22/12/06
Ipswich murder jokes - too soon? -
Categories: Thank fuck for that.
I have just got back from my very last Christmas Corporate, a private party in Solihull that took 5 hours to drive to (in fog so thick I had to lean forward in the car to see more road). I'm euphoric just to have got it out of the way, to be frank. I've had 5 corporates this month, which is more than enough; I've been offered one tomorrow as well, but they can have big fat slice of the no-thanks cake.
However, this blog is not going to be a spittoon for my incessant whinging about the misery that is the Christmas party (or even the bizarre show I had on Tuesday, where, along with light and sound problems, and a blazing row with a Komedia employee, the one woman I picked on in the crowd just so happened to be *the vet who put my cat down two weeks ago* - can you honestly believe that - what are the chances). No, I'm going to talk about the very genuine question concering when it's OK to mention stuff going on in the news that could be considered 'no-go' subjects.
And of course, I'm currently talking about the Ipswich murders. Now, I'm not going to pretend I'm the first person to start telling jokes about them - there's been a score of recycled and generally poor efforts flying about on the email and texts most of this week. Even when my cleaner came round on Wednesday (long story, it's to do with resolving an argument with my other half about the *quality* of my housework needing more 'attention to detail') and I said "cold, isn't it?" she immediately replied back with "it's minus 5 in Ipswich".
I've written - and now said on stage - a few original jokes and observations about what's been going on with this. As with all these things, I try not to be judgemental or even too derogatory because I know people will be upset, and that's not my objective. I'm trying to be original and current. Judge for yourself - my line last Friday went along the following lines; "They won't arrest the right bloke - the police are all over the shop. Yesterday morning, they said the killer was a local guy, with good knowledge of the area, but by the afternoon, they said he was a suffolk hater. They should make their minds up."
It got 'ooos' and laughs in equal measures, but I think the delivery here was key. If it appeared I was laughing AT the murders, I could have lost the crowd. Also, it had already been a week by then. Now, I'm not saying that's a sufficient period beyond which people don't care; but it certainly takes the sharpness off.
But why should time make any difference? Lets take some case studies here. Martin Coyote did the first Cutting Edge immediately after Diana's death. Did the crowd want it to be discussed? Hell yeah. Were people offended? Some. Was it funny? Hugely. But a lot of that can be directed at both the skill of the Cutting Edge performers and the kind of comedy-literate audience the Store attracts.
On the flip side, I've seen comics highlighting this discrepancy in a way that has sometimes split a crowd as well. Mitch Benn does this lovely little routine about a University Student Union advertising their forthcoming 'Titanic Party'. I can't remember the exact words, but the observation goes along the lines of, "There you go. Biggest maritime disaster in History - let's boogie. Is that what it takes? Three generations for it to be OK to laugh at? 70 years from now will there be 'twin-towers' parties where students throw paper aeroplanes at Jenga? Some old bloke in the corner going "that's not funny", Students replying "piss off grandad, we're just having a laugh". I love this routine - but some people still get mildly offended by it (even though the focus of the joke is the fact that 'time makes a sick joke acceptable', not the tragedy itself).
Personally, I'm never going to be in the Jim Jeffries mould in that I won't revel in my ability to shock a crowd. My main attraction to doing this material; is firstly, the fantastic focus it gets you in a slightly rowdy room (on Wednesday's Komedia Christmas show, I just paused, and said, "Ipswich". That was it - they were suddenly silent), but secondly, I like being topical. Actually, I love it - and I'm quite competitive about it.
When the Queen Mum died on that Saturday afternoon at 3pm, I went on stage and did a series of gags about it during the Komedia's early show - right at the top. Bearing in mind we start at 7pm; I must have been the first comic in the country to do jokes about it. It was utterly pointless though; as it was a hot summer's afternoon, the majority of the crowd had just come off the beach and had no idea she'd snuffed it; so the crowd erupted into conversation about it as people slowly realised I was telling the truth. Professionally it was poor judgement to open with it.
And when Richard Whiteley died (at 8pm on a Sunday evening), I got the message just before starting the 2nd part of the show that night, and went straight on doing jokes I'd just written about it. Again, I was obsessed with the topicality of it; and again, it was mostly pointless as I was telling a crowd of people who had no idea he'd died anyway.
Clearly though; when the joke is near the knuckle but well executed and done with enough charisma and confidence to convince your audience it's bereft of malice, it'll be a winner. The only thing I've genuinely learnt though, is that *local* tragedies are completely off the menu. I'm always winding up Brendan Riley when in Liverpool about how I'm going to mention Jamie Bulger, the Heisel stadium, and Kenneth Bigley in my opening gambit. I don't - it would be signing my own death warrant - but it's worth pretending I will just to watch his face screw up.
And even in Brighton I fell foul of that trap when mentioning the fire at the fireworks factory in Halland a fortnight ago. It was a lazy joke on my part; reused from a joke about the fireworks factory explosion in Belgium two years ago that I wrote at the time which got a pretty good laugh. This time; the truth was too close to home. Very few laughs, and a pertinent reminder that the decency line is something the audience draw, not me.
The real knack is to know how much time you can leave before doing that material. Too late, and it's not current enough. Too soon, and it's considered offensive. Knowing where the 'sweet spot' is, is obviously a skill I'm still learning.
Comments:
No Comments for this post yet...
This post has 433 feedbacks awaiting moderation...
Leave a comment:
Trackback address for this post:
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/htsrv/trackback.php/440
Trackbacks:
No Trackbacks for this post yet...
This post has 433 feedbacks awaiting moderation...
RSS Feed