Janet Collins
Billy MShould comedy have rules?
November 2nd 2008 20:50
Comedians always continue to test dangerous waters. Maybe often their antics are a little ridiculous and even dangerous. We can often be critical of the childish stunts they play to get our attention but it is this over-the-top, devil-may-care attitude that actually endears us to them in the first place.
Lately their stunts have not just been kept local but have gained worldwide attention. Not a bad way to get a hell of a lot of publicity and gain a profile that many a Hollywood starlet would kill for. But should they have limitations? Should there be rules?
Most people I think would say that it's only for a laugh but the most recent prank on Sarah Palin prompted me to look into another few pranks in recent time and share my analysis and views with you. Here they are:
Sarah Palin
The one that running hot on the radio at the moment is a pretty harmless one, although if anything could add Sarah Palin’s reputation as being just a little stupid, this will.
One of the Quebec comedy duo, “The Masked Avengers” impersonated French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a call to Sarah Palin.
The call was then broadcast on their radio station and has gone around the world since. It’s hit nearly every news bulletin here in Sydney so I shudder to think where else internationally it is being played out.
Palin happily discussed her Presidential intentions (which had her admitting not this time but maybe next), his family (gushing just a bit too much about his lovely wife) and them possibly going hunting together (seal hunting that is)!
You wonder how anyone who could be running for Vice President could think that President Sarkozy would discuss going hunting with her let alone that he would call her directly.
Although to be fair, I have always wondered how our own Princess Mary of Denmark handled her first meeting with the Prince at the Slip Inn in Sydney. What would you say to anyone who approached you saying “Hi…like a drink? I’m the Prince of Denmark.”
Was it all amusing? …….I’ll have to say yes.
Did it cross the line?........Not really but it certainly isn’t going to paint Palin in too bright a light but all in all it was pretty harmless.
I have to give it to her though. Palin’s office reported that she was “mildly amused” when the prank was exposed and issued a statement quoting “C’est la vie!”
The Chaser’s Stunt at the 2007 APEC Meeting
In a stunt that was pretty wicked, The Chaser comedy team in a three-car convoy drove into a restricted zone in Sydney through all the barricades that had been erected for the APEC Meeting in Sydney in 2007.
Wearing mock “insecurity passes” and one, Chas Licciardello dressing up as Osama bin Laden, the group duped police at checkpoints and ended up in a “no go” zone. There were eleven in the cars in all and what followed was several arrests. The NSW Police Force suffered severe embarrassment over the prank as did the NSW Government.
As the old saying goes though, any publicity is good publicity and the stunt didn’t exactly lose them any credibility or followers. The security arrangements at APEC had been something of a controversy anyway.
Was it amusing? ………….Yes, definitely.
Did it cross the line? ………Probably but the government had made a stage show of security arrangements for the Conference.. The episode probably at worst showed the arrangements up as the farce they were..
Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 BBC
Probably the stunt that has caused the most controversy in recent years was the one last month by two DJ’s on BBC’s Radio 2. There were no politicians involved but the issue has become a lesson to comedians everywhere. The DJs - or radio presenters - were Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, who are both incredibly popular comedians in the UK.
It went like this. A former girlfriend of Brand, Georgina Baillie, just happened to be the granddaughter of Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel in the “Fawlty Towers” series.
On October 18, for some reason that beggars belief, the duo thought it would be funny for Brand to leave many lewd messages on Sachs home answer phone one of which poked fun at the fact that he had slept with Sachs’ granddaughter. If they thought this was funny at the time they must have be smoking something. Who knows?
The comments were then broadcast on their program on Radio 2. What happened next shows just how much a prank can actually fire back. The switchboard at Radio 2 was jammed with complaints, Georgina Baillie criticised them publicly in continual media interviews for hurting her grandfather and even Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an announcement condemning the pair.
BBC executives went into damage control and not surprisingly, Russell Brand and his partner-in-crime, Jonathan Ross, were suspended. Brand has since made a public apology and resigned from his reported eighteen million pounds, three-year contracted position with the station. Ross has not escaped either. His radio and TV contracts have been suspended for three months without pay. These contracts are reported to be worth four million pounds.
The complaint call toll has now reached 40,000 and shows no sign of calming down.
Was it amusing? ……..No, definitely not. Incredibly poor taste.
Did it cross the line? ….. Yes, definitely.
It is this prank that has shone the most light on the broadcast comedy industry. Who monitors the comedians or presenters? Who takes responsibility for their actions?
Radio comedians and presenters have long pushed the boundaries in their regular attempts to out do almost anyone else for attention. To say DJs are generally a pretty egotistical lot would be a complete understatement. It is this that removes all boundaries and even sense and enables them to go almost anywhere without fear or caution.
I would be the last person to say that laws should stop this sort of behaviour. This would just go against any of the principles of free speech. There should be some sort of Code of Ethics though. There is with journalists (believe it or not) as there is with just about every other occupation.
What do you think?
Lately their stunts have not just been kept local but have gained worldwide attention. Not a bad way to get a hell of a lot of publicity and gain a profile that many a Hollywood starlet would kill for. But should they have limitations? Should there be rules?
Most people I think would say that it's only for a laugh but the most recent prank on Sarah Palin prompted me to look into another few pranks in recent time and share my analysis and views with you. Here they are:
Sarah Palin
The one that running hot on the radio at the moment is a pretty harmless one, although if anything could add Sarah Palin’s reputation as being just a little stupid, this will.
Palin Caught - Image courtesy Reuters
One of the Quebec comedy duo, “The Masked Avengers” impersonated French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a call to Sarah Palin.
The call was then broadcast on their radio station and has gone around the world since. It’s hit nearly every news bulletin here in Sydney so I shudder to think where else internationally it is being played out.
Palin happily discussed her Presidential intentions (which had her admitting not this time but maybe next), his family (gushing just a bit too much about his lovely wife) and them possibly going hunting together (seal hunting that is)!
You wonder how anyone who could be running for Vice President could think that President Sarkozy would discuss going hunting with her let alone that he would call her directly.
Although to be fair, I have always wondered how our own Princess Mary of Denmark handled her first meeting with the Prince at the Slip Inn in Sydney. What would you say to anyone who approached you saying “Hi…like a drink? I’m the Prince of Denmark.”
Was it all amusing? …….I’ll have to say yes.
Did it cross the line?........Not really but it certainly isn’t going to paint Palin in too bright a light but all in all it was pretty harmless.
I have to give it to her though. Palin’s office reported that she was “mildly amused” when the prank was exposed and issued a statement quoting “C’est la vie!”
The Chaser’s Stunt at the 2007 APEC Meeting
In a stunt that was pretty wicked, The Chaser comedy team in a three-car convoy drove into a restricted zone in Sydney through all the barricades that had been erected for the APEC Meeting in Sydney in 2007.
Wearing mock “insecurity passes” and one, Chas Licciardello dressing up as Osama bin Laden, the group duped police at checkpoints and ended up in a “no go” zone. There were eleven in the cars in all and what followed was several arrests. The NSW Police Force suffered severe embarrassment over the prank as did the NSW Government.
After the Chaster's Stunt
As the old saying goes though, any publicity is good publicity and the stunt didn’t exactly lose them any credibility or followers. The security arrangements at APEC had been something of a controversy anyway.
Was it amusing? ………….Yes, definitely.
Did it cross the line? ………Probably but the government had made a stage show of security arrangements for the Conference.. The episode probably at worst showed the arrangements up as the farce they were..
Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 BBC
Probably the stunt that has caused the most controversy in recent years was the one last month by two DJ’s on BBC’s Radio 2. There were no politicians involved but the issue has become a lesson to comedians everywhere. The DJs - or radio presenters - were Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, who are both incredibly popular comedians in the UK.
Russell Brand
It went like this. A former girlfriend of Brand, Georgina Baillie, just happened to be the granddaughter of Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel in the “Fawlty Towers” series.
On October 18, for some reason that beggars belief, the duo thought it would be funny for Brand to leave many lewd messages on Sachs home answer phone one of which poked fun at the fact that he had slept with Sachs’ granddaughter. If they thought this was funny at the time they must have be smoking something. Who knows?
The comments were then broadcast on their program on Radio 2. What happened next shows just how much a prank can actually fire back. The switchboard at Radio 2 was jammed with complaints, Georgina Baillie criticised them publicly in continual media interviews for hurting her grandfather and even Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an announcement condemning the pair.
BBC executives went into damage control and not surprisingly, Russell Brand and his partner-in-crime, Jonathan Ross, were suspended. Brand has since made a public apology and resigned from his reported eighteen million pounds, three-year contracted position with the station. Ross has not escaped either. His radio and TV contracts have been suspended for three months without pay. These contracts are reported to be worth four million pounds.
The complaint call toll has now reached 40,000 and shows no sign of calming down.
Was it amusing? ……..No, definitely not. Incredibly poor taste.
Did it cross the line? ….. Yes, definitely.
It is this prank that has shone the most light on the broadcast comedy industry. Who monitors the comedians or presenters? Who takes responsibility for their actions?
Radio comedians and presenters have long pushed the boundaries in their regular attempts to out do almost anyone else for attention. To say DJs are generally a pretty egotistical lot would be a complete understatement. It is this that removes all boundaries and even sense and enables them to go almost anywhere without fear or caution.
I would be the last person to say that laws should stop this sort of behaviour. This would just go against any of the principles of free speech. There should be some sort of Code of Ethics though. There is with journalists (believe it or not) as there is with just about every other occupation.
What do you think?
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Comment by Lady Henrietta Muddling
Potter in a Harry
You've brought up an interesting topic. One worthy of a debate.
Freedom of Speech is an oxymoron. It's a right that is always limited by other rights. Hence it is not free at all. It is constrained.
How many rights can you list that conflict with the right to free speech? You've listed the main one. The non-right to cross the line. Who draws the line?
And a non-right is not a right at all. It's another oxymoron.
You have the right to freedom of speech as long as you don't racially or sexually vilify anyone? Or use hate? Or cross the boundaries of comedy? Modern freedom or 'the rights of man" [mankind] are purposely designed to tangle mankind up in endless debates over what is ethically or morally right and wrong. While dispensing with morals and ethics under the nothing is right = nothing is wrong clause.
Once you dispense with objective truths? Nothing is right = nothing is wrong. Yet what people end up doing is saying, although nothing can be proved as either right or wrong, I believe this is wrong. And so the entire human race continues to contradict itself and hold fast to the right to personal subjective opinions on what is right or wrong, all the while maintaining there are no objective truths or rights, apart from mankind's right to rights? Decided by whom? And so mankind does its own head in over these things. There is either total freedom of speech or freedom of speech itself becomes an oxymoron.
The amount of money people earn by writing about and defining what Freedom of Speech is, compared to the amount of non-money a person earns by showing how no such thing exists is as wide as the chasm between a bloggers' earnings and the earnings of politicians making laws pertaining to free speech while silencing their detractors.
The question remains for the person who is free. Are you prepared to make money by going against your conscience and championing the rights to free speech which you don't believe exists, or would you rather have a free conscience?
There is nothing as free as the speech of the demented blogger who is free to write whatever he likes and classifies it as free speech because he doesn't get paid for it. That's my definitiono of Free Speech. Talking sense without making any cents.
Comment by Norm
Consumption Malfunction
Equal and Opposite
Arses and Elbows
Footy Power
Comment by colocountry
This is the most incisive of comments that I have seen since joining Orble 6 months ago! Potter [or Harry] rightly points to the innui of the public at large which, by inaction, grants tacit approval to the comedic romp at some poor individual's expense. Is it because the judicial / tortular road is so bogged down in molasses that a plaintiff calculates that I'It just isn't worth it!. Or perhaps we find the answer in the cost to the public of the Justice Einfield defence of his $77 fine??? $10mA$ and he finally apologises!! Or do we blame the penchant of the average 'Joe' who just loves to witness someone suffer the humiliation that none of us would want to visit us?? Keep up the good work!
Col
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Wow, you have put a hell of a lot of thought into you comment and for that I thank you. I agree that in the end of the day there is really nothing such as real free speech. If any of the employees of all these companies that have gone belly up were ever in a position to freely speak publicly about what the companies were actually doing, without fear of losing their jobs, the world may not be in the position it is now.
I guess it really boils down to ethics and values rather than free speech. When "humour" becomes poison though it is just not funny.
Thank you again for the comment.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Good point. Yes, the drama of comedy is that it gets our attention first, then we can laugh. I guess the episode with Radio 2 on the BBC was that it got attention alright but it just wasn't funny.
Thank you for the comment.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Your point about humiliation is a good one. That said, I think there are grey areas for comedians who embark on humiliation for humour. The stunt with the DJs on Sarah Palin for example was much less vicious than that of the BBC DJs on Andrew Sachs which actually drew others into the "joke".
The old saying "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen" may apply to Sarah Palin but Andrew Sachs and his granddaugher were never in the kitchen in the first place.
Thank you.
Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
You hit the nail on the head there.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
As you can see, I think so too.
Thanks for visiting and the comment.
Comment by Cheryl J
Funny Videos
Rhythmatism
Zentertainment
Budget Centsability
I also think many of those prank calls that radio stations do cross the line as well at times. The one on Palin was naughty but not really nasty. I have heard one where they called and told someone their holiday, that they had saved for an eternity for, had been cancelled and they had lost all of their money because the company had gone into liquidation. The worst thing is they didn't stop when she began to cry, they waited until she was a heaving mess of sobs. One of her 'friends' put them up to it. It was appalling. I think they received a number of complaints on that one too.
I did like the APEC prank. The government were begging for that one to happen.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
I love these pranks most of the time but sometimes they go way beyond humour as the episode at the BBC did. I was just trying to give an all round comparison. Some are funny. Some are not. But who decides?
Thanks.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
the APEC prank also served a purpose - exposing the sham of the security system.
The third prank was mean sprited and cruel - I don't think there was any purpose except vulgarity.
I don't think that we should control comedians, but the population in the UK responded with disgust, and Russell Brand suffered as a result.
Comedy is best used as a vehicle for uncovering the cracks in a public facade...
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
For example, I love The Chaser. But I usually switch channels when they do their pranks. I don't generally find humiliating people funny (not surprisingly I'm definitely no fan of shows like Candid Camera and Prank'd). The exception to this was their stunt at the APEC meeting. That genuinely amused me.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog