This week's comedy news
Where would Laughing Stock be without the "culture of censoriousness" that creates a crisis from every comedian's word out of place? We might soon find out, should Rowan Atkinson, damn his eyes, be successful with a campaign to repeal section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 . The Mr Bean star and his fellow campaigners (who include Tory MP David Davis) say the act, which outlaws "threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour", is being abused by police and prosecutors. At the Westminster launch, Atkinson explained: "The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such: criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy." One salient example saw the recent arrest of a 16-year-old boy, who was peacefully holding a placard reading "Scientology is a dangerous cult", on the grounds that it might upset disciples of the movement in question.
As long as the law remains on the statute book, Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby have some recourse, after falling for a "celebrity sperm bank" hoax on ITV's This Morning last week. The pair conducted an interview with the supposed CEO of FameDaddy, Dan Richards, who offered would-be mothers the chance to have babies by, for example, an Oscar-winning actor, a rock star and a multimillionaire former footballer. The studio guest was later exposed as an actor reportedly working for a satirical Channel 4 comedy show. This week's other offended parties include the Corpus Christi church in Morningside Heights, New York, who lost a campaign to prevent a local street being named after the late standup George Carlin; and the American media, playing at outrage because actor Chevy Chase used the "N-word" in a "rant" on the set of the sitcom Community.
British comedian Miranda Hart was behaving like a one-woman, comedy news-generating machine this week: reports suggest that she's planning a standup tour, filming a movie – and that her recent memoir is a bestseller. But has she ever provoked a birth? That's what happened to Glasgow comic Kevin Bridges this week, who made a woman in his audience laugh so hard that she went into labour. Small wonder Glasgow is known as a comedy city. But what of Birmingham? Two Brummie sitcom writers (Robin French and Kieron Quirke, who penned BBC3's Cuckoo) cited "anti-Midlands sentiment" in the comedy industry, in an interview this week in the Birmingham Mail.
On the small and larger screens, we hear that Aussie comic Adam Hills, presenter of the Paralympics late show The Last Leg, has signed a one-year deal with Channel 4, and that Dara O Briain will host a new comedy/science format on BBC2, called Dara O Briain's Science Club. The BBC sitcom Rev is to be remade in the US, where Steve Coogan is also working on the pilot for a new sitcom. In film, US satirist Stephen Colbert makes an unlikely cameo in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, and Ben Stiller is tapping Lady Gaga, of all people, to appear in his sequel to the cult comedy Zoolander.
Oh, and Charlie Higson has compressed the entire James Bond canon into 140-character tweets …
The best of this week's Guardian comedy coverage
"I'm very happy with the jury's decision," says Frankie Boyle, and who wouldn't be? He has been awarded more than £50,000 in libel damages from the Daily Mirror.
From Phyllis Diller to Kristen Wiig, a history of female comics in the US. From the Observer, How funny women fought for their place in the spotlight (complete with obligatory "are women funny?" debate below the line).
The American comic whose career has skyrocketed since she was diagnosed with cancer: the Observer on Louis CK's favourite standup, Tig Notaro.
"I'm starting to nurse an idea that maybe we should [reunite]" – Mark Gatiss on The League of Gentlemen, in a profile interview otherwise light on matters comedic.
"When you want something that lots of people want and not everyone can have, like working in comedy, you do have to plug away," says David Mitchell, interviewed by Hadley Freeman in Weekend magazine.
Controversy of the week
Chevy Chase and his N-words? Pah! A more damaging incidence of prejudice is to be found this week on the new Tyneside-set BBC2 sitcom Hebburn, scripted by standup Jason Cook and starring Jim (Vic Reeves) Moir. The series has been judged a success in most quarters, having opened to an audience of 1.8m. But not everyone is happy. "The show has cast a bad light on Hebburn when the complete opposite is true," says stern-looking Hebburn councillor John McCabe. "It's quite sad that people nationally will think this is how we behave – I'm very disappointed and dismayed by it all."
You can see why McCabe – and the people he watched the show with, who he says "all gave it four out of 10" – are a bit miffed. As the Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette reports, the town has much to recommend it, as home to overachievers including "Brendan Foster, Steve Cram, professor Paul Younger and geologist Arthur Holmes". No one wants to be accused of being anti-Steve Cram, of course, and Cook duly looked to clear his name. "Some of the characters appear to be stereotypes," he acknowledged: "the slapper, the fat bloke. But they will develop over the series. One of the things I wanted to do was to put those in and make them grow. I wanted to add some colour and depth to how the country usually sees the typical Geordie men and women."
My pick of the best reader comments
Yikes, it's a David Mitchell love-in. Hardly anyone has a bad word to say about the Peep Show star, judging by the long comments thread after Freeman's interview. ClareLondon about summed it up:
There's a LOT of public affection, admiration and pleasure in your company expressed on this unusually benign thread, Mr David Mitchell. I hope you come on here and read this. You deserve to know how truly successful you've been – and I don't mean as a celebrity comedian, which you are, I mean as a real man, as men ought to be. Upright, honest, genuine, hardworking and caring. Not an ego-ridden, selfish shit.
... The "celebrity culture" which is so prevalent now is all about wealth, prestige and status. David Mitchell stands almost alone as a beacon of sanity in the celebrity maelstrom … David Mitchell, you are respected by me and countless others.
Wow. Leo Benedictus's review of Reginald D Hunter's live DVD likewise engendered more enthusiasm than cynicism. (What's going on, people?!) Waaagh was first in with the high praise:
He has a great line about racism and class, which I can't recall fully or do it justice. But it's along the lines of his family asking him about racism in Britain and how it must be reallllllly racist. He does a great reply that yes there is racism, but not like American racism, and that what the Brits are great at is class, which "allows you to be racist to people of the same colour". I thought that was a brilliant concept.
Simon Hattenstone's Weekend magazine interview with Derren Brown prompted a spirited set-to over whether Brown used psychological techniques – or was simply a conjuror. Peeps99:
The "suggestion" [in Brown's act] comes from various areas – for example, in predicting what song someone has in their head, he will identify the person early on and ensure they are exposed to the song at some point during the day; ensure that there are visual clues making them think of the song; and there might even be the odd leading question when interviewing them. In short, Derren has already chosen the song and all he has to do is the legwork to make sure the "mark" goes and says it, and thus believes that she/he has had their mind read.
This is exactly what he isn't doing. Even if it were possible to implant, say, a song in somebody's head in that fashion, it would be far too unreliable a "science" around which to base an act. That looking into people's eyes, reading their "tells" business is all lies, [or] else someone like Derren Brown would be paid millions by lawyers, casinos and police forces. There is no "leg work", just old-fashioned conjuring and the idea that he uses psychological expertise is the trick. The only mind game he's playing is the one that allows you to think he's a bit magic.
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