Friday, February 20, 2015

Repeat offender

Stewart Lee and Frankie Boyle may have expressed dislike or distrust of each other's work in the past, but they have also been put in the same bracket (albeit by the Daily Heil's Jan Moir) and have both claimed to be playing a kind of character on stage, so I wonder what Lee would make of Boyle's views on offence and free speech. He'd probably bristle at the barbed comments about political correctness, but otherwise I suspect there might well be plenty he'd agree with - particularly the critique of the media.

Articles like this show Boyle in a favourable light, as a thoughtful and articulate commentator on comedy (not unlike Lee), but they don't quite square with Boyle the public performer, whose material regularly suggests a comedian prepared to ignore his moral compass and go off piste in an attempt to provoke laughter and/or offence.

(Thanks to Rob for the link.)

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