovaGirl]

To be a comedian (or any other kind of artist) there must be a desire to understand other people, to describe the wold around you and to find truths in behaviour. Good comedians will look for new truths and try to explain and make sense of the changing world around them. They do this in order to share their vision and to entertain others. Maybe the bar has been raised beyond just taking the piss out of minorities and the right wing comedians have simply just failed to keep up.

I think the core talent of any comedian has to be, firstly, observation of human behaviour, and secondly, to be able to put it into words and actions which are amusing. Any comedian who pinpoints the ridiculous things that people do, is on to a winner, if his audience actually recognises such behaviour in him or herself. I remember howling with laughter at Ben Elton thundering on about using carrier bags dangling on kitchen cabinets as trash bags, because I felt he had actually been spying on me! But I also realised, that I wasn't the only person, therefore, that did this, and I found that thought hilarious as well. The problem with modern comedians, is they lack this observational talent, and just swear there way through their gags, or refer to bodily functions. It's been done before. It was funny the first time, 20 years ago, but not now. Now it's just old hat, schoolboyish and lazy.

 

[HovaGirl]

If only right wing comedians had material like that.

Why?

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I loved Election Night Armistice when Armando Iannucci with Peter Baynham and David Schneider went on the comedy circuit and used the scripted jokes that politicians had used during the 1997 election campaign. They wished to see whether the political jokes were funny to ordinary punters outside of the context of being told to their sycophantic party faithful. Of course, they were not.

 

[St Patricks Day]

Nope. I got here first. S/he has pinched my name!

You what. I didn't even bother looking at your user name when replying so don't start saying I pinched your name. Have you got a copyright to your user name or something.

 

[clapham_gull]

I think the core talent of any comedian has to be, firstly, observation of human behaviour, and secondly, to be able to put it into words and actions which are amusing. Any comedian who pinpoints the ridiculous things that people do, is on to a winner, if his audience actually recognises such behaviour in him or herself. I remember howling with laughter at Ben Elton thundering on about using carrier bags dangling on kitchen cabinets as trash bags, because I felt he had actually been spying on me! But I also realised, that I wasn't the only person, therefore, that did this, and I found that thought hilarious as well. The problem with modern comedians, is they lack this observational talent, and just swear there way through their gags, or refer to bodily functions. It's been done before. It was funny the first time, 20 years ago, but not now. Now it's just old hat, schoolboyish and lazy.

Have to massively disagree. There is nothing worse than observational comedy because bloody every other comedian does it these days.

Very few comedians use shock tactics for a laugh either. Audiences simply don't react to it, except for the odd exception.

Go and watch some comedy live. I think you will be surprised.

I absolutely hate observational comedy. Always hated it. That's why many people can simply not abide Michael McIntyre. Boring predictable material that hundreds of other comedians are doing.

It's lazy from a performer's point of view and equally lazy from the audience. Oh how funny, I also have some unused spice pots in my cupboard.

The only reason he broke through was the posh accent which I think was seen as a reaction to what was out there. Cue loads of other comedians who aren't funny but have a posh accent.

I like something that makes me think a bit. Before he started pandering to Sun Readers Al Murray was clever. I saw him early on when the audience were genuinely struggling to work out whether he was serious. Brilliant to see a comedy right wing character playing to a self obsessed New Labour audience as I did. Unfortunately he never really developed it and it started being appreciated by the very people he was taking the piss out off.

You will never experience that unless you watch it live. It's often rubbish but often the funniest thing you have heard in your life.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

In the end, what matters is whether it is funny or not.

 

[HovaGirl]

Have to massively disagree. There is nothing worse than observational comedy because bloody every other comedian does it these days.

Very few comedians use shock tactics for a laugh either. Audiences simply don't react to it, except for the odd exception.

Go and watch some comedy live. I think you will be surprised.

I absolutely hate observational comedy. Always hated it. That's why many people can simply not abide Michael McIntyre. Boring predictable material that hundreds of other comedians are doing.

It's lazy from a performer's point of view and equally lazy from the audience. Oh how funny, I also have some unused spice pots in my cupboard.

The only reason he broke through was the posh accent which I think was seen as a reaction to what was out there. Cue loads of other comedians who aren't funny but have a posh accent.

I like something that makes me think a bit. Before he started pandering to Sun Readers Al Murray was clever. I saw him early on when the audience were genuinely struggling to work out whether he was serious. Brilliant to see a comedy right wing character playing to a self obsessed New Labour audience as I did. Unfortunately he never really developed it and it started being appreciated by the very people he was taking the piss out off.

You will never experience that unless you watch it live. It's often rubbish but often the funniest thing you have heard in your life.

Well, maybe it's a male - female thing or even an age thing. HovaBoy used to howl at Chubby Brown, but he left me cold. In fact, HovaBoy doesn't find any of the modern comedians funny, and he's always been a bit obsessed with comedy. He's a bit of a comedian himself, you see, and has a comedy antenna! We both loved Jethro, but he seems to have disappeared off the radar. Funniest stand-up comedian ever, was Dave Alan, an observational comedian of the highest order. Morecambe and Wise, back in the day, were hilarious, but I never found the Two Ronnies to be funny, except when Ronnie Barker did his language skits.

 

[Comedy Steve]

Sean Collins, Roger Monkhouse, Nick Page, Bob Mills...

They're out there, promise.

 

[BadFish]

I think the core talent of any comedian has to be, firstly, observation of human behaviour, and secondly, to be able to put it into words and actions which are amusing. Any comedian who pinpoints the ridiculous things that people do, is on to a winner, if his audience actually recognises such behaviour in him or herself. I remember howling with laughter at Ben Elton thundering on about using carrier bags dangling on kitchen cabinets as trash bags, because I felt he had actually been spying on me! But I also realised, that I wasn't the only person, therefore, that did this, and I found that thought hilarious as well. The problem with modern comedians, is they lack this observational talent, and just swear there way through their gags, or refer to bodily functions. It's been done before. It was funny the first time, 20 years ago, but not now. Now it's just old hat, schoolboyish and lazy.

This is true of observational comedy i suppose but there are other and in my opinion more interesting and funny strands.

 

[clapham_gull]

Sean Collins, Roger Monkhouse, Nick Page, Bob Mills...

They're out there, promise.

Seen Roger Monkhouse a few times. Can't describe him as right wing. At a stretch, possibly ironically non PC but there is a massive difference.

 

[Comedy Steve]

Seen Roger Monkhouse a few times. Can't describe him as right wing. At a stretch, possibly ironically non PC but there is a massive difference.

I worked with him tonight at the Comedy Store in which he defended Thatcher, attacked James Callaghan, and threw out a few more less stark capitalist opinions. Though he does have a great routine about how immigrants are far more valuable than the 'lazy indigenous f*cks' in our country, so it's not all one way traffic.

It's an exaggeration of belief, and an extension of his stage (only) persona, but the opinions he argues are more right wing than left. And he'd agree.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Though he does have a great routine about how immigrants are far more valuable than the 'lazy indigenous f*cks' in our country

Far from going the other way, this view of workers is highly compatible with right-wing free market economics.

 

[clapham_gull]

I worked with him tonight at the Comedy Store in which he defended Thatcher, attacked James Callaghan, and threw out a few more less stark capitalist opinions. Though he does have a great routine about how immigrants are far more valuable than the 'lazy indigenous f*cks' in our country, so it's not all one way traffic.

It's an exaggeration of belief, and an extension of his stage (only) persona, but the opinions he argues are more right wing than left. And he'd agree.

But his act is not outwardly political is it... and it's quite obvious he's doing for comic effect. Challenging what he believes to be the beliefs of the audience and scratching beneath the surface.

That's the difference.

 

[Comedy Steve]

But his act is not outwardly political is it... and it's quite obvious he's doing for comic effect. Challenging what he believes to be the beliefs of the audience and scratching beneath the surface.

That's the difference.

I agree with what you wrote, but difference from what? Being *actually* right wing? I've worked in this industry for 16 years and many 'left wing comics' are pretty much armchair socialists who are motivated off stage almost entirely from a deep-rooted love of power and money.

What Stewart Lee wrote about 'punching up' instead of 'punching down' is totally right though and any comic who espouses a right-wing opinion does so to deliberately goad an audience as typically it will be something with hints of cruelty and/or superiority.

Ooh - Rudi Lickwood - there's another one.

Far from going the other way, this view of workers is highly compatible with right-wing free market economics.

Yes, accepted. And that's his take on it.

 

[keaton]

My theory is that when it comes to Leftie-bashing by comedians, the Left have no sense of humour! They don't find it funny and just take it personally.

Whereas if we've learned one thing in the last week or so it's that the political right can definately take a joke?

 

[DJ Leon]

Precisely my point.

Where are the right wing comedians telling jokes that are racist? Is it racist to be on the right side of the political spectrum, period?

Thanks for providing a brief introduction to left wing politics.

What's your point though? I don't get it.

Racist is racist, right? Whatever political persuasion you are. I was asking about right wing comedians other than the ones you pointed to - ie. the racist ones. Again, where are they?

An introduction to left wing politics? *baffled*

 

[DJ Leon]

My theory is that when it comes to Leftie-bashing by comedians, the Left have no sense of humour! They don't find it funny and just take it personally.

Who are the leftie bashing stand ups?

 

[DJ Leon]

I'm a massive fan of Mark Thomas but having seen him live on a number of occasions I struggle to view him as an outwardly left wing comedian.

You really need to see him live, especially his last thing about his dying father. Very little politics there.

I tbink his more recent stuff has been less political, but the majority of his act has been as a left-wing political satirist/activist.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Actually, it was the other way around. The Whigs represented the great landowners' interests and the Conservatives stood for those of the working man of the day, that is, the smaller businessman or worker who owned perhaps at least one little house. Hence the nick-name of Tories, given to them by the Whigs, which was an insult from the upper class to the lower class of the day. The Glorious Revolution was due to James II becoming a Catholic. His reign only lasted 3 years after the death of Charles II, when the Whigs invited his protestant daughter, Mary, to pop over and become Queen jointly with her husband, William of Orange. William achieved a comparatively peaceful invasion of these islands, and James was deposed, and with him, went the line of the Stuarts. His Catholic grandson, Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender), tried to gain the throne in 1745, after his father (James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender) failed in 1701, after which The Act of Settlement ensured a Stuart would never ascend the throne again. After this, our Constitutional Monarchy was firmly established, and with it, the growth of the two Houses of Parliament, and political parties. The Tories had been a breakaway faction of the Whigs which developed before the Glorious Revolution. They were in support of James II and wanted to conserve the political status quo. They are not the same party as the later Tories which developed at the end of the 18th century, but they adopted then name and nickname. The Whigs became the Liberal Party, but the real development of both parties did not really become more formal until a century after the Glorious Revolution, during the later phase of The Enlightenment.

I'm not going to give you a history lesson on a football forum, but I suggest you do a little more reading as I haven't got this the wrong way round. For example the term Tory came from the Irish word for 'outlaw', and was used against Royalists in arms as an insult prior to it being used against those in support of James II and whose politics were to oppose reform and to retain the power of the monarch. The word Whig derives from the term 'whiggamor' or 'cattledriver'. Whiggism was always all about tolerance (religious or otherwise), and the supreme power of a democratically elected parliament over a monarchy or church.

It is also a mistake to confuse Walpole's policy of a countries strength being it's wealth with them supporting wealthy landowners. On the contrary, their reform led to the breaking of the 'rotten boroughs' and the creation of new political seats in fast growing market towns. They reduced export taxes for merchants and businesses to encourage growth. They were also the party that formed the group 'friends of the people' that worked to give ordinary people (and not just Lords and landowners) representation in Parliament.

Even within your own statement I'm afraid you don't start out the party of the 'landowners', and end up the Liberal Party!