Billy Connolly speaks out over ‘censored’ comedy
January 27, 2010 12:58pm by Such Small Portions
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Billy Connolly has railed against what he says is a trend to censor comedy in the UK
The veteran comedian has said that anyone who swore onstage was unfairly branded ‘vulgarian and foul mouthed’.
The comments came on the same day that Michael McIntyre agreed a £500,000 ‘golden handcuffs’ deal with the BBC. It has been suggested that McIntyre was targeted as a replacement for Jonathan Ross who was considered too controversial for the corporation following the ‘Sachsgate’ scandal.
Speaking at the South Bank Awards on Tuesday night Connolly, who is currently appearing at London’s Hammersmith Apollo said: "I don't offend, that's not my job. My job is to make people laugh.
"I think it was (US comedian) George Carlin who said, 'the job of a comedian is to know where the line is and to step over it'.
"There's a lot of deep and desperate unfairness been going on."
The Scottish comedian is no stranger to controversy himself however, in 2004 he was criticised for making a joke about British hostage Kenneth Bigley - prior to his murder in Iraq - on stage.
He has always maintained he was misquoted over the content of the joke.
"If you swear in a book, you're some kind of clever guy, if you swear in a poem, oh how dangerous he is, you swear in a song - oh my God, what a groundbreaker!” Connolly added. "You swear as a comedian, and you're a vulgarian and foul mouthed,
"When did this happen? Who's doing the judging?"
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