Big Yin: I’d be cancelled if I had started out now
Connolly bemoans how edgy comedians are missing out
SIR Billy Connolly has said he wouldn’t make it as a comedian if he was starting out today because of woke culture.
The comedy legend said he thought he would be “cancelled” because his “fearless” material would be deemed too offensive for modern audiences.
Connolly found fame in the 1970s and upset religious groups with routines such as the Last Supper and Crucifixion, in which he imagined the final days of Jesus beginning with a drinking session in a pub on Glasgow’s Gallowgate.
The 78-year-old Glaswegian, who now lives in Florida, said political correctness has gone too far and TV executives are not brave enough to broadcast edgy acts.
Asked if he would be cancelled in today’s climate, Connolly, who has Parkinson’s disease, said: “Absolutely. You can’t decide to be fearless, you’re either fearless or you’re not and you go about it.
“Because of political correctness people have pulled in the horns but I don’t know how I feel about that. I couldn’t have started today with the talent I had then, certainly not.
“There’s a show here in America with all black comedians, men and women, and they are totally ruthless, they are totally without political correctness and they have always got me on the floor howling with laughter. It’s just the cheek of them and the bravery of it.
“There was a comedian who had a series on television and the suits involved were going to take it off at the first commercial break.
“They have got no bravery. We need people who give people time and a chance to develop and all that kind of stuff.”
Connolly was speaking to New Zealand radio network Newstalk ZB to promote his autobiography Windswept and Interesting which is published tomorrow.
He said writing parts of the book, such as the abuse he suffered as a child from his father and his aunts, had made him depressed.
He said: “I don’t know if it helps or not but you are as well to get it off your shoulder and into the open air. It’s difficult but you get there.”
Connolly quit stand-up in 2018 but continues to make documentaries and is filming a series called Billy Connolly Does.. for TV channel Gold.