is swearing funny ?

[frankthring]

I see in a recent lead article in the Telegraph that some old comedians
like Ronnie Corbett are disgusted with the level of swearing and bad
taste jokes, from comedians like Frankie Boyle, in modern British comedy.
So - friends of bgafd - do you think swearing is funny ? Do you think
saying people with Down`s Syndrome look "like fucking chimpanzees"
(as Mr Boyle does) is a real laugh ? Has British Comedy gone down the
toilet ?

[David Johnson]

"Do you think saying people with Down`s Syndrome look "like fucking chimpanzees" (as Mr Boyle does) is a real laugh ?

No.

"Has British Comedy gone down the toilet ?"

No. I am often reduced to helpless laughter when watching Have I got news for you on the tele and the programme regularly features standup comedians on the panel.

And Peter Kay's humour usually has me rolling around. Phoenix Nights was one of the funniest series I've seen in decades.

Cheers
D

[Snow Patrol]

Q) is swearing funny ?

A) Fucking Cunting Hilarious mate

[andy at handiwork]

Are you suggesting that without the 'fucking' Boyle would have been any less vile?

[randyandy]

Swearing can and is funny at times just depends on whose doing it Boyle is as funny as a kick in the balls.

[Phil Phee]

Concur with R.Andy

Depends on context, I guess

[frankthring]

I have absolutely no axe to grind when starting this discussion....swear
myself sometimes.....perhaps with a nostalgic ear for Brit Comedy years
back (as I am a fossil), but curious to read what you all think !

[Arginald Valleywater]

All in context. Chubby Brown has no act without profanity, yet Bill Hicks (RIP) was obscene but can still make me cry with laughter. Swearing for effect and being deliberately offensive is not comedy, hence I will never watch Boyle. Kevin Bishop was on TV last week on some compilation and was swearing for effect, it made him much less funny than when he makes dry social comment. Give me a good double entendre any day, ooh missus.

[RoddersUK]

I found Jimmy Jones funny, but he was hardly ever on TV or radio and was a cabaret act, so he had a following. Billy Connoly is funny, but again he has live audiences.
Twatts like Boyle are cretinous shitheads and he has nothing I want to listen to.
Anglo Saxon profanity is unique among the worlds languages and is extremely descriptive. I read many years ago of a High Court Judge reminiscing of his days as a young tank commander where the tank, a Centurion, had broken down. The driver was head down in the engine compartment trying to find out what was wrong and attenpting to repair it. The young officer asked him what was what, and recieved the reply from the driver that, "The fucking fuckers gone and fucking fucked it's fucking self, sir" When REME came along the translation was that the engine had thrown a piston and indeed had fucked itself.
During the last war escaping aircrew in France were on initial meeting routinely hit by the French underground activists to provoke a reaction and if the retort to a blow was "What the fuck do you think you're doing you cunt" then they were known to be British. An infiltrated Kraut would come out with something along the lines of "Mein Gott in Himmel, or Schiese" and end up with a bullet in their heads.

[beutelwolf]

frankthring wrote:

> ..., from comedians like Frankie Boyle, in modern
> British comedy.
> So - friends of bgafd - do you think swearing is funny ? Do
> you think
> saying people with Down`s Syndrome look "like fucking
> chimpanzees"
> (as Mr Boyle does) is a real laugh ?

Compared to a few others on this thread I do find Frankie Boyle funny. He does swear, but swearing is not his act. His act is making these outrageous comments that draw you out of your comfort zone. Something that makes you laugh and immediately afterwards be disgusted with yourself that you laughed about it. On Mock the week (when he was still on it) there were several cases when his fellow comedian had exactly that reaction-

The Down's syndrome remark falls into that category.

It would be deeply problematic if, say, he had disabled people as his regular target. He hasn't. His regular target are holy cows of all breeds, the holier the better, the bigger sacrilege the better.