You’ll always know if you’ve inadvertently asked a comedian if they can take a joke. Rather than saying ‘of course!’ they’re more likely to ask where you want said joke taking to. Oh, hahaha.
Some brave soul has attempted to get serious answers to this question out of funny people. The resulting documentary, Can We Take A Joke?, will be shown at selected American cinemas and colleges later this year.
Here’s a sort of review/trailer:
2016 just so happens to mark 50 years since the death of legendary comedian Lenny Bruce. Now there’s a man who always skated too close to the wind. Filmmaker and journalist Ted Balaker said the timing’s ‘surreal’.
Come on. The documentary’s clearly taken the viewpoint of ‘we can’t take a joke any more and that’s real sad’. And the original announcement was on April Fool’s Day. Again: oh, hahaha. Very droll.
This is sadly an outtake, it seems, but here are some wise and sensible words on the subject from Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller. (You’ll remember Teller doesn’t talk much.)
As rational as that sounded, this whole film almost feels like an ‘I’m sorry if you felt offended’. Which, as we all know, is such a cop-out of an apology that it may as well not be said.
Hey, it’s been nine years since Bernard Manning died, can we capitalise on that? If someone had tried to make a documentary like this in the UK, they’d have had controversial comedians up to their eyeballs. We’ve got Frankie Boyle, Chubby Brown, Jimmy Carr… and let’s not forget the searing wit of our beloved Katherine Ryan.
Not many women made the cut for the film – stand-up Lisa Lampanelli is a notable name. She’s a good pick, considering her risky brand of insulting humour. Christina Pazsitzky is on narration duty – you might not know her by name, but she writes for Chelsea Lately.
No word on whether we’ll see Can We Take A Joke? on these shores. It might happen. Given our current situation on Brexit and immigration, it’s more likely to get here than a film coming over from Europe, am I right?
