Opinion: Should We Take Comedians Seriously?

mitchell & webb

It has been a busy time for big comedians lately. Not just busy doing gigs and panel shows and plugging their plethora of product, but also busy being taken seriously. Following his guest editorship of the New Statesman and his appearance on Newsnight Russell Brand has now been taken to task by Robert Webb for being more style than content. Webb wrote a stinging response for the New Statesman saying that Brand's anti-voting stance has made him rejoin the Labour Party.

The biggest surprise about this piece was that if anything my money would have been on Robert Webb writing an equally spirited article for the Guardian/Observer in defence of his bezza mate David Mitchell. After David Mitchell wrote in his Observer column that press freedom was being threatened by possible new regulation Steve Coogan responded this week by arguing against his stance and saying that post-phone hacking, there clearly was a desperate need for some kind of regulation. 

The idea of comedians doing serious journalism - coming over here, taking our jobs – is not entirely new. And it certainly makes more sense than other celebrities contributing to various topical debates. If we have to have household names talking about politics I'd rather have comedians doing it than airhead half-wits from reality TV or even resting luvvies from the National Theatre. I'm not saying all comedians have performed brilliantly on Question Time, but they do have ideas and thoughts of their own and are used to thinking on their feet without a script, whereas actors, by the very nature of their job, tend to be vessels for the ideas of others. Better looking, more handsome, aesthetically pleasing vessels certainly, but vessels nonetheless.

This current trend for comedians as cultural commentators is another unexpected spin-off of the comedy boom. Obviously the likes of Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard (and Beppe Grillo in Italy and various others around the world) have already shown that they think outside the comedy box, regularly being vocal in other areas. But stand-up is so popular today it does not just fill the O2 Arena, it seeps into every part of our lives. Take my bookshelves, for instance. My comedy books from two decades ago are mostly trivial bits of fluff or sketch show scripts. Today comedians – no ghost writers here – write thoughtful books about their place in the world. Contrast Jo Brand's A Load Of Old Balls: Men In History from 1994, all big print and bigger pictures, with the epic, autobiographical confessions of the likes of  Russell Brand.

I'm wondering, however, where it will end. Everyone loves a spat. Particularly a spat between two witty, articulate famous people who know how to string an epithet together. Newspaper bosses and Newsnight editors can clearly see that this sort of thing attracts attention so I suspect that right now they are now looking for further funny men and women to fulminate about various topical debates.  Maybe as we speak Alexander Armstrong is penning a pithy response to Steve Coogan and Ben Miller is sharpening his nib and trying to think of something to say about Robert Webb. Maybe Ricky Gervais has some thoughts about George Osborne. Perhaps Jack Whitehall wants to speak out about Syrian weapons factories. There are probably stand-ups out there as I write who are on the phone to their agents at this very moment saying "forget about getting me a commission from BBC1, get me a commission from The Times."

 

 

 

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