Even Maureen's worried - so will comedy survive cancel culture? - The Jewish Chronicle

Comedy is in mortal danger. It might even be “wiped out” we’re warned.

What danger lurks in laughland? Is it the distraction of social media? The collapse of live performances in the Covid era?

Or the dreadful prospect of the execrable Mrs Brown’s Boys coming back to the box (and any members of that strangely impassioned cult of fan followers, you can keep your opinions to yourselves, thank you very much)?

Actually, it turns out the threat is cancel culture, and this time you’d better take the warning seriously.

No, it's not the Roy “Chubby” Brown brigade speaking but Maureen Lipman, who has emphatically never been afraid of speaking her mind but has the impeccable political credentials of lifelong campaigning that any social justice warrior would be proud of.

My first instinct is to nod sagely in agreement. It’s hard to imagine the kind of fiercely intelligent, purposeful and utterly unexpurgated outrage that Lenny Bruce launched upon the world more than half a century ago making any headway now.

All the racial slurs which peppered his act, just for starters: imagine anyone today trying to defend them and explain the ironic nuance.

You’d be busted almost instantly in the court of social media, then obliterated under a pile-on the size of Everest.

Even the once innocuous 1980 comedy Airplane! is now revealed as a positive minefield of political fails on just about every sensitive topic imaginable – gender, race, sexuality, the whole caboodle.

Of course, unencumbered shock hasn’t gone away if you know where to look.

No one in their right minds who bought a ticket for a Jerry Sadowitz stand-up show knowing what to expect ever stormed out in horror at the bad language.

Tune into the blessed Curb Your Enthusiasm and almost every week we can delight in Larry David and his friends saying the supposedly unsayable.

And the publicity people at Netflix surely couldn’t be happier whenever Dave Chappelle stirs up the wrath of whichever group it is this time on one of his TV specials.

Still, it’s true, back in the prime time mainstream, certain topics are best avoided, and the world now looks a very different place from what it once was.

How didn’t we notice all the racism and sexism in 70s sitcoms? And isn’t it a good thing we do now?

In the golden age of Hollywood, the Hays Code ensured even married couples never indulged in anything so wild as being in bed with both legs off the floor.

Without its stamp no film could get shown.

Now we have the ‘hey don’t say that code’ instead, with rules every bit as precise and a penalty just as severe: social media ostracism.

But don’t worry, Maureen: I’m not sure they’ll ever come for Larry.