Comedy-22

Britain has always been a great comedy factory. Place it upon our cynicism as a nation or our ability to notice the absurdity of life, both provide a fertile breeding ground for producing some of the world's best stand up comedians and sit-coms.

The naughties has been especially good, with the likes of Ricky Gervais producing the excellent sit-coms The Office and Extras, and Channel 4's The Peep Show providing a very realistic and absurdly funny view of 30-something British life from the first person perspective.

Meanwhile stand up comedy has become incredibly popular all of a sudden, the BBC's Live at the Apollo shows sell out in seconds nowadays and it has almost already become a national treasure, introducing those fresh comedians who are semi-famous and usually deserving of the greater exposure. It is through these events that we now have the likes of Michael McIntyre and Sean Locke. The comedy quiz panel shows have also shifted the career boosting spotlight onto Frankie Boyle, Russel Howard and Alan Davies. For such a small country we have a lot of funny talent!

So the question then arises, if we produce such talent and it is within our zeitgeist as a nation, why then do we try and silence these people on the odd occasions. I am talking about making professional comedians publicly apologise.

This week, two issues have come to light concerning Jimmy Carr's joke about British soldiers in Afghanistan and Frankie Boyle's about Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington. Both comedians were asked to apologise for their respective jokes - Jimmy Carr offered a semi-apology stating that he had told the joke to soldiers in Afghanistan and they loved it but he "did not mean to cause offence" and Frankie Boyle flat out refused to apologise and subsequently quit Mock the Week.

If I was to back one of them, it would definitely be Boyle. He is the only comedian that I can think of who recently has stood their ground against the torrent of hurt-feelings-cards being thrown at the comedy industry. Four words everyone: it-is-their-job! Not their job to offend, of course not, but to make people laugh and that entails that a small minority may be offended - and to this I ask "so what?"

If you are offended what good does that do? That doesn't give you an extra rights, that doesn't give you permission to ring up the BBC and demand an apology. Yet in the modern British world apparently it does. The BBC, a supposedly politically neutral organisation pushes a comedian - and a comedian that made one of their biggest shows so popular - to make an apology so rigorously that he decides to quit.

Meanwhile, Carr can proclaim that he did not mean to offend anyone but really he knew some people would be, that shouldn't stop him performing the joke, however, because it was funny. Some may say that they did not find it funny, which is precisely the point; both what is offensive and what is funny is subjective and rules cannot be enforced on subjective grounds, because the bar would be shifting across the spectrum so quickly that firstly we wouldn't be able to keep up, and secondly that is not equality.

My granny does not like Michael McIntyre, probably the most inoffensive comedian there is. Her reason? She thinks "he is too loud, is always shouting and dancing about the stage". Furthermore, his behaviour does not just produce just an unlikable disposition from her towards him, she is "offended by it".

Now see why rules cannot be enforced? We would be stifling these people whose livelihood depends on making us laugh and a side effect is that it is always aimed at someone or a group of people and may offend them. By silencing comedians we are putting one foot down the slippery slope and at the bottom of this slope is a damp, boring world that is painted in different shades of grey because ignorant, pretentious people thought that they could laugh at everyone else but when the joke was turned on them they had a right to kick up a fuss. No you do not! Sit down! Shut up! And be offended if you like because you will get over it like everyone else does throughout life. It is not an eternal scar that will disable you for the rest of your days. It was a joke made at your expense and, what is more, it was really, really funny!