The co-founder of a new comedy club in London has criticised the cultural “gatekeepers” who prevent the public from seeing edgy comedians who do not conform to political correctness.
He said some comedians like Chris Rock, Louis CK, and Ricky Gervais had refused to toe the line and had found a “huge audience” for their material.
Shaw said: “Many comedians are probably true to what they really believe. But if you are at all counter-cultural it is very, very difficult to get on in the industry ... there are sort of gatekeepers around who decide what you can get on TV or who’s going to get commissioned to write a sitcom.”
“If you don’t sort of share a particular outlook, or you touch on controversial issues, then it’s very difficult to make a career and make a living out of it,” he added.
Shaw said the “gatekeepers” included British TV commissioners and judges who give out awards at the Edinburgh Festival.
Feeding the ‘Woke Crocodile’
In August last year The Epoch Times interviewed four stand-up comedians in Britain who have made conscious decisions not to self-censor in their performances.Abi Roberts, who has performed at Comedy Unleashed, said there was a “groupthink” which had penetrated comedy and frozen out those who did not conform.
She told The Epoch Times: “The problem is they think that feeding the ‘woke crocodile,’ that it won’t come for them, but it will. The ‘woke crocodile,’ nothing will ever satisfy it. It’s a zero-sum game. The fool is what the king has always relied on for truth, as soon as the king says to the fool ‘shut up’ then it’s over.”
In August, veteran Scottish comedian Jerry Sadowitz had his show at the Edinburgh Festival cancelled by the Pleasance Theatre, which claimed the content was “extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny.”
Asked about that incident, Shaw said: “Jerry Sadowitz is utterly offensive. He’s totally self-loathing. He offends everybody in the room ... his act is absolutely misanthropic. And the reason people go and see him is because it is hilariously funny. It is so transgressive and so inappropriate and so wrong and so cleverly done.”
He said he felt the cancelling of Sadowitz at the Edinburgh Fringe was a “bit of a watershed moment” and he said he was surprised there was such a muted response and so few comedians defended him.
Shaw said comedy was in danger of going the same way as the music industry.
Shaw said there was a danger the comedy industry’s curators were letting their tastes and prejudices influence which comedians make it, rather than just letting the public decide.
He said people often need to use “dark humour” to get through life, especially in tough jobs like police officers and paramedics, and he said political correctness was endangering it.
Shaw said people need to use “irony” and “sarcasm” and he said: “Humour gets you through life and humour and getting a joke shows a level of ... intellectual understanding. In certain areas it is harder if you’ve got one person who seeks to take offence and they know that they have the power to bring you down.”