Topic 2 is ‘The banning of comedy based on race, sexuality, gender and disability’
Firstly here are some people and programmes that are involved within this topic, be it positively or negatively.
Disability – Cast offs – Channel 4 – Considered to contain dark humour – where six disabled people are ‘stranded on a deserted island’ and left to see how they cope. All of the actors involved are disabled themselves. (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/cast-offs/)
Disability – Frankie Boyle – Tramadol Nights – Made a ‘joke’ about Harvey Price. (http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/12/11/12363/c4_repeats_frankies_harvey_gag)
Race – Come Fly With Me – BBC 1 – (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00trc9v) Matt Lucas and David Walliams have played characters from different ethnic groups for example; Precious Little (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/comeflywithme/characters_precious.shtml) and Taaj (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/comeflywithme/characters_taaj.shtml)
Race and Gender - Shappi Khorsandi – Stand-up Comedian – she speaks a lot about race and gender, usually without causing offence
Sexuality – Alan Carr – an openly gay comedian who often makes comments about his sexuality and father’s views on it (‘Look Who it is! Alan Carr – My Story’).
This table shows some possible reasons for and against the ban:
| Reasons For the Ban | Reasons Against the Ban |
| Vulnerable people could be made fun and become very distressed that many people find jokes to their expense funny. | Sometimes by avoiding jokes about those who are disabled, it may make things feel slightly uncomfortable. For example a disabled comedian may feel that they need to comment on their disability if it can be seen, to break the ice with an audience, in the same way that a larger comedian may feel that they need to comment on their weight before they can perform properly. |
| In the case of Harvey Price, an eight year old disabled child, he was made fun of as his mother is a celebrity, he was said to be by many, unduly insulted by the comedian, Frankie Boyle, whom by this point was shocking the audience rather than generating humour. |
http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/old-news/pete-plays-a-comedy-blinder – Peter White, a radio 4 presenter, who has recently tried his hand at stand-up comedy.
