I wanted to say whale shit, whales are huge, they must have huge poo... Maybe it's where fish paste comes from but I digress.
I've written a lot, my narrative has changed dramatically, the original show that went to Hull and Leicester comedy festivals focussed on my depression and how I fought it off, I've wound up with a more misanthropic observational thing now.
It's going to need changing but I've looked over some of the jokes... Ok ok both of the jokes.
The opening thing about my darkest night, a night where I genuinely considered dying, well it takes away some of the light and fluffy that comedy probably should be.
I'm ok by the way, in case that's what you're taking from this!
At Hull and Leicester I pretty much opened with, "this time last year I was in a dark place mentally, I wasn't locked in a cupboard, it got so bad one night I decided to end it all, now I sense there's a little tension in the room but don't worry, there's a very good chance I survived"
I now open by talking about racing a pigeon!
I'm not sure why but I listened when people said you shouldn't joke about certain things and suicide is one but I did.
I actually believe you can joke about anything, a joke done right can have any subject.... Any! Cancer, rape, mental health, you can make jokes that include these things if you do it right... Yes people can be sensitive but words exist and to be totally sheltered from things because they offend you is creating aworld for yourself that is unrealistic.
I'm not saying laugh at the the rape victim, or suggest it's a good idea that celeb you don't like gets cancer... These things are horrible.. But tell your jokes and use the subjects that work for these jokes because if the world can't use humour to escape from or make sense of itself then it becomes stuck in a bubble from which the ability to function in a rational sense becomes more difficult.
I saw an act do 3 or 4 jokes where upon which fire victims, amputees and women were the butt of the joke, a guy in the front row wetting himself laughing stopped suddenly when the 5th joke was about Parkinson's.... He confronted the act and gave him a bit of grief about being offensive, that was his emotional reaction to hearing a joke about an ilness his dad has, an amputee or fire victim may have thought differently about which joke was offensive and everyone should have kicked off about the sexist joke not because sexism shouldn't be joked about but because it was an ignorant and lazy joke, the type lots of new acts usually learn to ditch within a year anyway.
7 billion of us aren't going to all agree on what's funny and what's right, but we should all be able to agree that other people will have different opinions and ideas and that the emotional reaction to being offended creates an instant feeling that usually a few hours later is gone.
One of the things I hate, I can't stand it, it's when someone apologises for any offence they may have caused when their intention was not to offend... You're just apologising because of someone's emotional and subjective response to something you said or did. I'm sorry for any offence I may have caused is basically, I'm sorry you're upset about what I said.
Sure it's polite to apologise but if we can't all be grown up and consider that someone's way of expressing themselves; may not be to your liking but; you taking an aggressive approach to telling them about it isn't to theirs, yet you force it upon them anyway... Well you're as much the problem!
One thing I will say when closing this is if you are using these words I've typed as a way to justify saying something offensive for the sake of saying then you are too dumb to do comedy go take up karaoke perhaps, because a really great joke comes from a place of intelligence and understanding every meaning and use of the words in the joke and how their placement in said joke makes it funny not offensive... Although some people will never be bright enough to get them anyway!
J x
