Connolly: I’d be cancelled if I was starting in comedy now

SIR Billy Connolly has said he would not have made it as a comedian today because of cancel culture.

The Glasgow-born comedian believes his “fearless” material would be deemed too offensive for modern audiences.

The 78-year-old, known as the “Big Yin”, said that political correctness today had gone too far and meant talented comedians had missed opportunities because TV executives were not brave enough to broadcast edgy acts.

Asked if he would be cancelled in today’s climate, he 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.”

Connolly rose to fame in the 1970s and upset religious groups with routines such as the Last Supper and Crucifixion, in which he imagined the

‘Because of political correctness people have pulled in the horns. I don’t know how I feel about that’

final days of Jesus beginning with a drinking session in a pub on Glasgow’s Gallowgate.

The routines led to evangelical Christians picketing his gigs and heckling him in the streets. His old school in Glasgow erased his name from its records. Connolly admitted offending “most religions” in a BBC series, Billy and Us, which aired last May.

He said: “I didn’t set out to do that but they take offence so easily … All you have to do is talk about them and what they do and they will find offence in it.

“It’s because they know they are a bit ridiculous. You will never hear them saying that, so they will attack you.”

In an interview to promote his new autobiography Windswept and Interesting, Connolly spoke to New Zealand’s radio network Newstalk ZB.

He said: “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.”

Connolly announced his retirement from stand-up in 2018, having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013, but has continued to make documentaries.