COMEDY AS A DEPRESSIVE Why is it that at the words radio comedy the smile dies on my lips and my appetite for life diminishes? Why is it that the funnier they think they are the gloomier I feel? There have been funny comedies in the past, there may be some now and there may be more to come, but the odds against it lengthen by the year. That may be because I am getting older by the year, but it is not the only reason. I think it may have more to do with the source of the comedy, which is mostly an Oxbridge educated middle class who play smug to the smug. There was a time when Ben Elton could come on and say Mrs Thatcher! I ask you, Mrs Thatcher! and everyone would laugh. It wasnt enough, not by half. It was a gesture directed at those who would welcome the gesture. The working class comics who had to fight their way through cheap clubs might have had some reprehensible attitudes but they werent smug, nor could they take their applause for granted. They were raw and risky, driven by genuine economic need. I did enjoy Beyond the Fringe when it was on, and a good deal of satire, but satire needs tension and genius. Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and John Dryden had genius. So did the Beyond the Fringe quartet. They were the new Oxbridge comics, new to privilege, capable of recognising a certain blackness at the heart of things. That blackness is vital. Comedy is genuine horror standing on its head and jesting. That is missing now. Lenny Bruce had it. Les Dawson had it. Beckett had it in trumps. Comedy isnt what you agree with it. It is what opens out under your feet. I love jokes and verbal play. I cant stand smug clever-seeming people saying clever sounding things to an audience flattered into approving their own cleverness. And working so hard at it! So creakingly, exhaustingly hard. OK. Point me to good radio or TV comedy.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 10:17:58 +0000
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