Politically correct or out of date: Which comedy is funnier?
THEY are the comedians of yesterday who say Australia’s sense of humour is dying. So we thought we’d take a trip through time to have another listen at the gags that got their biggest laughs.
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THEY are the comedians of yesterday who say Australia’s sense of humour is dying.
They say the PC brigade has made our country so rigid and righteous that jokes simply can’t be offensive anymore — unless the target is an old, white male conservative.
So we thought we’d take a trip through time to have another listen at some of the gags that got them a laugh back in the day.
Warning: Some of the lyrics are likely to offend.
Kevin Bloody Wilson
A product of a different time, Wilson made people laugh with his swearing and bawdy songs. He told the Daily Telegraph he can’t go on TV anymore ... or do the Sydney Comedy Festival.
“I still sell out but you have to visit the RSLs to see me. I’ll always open my show saying, ‘This is a PC-free zone’,” an unrepentant Wilson said.
Billy Birmingham
Birmingham tapped into Australia’s love of sport as he mocked the commentators we listen to every week.
But he says these days he would be “hung, drawn and quartered” simply for the impersonation of foreign accents.
“Australia is a nation of piss takers. We’re larrikins. It’s 99.9 times out of 10 not meant to be offensive — and it’s a shame that’s dying.”
Austen Tayshus
Best known for his spoken word comedy single Australiana, Tayshus says the new generation of comedians need to “grow some balls”.
Vince Sorrenti
The 40-year-old boy for Punchbowl says: “Comedy is a wonderful form of expression, it’s not quite dead but it’s on life support,” he said.
“I’ve made fun of gender, homosexuality, terrorism, paedophilia.”
Here’s some of them here:
But the next generation say it’s not political correctness, they reckon the older comics were simply “lazy”.
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Nazeem Hussain
The former host of ABC’s Legally Brown says it’s time to “punch up, not down” .
“Old school comedians get upset and blame political correctness because they can’t pick on minorities.
“The audience doesn’t buy that homophobic, racist and sexist stuff anymore. It’s lazy comedy — they should find new jokes and get a laugh.”
Rhys Nicholson
The young performer says the old-school comics just complain because it stops them from being racist or homophobic.
“It’s just not funny. It’s bullying.”