Bad joke

Another slightly tangential piece. It’s indirectly related to the BBC in many ways though. More and more of us are watching online news and views, while fewer and fewer of us are glued to the Beeb.

We've all migrated to Triggernometry, for example, and New Culture Forum and (OMG) The Sun’s long interviews hosted by Steven Edginton, a young interviewer who doesn’t interrupt, and all sorts of other interesting material.

I enjoyed watching Andrew Doyle (aka Titania McGrath) talking to Steven Edginton about matters woke. I do take issue with him on one thing though. He says he doesn’t know of a single left-wing comedian who’s racist. Well, maybe not racist in the Labour Party sense, but if you recall, say, the late Jeremy Hardy, well, if antisemitism is racism, then — know what I mean?

Jokes that rely on believing antisemitic ‘tropes’ aren’t funny. They might get ‘knowing’ applause form a woke audience but they won’t raise an actual laugh.

Jokes that depend on antisemitic myths and memes about Israelis (murdering people a great deal) (stealing other people’s land) (killing babies) can’t ever laugh-out-loud funny. There has to be a grain of truth in a joke rather than a sack full of fictional, racist bile.