Who is popular today?

This year’s Edinburgh fringe was full of wokeness jokes from liberal standups as well as a host of conservative comedians who punch down
Has there been a rise in rightwing comedy? Or just more acts pinning their colours to that mast? A common claim – flogged to death by the conservative commentariat – is that comedy is dominated by a “liberal elite”. That was always a tenuous premise: beyond the late Jeremy Hardy, the Marks Steel and Thomas, and mid-career Josie Long, where are all these socialist clowns we keep hearing about? But it’s looking even more ragged now. Since journeyman standup Geoff Norcott had the bright idea of relaunching himself as a Tory and became a fixture on Question Time, other acts have followed suit. Anti-woke is the fringe pose du jour, not infrequently struck by comics out and proud about their rightwing affiliations.
They draw their charge – such as it is – from the conceit that they’re fearlessly flouting tyrannical orthodoxy. But the idea that it’s Transgressive – the title of Scottish comic Leo Kearse’s show – to PC-bash in public is a bit of a stretch. Ricky Gervais, Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Carr: comedy arenas are full of this stuff. You can’t open the papers or turn on TV without hearing anti-woke and pro-Brexit sentiment. If – as these comics insist – free speech is under attack, it’s a pretty feeble attack. Although it did succeed in having Kearse’s previous show, Right-Wing Comedian, cancelled in Australia last year after protests about its alleged transphobia. Continue reading...