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Wit and four-letter artistry have made Glasgow a comedy stronghold – and with the clubs shut, the laughs are going online
Glaswegian comedians haven’t always been complimentary about their home city. “The great thing about Glasgow is that if there’s a nuclear attack it’ll look exactly the same afterwards,” said Billy Connolly. According to Frankie Boyle: “Swearing is different in Scotland. In Glasgow the word ‘fucking’ is just a warning that a noun is on its way.”
Like Connolly and Boyle, many world-class comedians started out here and found the city rich in material, from Susan Calman, Kevin Bridges and Limmy to, more recently, Amna Saleem and Larry Dean. Janey Godley, who carried the infamous “Trump is a cunt” sign in a 2016 protest at Turnberry golf course, has been performing standup in Glasgow for more than 25 years. Glaswegians are, she says, “observational storytellers”. Godley has often used humour to tackle tough subjects – the murder of her mother, sexual abuse, her ties with gangsters – and her new show covers online run-ins with the far right. “We tend to be gritty, tell-it-like-it-is comics,” she says. “We laugh at dark things.” Continue reading...