Dated comedy still part of our history
THE letter headlined ‘Don’t point the finger at On the Buses!’ (The Sentinel November 14) from Mervyn Edwards deserves support.
He deplores contemporary attacks on the simple humour of the 1970s with its overt sexism, racism homophobia etc and points out the failings of our time.
Indeed, is modern humour any better? Does it fulfil its basic functions – making people laugh and showing the absurdities of the human condition?
Comics are becoming nervous of offending. Some have been made to apologise for their jokes. Humour is being ‘cleansed’ and now retroactively censored.
However, satire and mockery go back to ancient times. Aristophanes mocked
his fellow-athenians and Terence mocked his fellowromans. Every language has a word for laughter. And it has practical uses. Jesters could safely tell kings what they did not want to hear.
What happens if the present onslaught continues and laughter is abolished?
We should remember the words of the torturer O’brien in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-four: “There will be no laughter except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy.”
We would lose an essential part of being human to the demands of ‘virtuesignalling’. We would not make the ‘Carry On’ films now or give TV time to Dick Emery, Benny Hill or Les Dawson.
But they are part of our history and, despite the end of the social assumptions on which they were based, a safe fall-back for cashstrapped entertainment providers.
MARGARET BROWN BURSLEM