Where are all the right wing stand-up comedians?

[DJ Leon]

But generally speaking they are not permitted, certainly since the Blair brave new 'PC' ethos came into being.

Eh? What 'PC' ethos is this? Are the likes of Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle aware of it? In fact most comedians I see live are the exact opposite of 'PC'.

Are you specifically talking about the likes of Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning?

 

[DJ Leon]

If you aren't dominant in the political sphere, there is a tendency to try to retreat to (or try extra hard to be dominant in) other domains, particularly in culture, almost as a form of compensation. If you feel downtrodden by the government of the day, a joke gives you brief respite when it's you, not them, that are the winners and they the losers.

David Cameron does not need a right-wing stand-up comedian rooting for him on the comedy circuit when he is already in the corridors of power.

I applaud the attempt to answer the question here, but I don't buy it. Will there be a bunch of right wing comedians prevalent when the Tories lose power? I think not.

Though no-one else has come close to offering a decent reason why most comics are left wing.

 

[DJ Leon]

The left does not understand the right, so they mock them. Because that is what you do when you don't understand something.

The right understands the left, and frankly, it isn't funny.

WTF?

 

[somerset]

Eh? What 'PC' ethos is this? Are the likes of Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle aware of it? In fact most comedians I see live are the exact opposite of 'PC'.

Are you specifically talking about the likes of Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning?

... and Chubby Brown,... I guess that type of old school comedy that focussed on, lets say,... more unacceptable racist and sexist themes seen in the 70's, 80's. They still sell well to elements of the paying public of course, but mostly not on our screens these days. As for Boyle, I am amazed what he gets away with, Carr is just an arrsseehoole.

 

[dingodan]

I applaud the attempt to answer the question here, but I don't buy it. Will there be a bunch of right wing comedians prevalent when the Tories lose power? I think not.

Though no-one else has come close to offering a decent reason why most comics are left wing.

Because jokes and mockery are the lowest form of political discourse. They are what is left over when logical argument and good sense have been exhausted.

Comedy is good fun and everything, but it is also simplistic and juvenile, a bit like left wing politics.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I applaud the attempt to answer the question here, but I don't buy it. Will there be a bunch of right wing comedians prevalent when the Tories lose power? I think not.

Though no-one else has come close to offering a decent reason why most comics are left wing.

Thanks. What I'm saying has to be put in the context that when the Tories do leave office, it seems unlikely that a genuine left-wing government will take its place. The left have been out of office since 1979. The Blair and Brown governments weren't quintessentially left-wing administrations.

 

[The Large One]

The left does not understand the right, so they mock them. Because that is what you do when you don't understand something.

The right understands the left, and frankly, it isn't funny.

Ah, a surrealist comedian.

 

[DJ Leon]

... and Chubby Brown,... I guess that type of old school comedy that focussed on, lets say,... more unacceptable racist and sexist themes seen in the 70's, 80's. They still sell well to elements of the paying public of course, but mostly not on our screens these days. As for Boyle, I am amazed what he gets away with, Carr is just an arrsseehoole.

So there are right wing comedians, but they're all racist? Gotcha!

 

[DJ Leon]

Because jokes and mockery are the lowest form of political discourse. They are what is left over when logical argument and good sense have been exhausted.

Comedy is good fun and everything, but it is also simplistic and juvenile, a bit like left wing politics.

Eh? Left wing comedians tell jokes about other things than than the right wing though? Where are the right wing comedians telling jokes that aren't racist.

 

[dingodan]

Eh? Left wing comedians tell jokes about other things than than the right wing though? Where are the right wing comedians telling jokes that aren't racist.

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.

 

[HovaGirl]

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.

 

[Adders1]

He's definitely right about Simon Evans, very funny man

 

[BadFish]

Is this true in other areas of the arts too?

 

[BadFish]

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.

 

[HovaGirl]

This goes back the the late 1600's and the days after the Glorious Revolution whereby the Whigs finally achieved true parliamentary democracy against the then Tories representing landowners interests, the royals, and other hereditary peers etc. The Tories have never been a true party of the 'People' and have always been associated with the establishment - making them fair game for satire and comedy for hundreds of years.

It's no less fashionable to now to have a pop at the Tories than it was back at the start of the 1700's!

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.

 

[St Patricks Day]

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.

It's ok to bash the right but not the left. The left make me want to vomit.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

It's ok to bash the right but not the left. The left make me want to vomit.

Are HovaGirl and you the same person?

 

[HovaGirl]

Thanks. What I'm saying has to be put in the context that when the Tories do leave office, it seems unlikely that a genuine left-wing government will take its place. The left have been out of office since 1979. The Blair and Brown governments weren't quintessentially left-wing administrations.

Britain isn't, quintessentially, a Left-wing country and neither is it particularly Right-wing, hence the swing from party to party every few elections. Much of Britain is middle-of-the road, and newspaper editorials can swing the voters this way and that, because the electorate isn't particularly satisfied with either of the main two parties. Every so often, a new party pops up, and gathers a few faithful, but they don't last long, because they remain out on a limb, and show themselves not to be middle-of-the-road enough.

 

[clapham_gull]

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.

If only right wing comedians had material like that.

 

[HovaGirl]

Are HovaGirl and you the same person?

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