Good article.
Although I don't know if it's a case of comedians having lost their balls - maybe they just don't see the point in satire any more. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that our society has actually gone beyond satire. It's just impossible to take the piss, because so much in modern society simply defies belief! Satire is no longer effective as a critical tool because, as the article points out, it is just stating the bleedin' obvious.
Politicians have always been a pretty barefaced, duplicitous bunch, but I can't recall a period where they've been so shameless about it, not even towards the end of the Thatcher era, when Tory MPs were routinely caricatured as wannabe Alan B'Stards.
The satire boom of the 80s did help create a political culture where it was harder to "get away with it", but all this ultimately did was give us a defiantly hard-nosed breed of politician who doesn't really care if he gets away with it or not, so long as he makes a few bucks in the process. It's no coincidence that Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney both worked in the Nixon administration. It seems that that was just a dry run...
But it isn't just politics. Popular culture has also gone beyond the pale. The sort of TV and news programmes we get today are eerily similar to those Chris Morris was making some 10-12 years ago. It seems that somebody in TV realised that the most effective way to undermine satire is to actually make TV which confirms the worst fears of the satirists. Although with that said, with the current problems at the BBC and other broadcasters regarding honesty, the chickens might finally be coming home to roost. I won't hold my breath, though.
20 years ago, when Spitting Image was at its most brutal, the public actually took an interest in politics and current affairs - due in part to shows like Spitting Image, which was not only funny and entertaining, but also made the audience think. The ordinary Joe in the street at least knew who the main political players were, even if they didn't have an interest in politics. This isn't the case today. The public at large has become increasingly disengaged from politics which, as far as most politicans are concerned, is all well and dandy, as public apathy helps preserve the status quo and keeps the gravy train on the rails.
Meanwhile, we have sleepwalked into a new puritan age where our nannies in Westminster pass legislation to regulate our behaviour in every way. Because it's for our own good, naturally. Yes, these are the things that satirists should attacking, but frankly, in today's political climate, who is going to listen?
All we have now is Private Eye, which for years has been as smug and complacent as those it purports to mock.
Which, finally, brings me to that great bête noire of all self-proclaimed "defenders" of "free speech", not least of all St Bernard of Manning, political correctness.
This may be a somewhat unfashionable view (I am, after all, a Grauniad reader), but I think that PC and comedy go hand in hand. Look at it this way: comedy is full of rabid, extremely funny, blatantly non-PC characters: Alf Garnett, Rigsby, Basil Fawlty, Homer Simpson, Victor Meldrew, Edina Monsoon, Alan Partridge, David Brent, Vicky Pollard... and so it goes on.
That these characters hold opinions that are anachronistic, shallow, narrow-minded and even downright offensive is precisely what makes them funny. They are affronts to the civilised world. They are clearly out of touch and way, way out of their depth. So we laugh at them. We laugh at their ignorance. We laugh at their stupidity. We laugh as they sleepwalk into another potentially explosive situation and cringe as they blindly pour petrol on the fire. It is those who laugh with these characters who have the problem.
All humour in some way serves a critical function. In that respect, whether you like it or not, most humour is "PC". If it isn't, it's just crass, and then we're back into Bernard Manning territory.
Blimey that was a bit long, wasn't it? I'd better get back to work...
"I'd much rather be happy than right, any day."
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Turi_Giuliano
18 years ago
A wonderfully engaging post fatglyn2, & sums up our state of current affairs with regards to comedy a lot more eloquently than i could have said myself...
As much as i loved the Comic Strip in its time it has to be said they were among the biggest culprits of the PC brigade...
Oh how i long for a time where once again the world would seem innocent enough that comedy actually has a meaning to me instead of just an excuse to bolster our own ego for being the forthright upstanding pillars of society that we all(grudgingly)aspire to be........
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hugh1971
17 years ago
If satire is dead, it's because the 'alternative' comedians and their views have become part of the establishment. As Swift said, 'satire is a glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.'
Eg, people like Stewart Lee can happily mock Christianity, but his liberal/left views prevent him from mocking Islam. And isn't it funny that Ben Elton, whose sole raison d'etre was attacking the Conservative government, went quiet in 1997?
It's also worth noting that the penalties for being truly 'alternative' now are a lot more severe than they were twenty years ago. Danish cartoons spring to mind, and just look at the fuss made over Chris Morris' satire on paedophilia.
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