Jo Brand - Comedy Or Incitement?

[agchristie]

When is comedy not comedy?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7133231/Jo-Brand-jokes-throwing-battery-acid-unpleasant-politicians.html

[douglas9401]

Maybe if she'd donned massive comedy hands and quipped 'let's bomb Russia..........'?

[mushroom25]

I can't be bothered to trawl through 5 pages of answers so apologies if this has already been said.

seek out the show on BBC sounds and listen to what Jo Brand actually said. the clips on social media have been edited.

[pixie374]

I'm not sure the question is about who finds it funny or not, but more importantly- is it enough to incite someone to actually do it, who wasn't already going to. My guess is... absolutely no way.

[Spicerack]

Urging people to throw acid in other people's faces is hardly incitement, Naomi.
On the other hand, watching football in the pub.........

andy-hughes
//The officer didn't need to know who 'Tommy Robinson' was, he was dealing with a leery football fan grandstanding for his friends, and the reason there was no trouble is because 'Robinson', as the focal point, was ejected before he could carry on inciting it. //

[andy-hughes]

naomi - // Pixie, I’m the last to promote the concept of censorship … //

Clearly that is not true - you advocate Ms Brand being censored on the basis that she is, as you perceive her, a 'public figure' and therefore is denied the freedom to speak as she wishes, which the rest of us enjoy.

You can't have it both ways.

[jno]

ludwig, investigating taste seems like an almighty waste of police time and funds to me.

[andy-hughes]

Spicerack - // Urging people to throw acid in other people's faces is hardly incitement, Naomi.
On the other hand, watching football in the pub.........

andy-hughes
//The officer didn't need to know who 'Tommy Robinson' was, he was dealing with a leery football fan grandstanding for his friends, and the reason there was no trouble is because 'Robinson', as the focal point, was ejected before he could carry on inciting it. //

I am not sure why you are bringing in a post of mine from another discussion entirely, but if you are going to do that, it needs some context to make sense - can you explain what you actually mean?

[andy-hughes]

jno - // ludwig, investigating taste seems like an almighty waste of police time and funds to me. //

If someone can bring Boris Johnson to court over something he is meant to have said which is pasted on a bus - and the case is thrown out in minutes, I really can't see a remark by a comedian not directed at any individual having the legs to justify any investigation.

[agchristie]

I thought Nigel Farage was very outspoken about the importance of free speech?

[andy-hughes]

ag - // I thought Nigel Farage was very outspoken about the importance of free speech? //

I am surprised, I never had Mr Farage down as being overly sensitive, as he appears to be on this occasion - maybe it's just to get him a bit more attention, heaven knows he loves that.

[agchristie]

// I never had Mr Farage down as being overly sensitive, as he appears to be on this occasion //

Andy, having had milk shake thrown at him recently it is probably too close for comfort for him perhaps?

[Cloverjo]

I like Jo Brand. I was listening to that show last night and I didn’t like that comment. I know she meant it as a joke, but it wasn’t funny, IMHO.

[andy-hughes]

ag - // // I never had Mr Farage down as being overly sensitive, as he appears to be on this occasion //

Andy, having had milk shake thrown at him recently it is probably too close for comfort for him perhaps? //

Obviously Mr Farage is sensitive about being assaulted in the street, with good reason, but I don't believe for one moment that Jo Brand is condoning violence, much less 'inciting it', in spite of Naomi's consistently strenuous attempts to argue otherwise.

[tonyav]

Jo Brand is as always about as funny as woodworm in a cripples crutch.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Is the remark a joke? Yes.
Is the joke tasteless? Yes.
Is she inciting violence? NO.

The proper complaint against Ms Brand (whom I, too, used to like) is that she does not accept "it was a joke" as a defence if she doesn't like the joke, or the person who made it, or the butt of the joke.

Last week's "Have I got News for You" saw the perpetuation of the BBC smear campaign against a genuine liberal, Carl Benjamin. We'd already seen the tribadic Victoria Derbyshire and Jess Phillips interview when the Sapphic acting duo both agreed that Benjamin's "joke" should prevent his ever being allowed to stand for public office. More Ms Phillips' sneers and misrepresentations followed on "This Week", and yet more on the previous "Have I got News for You" when we see Benjamin having acid, sorry milk-shake - joke, geddit it? - being thrown at him).

Any way, Ms Brand was a guest on the latest HIGNFY. The milk-shake clip was shown again initiating a venomous denunciation by Ms Brand of a man (of whom, I suspect, she knows nothing apart from what the BBC has told her) adding her own extra penn'orth of spite by asserting the Benjamin "had threatened to rape" Ms Phillips, whereas the point of the "joke" was his "promise not to rape" the Birmingham harpy.

[andy-hughes]

vetuste - I think it's important to understand the difference in motive, and meaning behind each person's statement.

Carl Benjamin is an anti-feminist blogger and EU candidate, and has been around since 2013.

Jo Brand has been a professional comedian since 1986.


Given that one of these is attempting to secure political office, and one of them amuses people for a living, which one of them would you expect to assume is speaking seriously, and which one is speaking humorously - in their day-to-day public persona?

When Jo Brand talks about throwing battery acid instead of a milk shake, I have no problem in deducing that she is meaning it in a light-hearted way - whether is it received as such is debatable.

When Carl Benjamin talks about an elected MP being too unattractive to rape, I have no problem deducing that he is meaning it seriously - whether it is received as such is also debatable.

I can see absolute and clear difference here - can you?

[naomi24]

AH, //Pixie, I’m the last to promote the concept of censorship … //

Clearly that is not true - you advocate Ms Brand being censored //

Nowhere have I said that so 'clearly' that is not true. I advocate common sense, something that Jo Brand ought to have but, in this instance, is 'clearly' deficient in.

[spathiphyllum]

Speculation has it Farage now has ‘PTSD’ after the milk shake attack...

Proper
Tactical
Shake
Defence

[Spicerack]

andy-hughes

//I am not sure why you are bringing in a post of mine from another discussion entirely, but if you are going to do that, it needs some context to make sense - can you explain what you actually mean?//

Once again, you're very slow on the uptake. When it suits you, people can't be incited to do anything.
But where Tommy's concerned, he can and he is inciting trouble.

[Cloverjo]

AH//When Jo Brand talks about throwing battery acid instead of a milk shake, I have no problem in deducing that she is meaning it in a light-hearted way//

Yes, it was clearly a joke, given she is a comedian, but some people do throw acid in order to cause serious harm. I know she wasn’t trying to incite people to do that. It just felt very wrong to me that she used it as a joke.