Why Are Most Commedians Left Wing?

[ToraToraTora]

....seems odd to me.

[Guilbert53]

I think it is "cool" to appear left wing when you are a comedian.

Years ago no comedian would stand up and say they were a fan of Margaret Thatcher, even though she was being elected year after year so many people in the country must have liked her.

I also think that as a general statement MOST people in the "arts" or theatre etc lean towards the left politically (not all of course).

Finally for a comedian it is far easier to get a laugh criticizing Tory / right wing behaviour than to critisize Labour / left wing behaviour, so it is all about easy laughs.

[jno]

the ones on AB are all right wing.

[dannyk13]

jno, are there any comedians on AB?

[Ken4155]

Have to disagree, Guilbert. Comedians find it easy to get a laugh criticising whoever is in power at that particular moment in time, imho.
You also state that no comedian would admit to being a fan of Thatcher. Step forward Jim Davidson.

[jno]

danny, I get a lot of laughs out of several of them.

[jno]

and Bernard Manning, Ken.

[maggiebee]

Ah, but would you ever admit to watching Jim Davidson or Bernard Manning?

[Hymie]

Kenny Everett was also a big fan of Maggie.

[jno]

I think of Everett as more of a DJ, and I didn't want to go mentioning Thatcherite DJs because the next one up would be Savile.

[maggiebee]

Happy to have Kenny Everett as one of my (many) fans!

[jno]

he played it all the time, maggiebee

[maggiebee]

Love it jno - thanks for the memory.

[douglas9401]

Because the right wing are too busy grinding the proletariat under their jackboots? :)

[andy-hughes]

Hymie - // Kenny Everett was also a big fan of Maggie. //

A popular misconception, caused by KE`s bizarre invitation to a Conservative party conference.

He went along, and had no idea why they would ask him. If you look at the footage, he is seriously bemused to be there.

Being Everett, he decided to say the most bizarre thing he could think of - "Let`s bomb Russia!"

When they cheered, again being Everett, he decided to be seriously extreme, knowing they wouldn`t cheer his next line - "Let's kick Michael Foot`s stick away!!!!"

And of course, they did cheer, which left him even more bemused, and seriously horrified, and an even more confirmed Socialist!!

[RobNorth]

They know where their bread is buttered - if the BBC, CH4, the theatres etcetera went back to being right wing so would they, at the drop of a hat!

[Hymie]

Andy-hughes – below is a copy & paste from Wikipedia in relation to the incident you cite.

You will note that in the exchange with Sinéad O'Connor in 1989, Everett clarified that he was not a "full Tory"; a strange thing to call yourself, if you believe that you are a confirmed socialist.


Political involvement

During the 1983 general election campaign, the Young Conservatives invited Everett to their conference in an attempt to attract the youth vote. Egged on by film director Michael Winner, Everett bounded onto the stage, wearing the enormously oversized foam rubber hands familiar from his mock-evangelical character Brother Lee Love. He shouted slogans like "Let's bomb Russia!" and "Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!" to loud applause.[6] (Michael Foot was the ageing leader of the Labour Party at the time).


Everett later said he regretted the incident and that he had taken the foam hands to the rally because the Tories "asked me first".[7] In an interview on Ireland's The Late Late Show with Gay Byrne and Sinéad O'Connor in 1989, Everett was challenged by O'Connor about his support for the Tory Party in the light of his homosexuality and the Conservative's Section 28 addition to the Local Government Act. Everett clarified that he was not a "full Tory", but that he had been appalled by the actions of Arthur Scargill, whom he saw as "inciting violence" and "rebel rousing" [sic] and who he thought looked like "Hitler reborn". He had consequently supported the actions of Margaret Thatcher in opposing Scargill.

He said he would stand up for gay rights if he were asked providing "it was a jolly occasion", but he also felt that being in a minority and in the public eye, he could do more for gay rights by showing that he was funny and human rather than by marching in the streets.[8]