Is comedy Left-wing?
“Comedy” writes Ed West “will always be Left-wing, being dominated by the young and the hip”
Hummm .... While neither young, nor hip, nor amusing, I’m not sure Ed is correct.
Comedy in Britain often tilts Left not because there is anything innately more humorous or hip about the Left - or indeed Left about the hip. Rather it owes something to the fact that for decades it has been the culturally Left-leaning BBC that has done so much of the commissioning. Traditionally, many acts at the Edinburgh fringe, for example, have performed there in the hope of being noticed by BBC producers or script writers.
Perhaps proving how the laws of the market have universally application, those supplying the gags have tended to produce ones more likely to find a buyer in a Leftist market.
Where there is no state Leviathan distorting the gag market, comedy doesn’t seem to have a cultural cringe towards Guardianistas. For a decade or more, one of my favourite TV shows, the Simpsons has struck me as funny precisely because it tends to be pro-individualism and anti-big business / authority. I've no idea what their politics might be, but a recent episode of HBO's hilarious Flight of the Conchords seemed young, hip - and gleefully politically-incorrect in a way no BBC commissioned script could ever be.
Once we’ve scrapped the license fee, perhaps we’ll have more to laugh about....