Oh The Ironing!
These days the TV is filled with nostalgia television. Clips shows with talking heads telling us about things we enjoyed the past. Some people complain that it's cheap and lazy television but I like it. My favourite was I Love The Seventies. I think this is mostly because I wasn't alive during the Seventies so for me it's a lot like watching one of those documentaries we used to see in history lessons at school. If I ever find myself in a boring conversation about Seventies pop culture ephemara at least I know I'll be able to chip in.
It's just a shame that I Love The Seventies never featured my very favourite aspect of Seventies culture. Racism in sitcoms. I think comedy racism is great! Comedy writers writing derogatory jokes about people simply because they're slightly different in some way is hilarious. Shows like Love Thy Neighbor, Mind Your Language and Curry and Chips were incredibly racist, parading hilarious stereotypes across the screen and into Seventies living rooms. It was brilliant!
Commentators asked about those sort of shows tend to say that the humour was of its time and that of course these sort of programmes could never get made in today's more tolerant climate. Well, I disagree. I think intolerant, bigoted humour can work just as well today as it ever has. If you don't believe me, just look at Little Britain. They have a Thai mail order bride character, called Ting Tong-a masterstroke that, who talks in a silly comedy-asian voice and cynically uses sexual favours to take advantage of the sad old git who ordered her. Amazing!
Some people get very uptight about all this sort of thing. They think that comedy racism is the same as real racism. The idiots! What they don't understand is that Little Britain, Love Thy Neighbour, Curry and Chips (hell, even The Holocaust, why not?) aren't really racist at all. It's irony. When it looks like comedians are being racist they're being ironic. Don't you get it? Don't you understand irony? What's the matter? Don't find lazy racial stereotypes used for cheap laughs funny? What's the matter with you? Are you stupid? Aren't you clever enough to understand the joke? Idiot!
Well, if you don't like racism in comedy I don't care because I really like it, I think it's really, really big and clever and funny.
If anyone's lost and confused now, I should just say, that last statement wasn't irony. It was sarcasm. Do you see?
It's just a shame that I Love The Seventies never featured my very favourite aspect of Seventies culture. Racism in sitcoms. I think comedy racism is great! Comedy writers writing derogatory jokes about people simply because they're slightly different in some way is hilarious. Shows like Love Thy Neighbor, Mind Your Language and Curry and Chips were incredibly racist, parading hilarious stereotypes across the screen and into Seventies living rooms. It was brilliant!
Commentators asked about those sort of shows tend to say that the humour was of its time and that of course these sort of programmes could never get made in today's more tolerant climate. Well, I disagree. I think intolerant, bigoted humour can work just as well today as it ever has. If you don't believe me, just look at Little Britain. They have a Thai mail order bride character, called Ting Tong-a masterstroke that, who talks in a silly comedy-asian voice and cynically uses sexual favours to take advantage of the sad old git who ordered her. Amazing!
Some people get very uptight about all this sort of thing. They think that comedy racism is the same as real racism. The idiots! What they don't understand is that Little Britain, Love Thy Neighbour, Curry and Chips (hell, even The Holocaust, why not?) aren't really racist at all. It's irony. When it looks like comedians are being racist they're being ironic. Don't you get it? Don't you understand irony? What's the matter? Don't find lazy racial stereotypes used for cheap laughs funny? What's the matter with you? Are you stupid? Aren't you clever enough to understand the joke? Idiot!
Well, if you don't like racism in comedy I don't care because I really like it, I think it's really, really big and clever and funny.
If anyone's lost and confused now, I should just say, that last statement wasn't irony. It was sarcasm. Do you see?
posted by Chris Chopping @ 9:41 AM
1 Comments:
At 12:33 PM,
JLC said…
The Holocaust was just one long comedy sketch then? Adolf Hitler as a pioneering 'alternative' comedian? Short, certainly, as was Chaplin (and Ronnie Corbett, more recently). True, he had the whacky hair and ridiculous moustache; and he taught the military wing of an entire nation the joy of the 'silly walk' long before Cleese hit the big-time! He certainly performed to audiences, the size of which most of our contemporary Stand-up performers can only dream of. And then again there were those ridiculous outfits. If your theory is correct, we would have to hand it to him. That 'po-faced' approach to comedy was not original. Buster Keaton, for one, had used it very successfully before him. Nevertheless, A.H. was a great exponent of the art, and I can now see that his performances make the likes of Paul Merton seem much like a giggling school girl. I think I may have wandered off the point. Sorry.
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