Doug Stanhope on offensive comedy

"RICKY Gervais doesn’t expect to be asked back to host the Golden Globes, after he annoyed Holywood A-listers by making jokes at the expense of Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr and Bruce Willis, among others.

But who cares? For me personally, a tuxedo-clad circle of malignant egos patting each other on the ass for pretending to be other people couldn’t be offended enough. I am not against actors giving themselves awards any more than plumbers or dental hygienists, but I think such events should take place in some rented banquet hall of a Holiday Inn Express.

Accusations of “offensiveness” have also been levelled at Frankie Boyle, and those do interest me for many reasons, all of which are juvenile. Nothing makes me happier than to hear about a rift between comedians taken out on the internet for all the world to see. I scramble to my laptop to read every word in anticipation of choosing sides on something that has nothing to do with me. Boyle is currently being investigated by the media regulator Ofcom over a joke he made on his Channel 4 programme, Tramadol Nights, about Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey. The show also attracted complaints over quips about cancer victims running marathons, and supposed racial language in a gag about the Aghanistan conflict.

But Boyle is no stranger to controversy. Last April, he made some jokes at a show about the fine people afflicted with Down’s Syndrome only to find that a woman in the front row had a child with the same condition who made it known that she was none too pleased with the material.

Let me take a moment to say that any place where an audience member getting bent out of shape at a comedy gig can make national news is a fantastic place to be a comedian. Far more intriguing to me than the event in question would be to know how exactly it became a story. Did people rush into the streets calling 999? “Come quick! A woman’s been upset down at Ha Ha’s!” Were news crews dispatched to the scene? How did they find this woman? Were witnesses rounded up? I suppose we will never know.

But news it became, with people coming out of the sewers to berate or defend Frankie Boyle. Then another comedian – Mark Watson – became involved by suggesting on his blog that perhaps Mr Boyle did cross a line by picking on someone weaker than himself. He referred to Boyle as “rich, successful and physically healthy” to which Mr Boyle responded by calling Watson a “sellout” and a “c***”..."

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