Jumping on the Brand Wagon
First rule of comedy: don't mock the weak | Natalie Haynes - Times Online
When is a joke not a joke? The answer is simple - when no one laughs. Comedy is quite different from other art-forms... No one hears a line that fails to raise a laugh and says, yes, that's me, I have no sense of humour. We don't think it's subjective. We take refuge in the same attack: it's not funny. If the joke doesn't work for us, we deny its very existence as a joke.
Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are experiencing the aftermath of a joke gone horribly wrong. What do you get if you cross a Spanish waiter with ill-judged prank - 10,000 complaints and rising. After a series of on-air phonecalls to Andrew Sachs, the 78-year-old actor, about a liaison with his granddaughter, the two face calls for their resignation, an Ofcom inquiry, even a suggestion that they be prosecuted. Why are the British public, normally so proud of their sense of humour, not laughing?
Gordon Brown and David Cameron jumping in now, just like most of the 10,000 offended people I doubt if they heard the broadcast, they are just offended by the reports of what they should be offended by. I didn't hear it either, there is very little that could induce me to listen to the whiny bore that is Brand, but obviously some people find him funny. He is paid handsomely to put on an edgy out-of-control act, and if it brings him vast amounts of sex, drugs and rock and roll, well good luck to him. He delivered. Don't shoot the messenger. The blame lies higher in the food chain.
Of course that we are forced on pain of imprisonment to pay for such acts is another matter, and one that Gordon, Dave and the 10,000 won't be complaining about.