Taking the piss, and other observations about modern humour

I was watching TV yesterday when a comedienne started taking the piss out of Hollywood celebrities. It was rather funny, really, but it did get me thinking about how taking the piss out of people really is, when it comes down to it, a cheap laugh. I mean, the whole schadenfreude thing is, isn't it? It's not constructive humour, in that it makes any valid and contributory observation. It just pulls things and people apart.

Not that I can't do it myself, of course.

But taking the piss is just so...playing to the lowest audience. At least, if humour could be more clever, like it used to be.

I mean, where are the Noel Cowards of nowadays, who were truly witty? Is wit actually dead?
Are we stuck with comedians needing to swear, like naughty schoolchildren who know what they're doing is just so anti authority, but which is, when you look at it, quite juvenile?

There's so much anger and rage, and a kind of sadomasochistic bitterness in modern humour, I think. Ironic, really, considering that there's more freedom nowadays than ever before.

The days of Polari are done with, and all the sexual innuendo that went with a repressed sexuality of bygone days, yet there was something so wonderful about that kind of humour. It was so innocent, but so cheeky and irreverent.

I wonder if humour actually comes from repression and supression. Well, I''m sure it does. I mean, when people manage to find humour in the face of adversity. that irony itself is very powerful. Gay humour - like the humour of Wilde and Coward - was always traditionally hilarious, as was black and Jewish humour.

It seems to me that humour is always either about "us" or "them", though. Conservative humour's always about "them". It's about fear of others. Whether it's to the extent of being racist or sexist, or any other "ist", conservative humour's always about other people. Humanistic humour's always about the human condition. It's always kinder, more generous, more intelligent. It's about us, and about life.

Of course I could be talking out of my arse on that one.

But just comparing a comedian like Eddie Izzard with Jim Davidson, you'll see what I mean.

But piss taking's still cheap. I watched this woman - her name's Kathy Griffin - and she was funny, atmittedly. In a kind of "let's attack sacred institutions" way. But at the end of the day her humour was just the same thing: attacking a few naff celebrities, like American idol contestants, and people like Oprah Winfrey.

She was sending herself up, too, as the D list celebrity that she is.

I just can't help thinking there's just so little...how can I put it...honour in her humour. It was just the "look at me I'm a cheap bitch" kind of humour that Joan Rivers got away with a few years ago.

Maybe I need to do some standup again, as characters, just to see what I can do. After all, I'm only criticising a critic now, aren't I?

Hmmmm....