Abstract
This chapter addresses an oft-posed question: why does there appear to be a prevalence of left-wing bias, and so few right-wing comedians, in today’s comedy scene? It is argued that part of the reason for this perception lies in imprecise definitions of both left- and right-wing. A more stable approach to identifying the comedic right is proposed by invoking theoretical frameworks from Norberto Bobbio, Francis Fukuyama, and Michel Foucault, and by drawing on Steven Lukes’ ‘principle of rectification’. Case studies of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, Andrew Lawrence, and Jimmy Carr are used to advance three examples of the hidden prevalence of the political right in the contemporary comedy industry.
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- 1.
Logan, ‘Where are all the right-wing comedians when you need them?’.
- 2.
BBC, Feedback.
- 3.
Revoir, ‘We struggle to find right-wing comedians, admits BBC chief’.
- 4.
Cavendish, ‘Are there enough right-wing comedians on the BBC?’.
- 5.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 6.
Davis, ‘Why must comedians always be left wing?’.
- 7.
Morrison, ‘Waiting for the Conservative Jon Stewart’.
- 8.
Dagnes, A Conservative Walks into a Bar, 148.
- 9.
James in BBC, Feedback (emphasis original).
- 10.
Ian Paine in BBC, Feedback.
- 11.
BBC, Feedback.
- 12.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise Power’.
- 13.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise Power’.
- 14.
BBC, Feedback (emphasis original).
- 15.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise Power’.
- 16.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise Power’.
- 17.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 18.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 19.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 20.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 376–377; Wagg, ‘They Already Got a Comedian for Governor’, 267.
- 21.
McIntyre is a big comedian and a household name, known particularly for his observational comedy.
- 22.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 23.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 24.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 25.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 26.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 27.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 28.
The phrase ‘punching up’ is often credited to the comedian to Chris Rock (see, e.g., Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’; Nish Kumar in Dabbous, The Outcast Comic).
- 29.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 30.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 31.
BBC, Feedback.
- 32.
Allen, Personal interview.
- 33.
Dubus, Personal interview.
- 34.
Dubus, Personal interview.
- 35.
Dubus, Personal interview.
- 36.
Dagnes, A Conservative Walks into a Bar, 5.
- 37.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 38.
Coltrane , Personal interview. Coltrane’s stand-up career spanned approximately a decade, in which time he became one of UK stand-up’s most notable political voices. He hung up his mic in 2017.
- 39.
Coltrane, Personal interview.
- 40.
Goldsmith, ‘Mark Steel’.
- 41.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise power’.
- 42.
Hardy, ‘How to Exercise Power’.
- 43.
Roberts, Personal interview.
- 44.
Roberts, Personal interview.
- 45.
Roberts, Personal interview.
- 46.
Coltrane, Personal interview.
- 47.
Lukes, ‘Epilogue’, 612 (emphasis original).
- 48.
Lukes, ‘Epilogue’, 612.
- 49.
Bobbio, Left and right, 58.
- 50.
White, ‘Left and right as political resources’, 128–9.
- 51.
Lukes, ‘Epilogue’.
- 52.
Lukes, ‘Epilogue’, 605.
- 53.
Lukes, Epilogue’ 602.
- 54.
Rockey, ‘Who is left-wing, and who just thinks they are?’.
- 55.
Bobbio, Left and right, 29.
- 56.
Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, Dates.
- 57.
Medhurst, A National Joke, 187.
- 58.
Brown, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown (live performance). The quotation is paraphrased based on notes made shortly after the live show.
- 59.
Yapp, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
- 60.
Medhurst, A National Joke, 194.
- 61.
Medhurst, A National Joke, 196.
- 62.
Kriesi et al. ‘Globalization and the transformation of the national political space’, p. 922.
- 63.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 271.
- 64.
Scotto et al., ‘The consequential Nationalist-Globalist policy divide in contemporary Britain’.
- 65.
Flinders, ‘The (Anti-)Politics of the General Election, p. 234.
- 66.
Comparative advantage is a concept used in neoclassical economics. Here, it is used to describe how seemingly viable industries, goods, and services can lose out in a global marketplace when other industries or products are perceived to be a more efficient use of national and corporate resources, and are therefore prioritised.
- 67.
Scotto et al. ‘The consequential Nationalist-Globalist policy divide in contemporary Britain’, p. 41.
- 68.
Friedman, Comedy and Distinction, 84.
- 69.
Yapp, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
- 70.
Yapp, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
- 71.
Yapp, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
- 72.
Friedman, Comedy and Distinction, 84.
- 73.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 74.
White, ‘Left and Right as political resources’, 127.
- 75.
Lawrence, Facebook post.
- 76.
Lawrence, Facebook post.
- 77.
Lawrence, Facebook post.
- 78.
British Comedy Guide, Andrew Lawrence Interview, February 1, 2016.
- 79.
Lawrence, Hate Speech.
- 80.
British Comedy Guide, Andrew Lawrence Interview, July 1, 2017.
- 81.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 82.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 83.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 84.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 85.
Dabbous, The Outcast Comic.
- 86.
Lawrence, Tour.
- 87.
Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man, 341.
- 88.
Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man, 342.
- 89.
Milbank and Pabst, The politics of virtue, 1.
- 90.
Roberts, Personal interview.
- 91.
Martill, ‘What makes Britain ‘Great’?’.
- 92.
Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man, 346.
- 93.
Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man, 346.
- 94.
See, for example, Gray, ‘The Closing of the Liberal Mind’; Wright, ‘Does Trump win mark the end for liberal democracy?’; Schmitz, ‘Donald Trump’s victory marks the death of liberalism’.
- 95.
Lawrence, Hate Speech.
- 96.
Lee ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 97.
Jones, ‘Laughing all the way to the bank’.
- 98.
Goldsmith, ‘Jimmy Carr: Part One of Two’, episode blurb.
- 99.
Lee, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, 119.
- 100.
Goldsmith, ‘Jimmy Carr: Part One of Two’.
- 101.
Goldsmith, ‘Jimmy Carr: Part One of Two’ (emphasis original).
- 102.
Goldsmith, ‘Jimmy Carr: Part Two of Two’.
- 103.
Lee, ‘Where are all the right-wing stand-ups?’.
- 104.
Carr, Jimmy Carr: Stand Up.
- 105.
Carr, Jimmy Carr: Stand Up.
- 106.
Brown, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown (live performance).
- 107.
Lawrence, Hate Speech.
- 108.
Carr, The Best of, Ultimate, Gold, Greatest Hits Tour.
- 109.
Carr in Goldsmith, ‘Jimmy Carr: Part One of Two’.
- 110.
Coltrane, Personal interview.
- 111.
Foucault, ‘Two Lectures’, 98.
- 112.
Newman , ‘The Place of Power in Political Discourse’, pp. 139–140. Foucault’s notions of power have been hotly debated in the realm of political theory, and critiqued as inaccurate, incomplete, and counter-productive. Newman himself outlines some of these possible weaknesses. However, my intention here is not to assess the validity of Foucault’s ideas but to identify that this basic concept of power is an influential one, and one that correlates significantly with the ways in which self-avowed left-wing comedians perceive the mechanics of societal power.
- 113.
Newman, ‘The place of power in political discourse’.
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Quirk, S. (2018). ‘Where Are All the Right-Wing Comedians?’. In: The Politics of British Stand-up Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01105-5_2
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