In my act I sometimes do alot of topical stuff or 'drunken rants' as they are usully known. Thinking myself an 'edgy' comedian I made a joke about the VT thing in America which was really about George Bush's response. The audience reaction was amazing, they were completely silent. I told another joke and they started laughing again as if I hadn't made the joke. Now I thought i'd either get lynched or a big laugh but not that.

Anyway how long do you think you should wait before making jokes about tragic events.

Btw all my jokes are aimed at the majority and people who can take it e.g. politicains. I would never ever make a joke that was cruel to a minority or someone who is suffering. The joke was about George Bush it just had VT in the set up.

If you feel comfortable saying it then do it. Thats rule I go by when writing, but then when i did a open mic i was rude to everyone and they loved it lol people are strange

Yeah thats the wierd thing, i've actually seen comedians being heckled for being nice and non-topical. I agree with you Gavin, if I have a strong view on something, my attitude is that people should hear it. I just never expected the crowd to not react like they did.

Maybe they didn't know what to do? Perhaps they appreciated that you weren't having a go at the people who are suffering, but at the same time thought maybe felt bad about laughing about something so sensitive that's still very much in the public eye - it was only a couple of days ago.

Maybe I'm looking to deeply.

It does seem a strange reaction though. Did it knock you off your stride?

Armando Iannucci: “We all have different ideas of when it’s the best time to make fun of a public figure who’s died. We all have our own Dead Princess Diana jokes, but I got into a lot of trouble for what I did, which was to do a whole stand-up comedy routine consisting entirely of Dead Diana jokes, five minutes after the crash. While in Paris. Going through an underpass. In a white Fiat Uno.”

The Armando Iannucci Shows.

This reminds me of a good friend of mine up here in Aberdeen who was doing stand-up at the time of the Kirsk submarine incident. The following is absolutely true - even someone of my fantastic abilities (cough) could not make this shit up.

He did some gag about what they would find when they got down and opened up the hatch on the Russian Submarine - would there be a smaller one inside - then a smaller one inside that etc. It did not go down well and he died a death from that point on.

He was told later by the guy running the gig that the front two rows (it was a small gig) were made up almost entirely of a specialist team used to North Sea rescues etc that were leaving early the next morning to help in the salvage operation.

Very bad timing.

He only did one gig after that and it was about 5 years later (where he WAS actually funny - at least made me laugh).

Andy

You see thats a funny joke, it's just unfortunate about the audience

I laughed, think the term "know your audience" in that instance lol

Ouch.

Did anyone see that clip of stand up Jim Jeffries getting punched on stage, recently?

http://www.youtube.com/v/2WCGKb8ikRc

Yikes.

Weird you should put that link up - I'm just back from having lunch with the very same friend I was talking about in this thread (I do have more than one - honest!) and he told me I should go look it up. Thank's for saving me some effort!!

He really must have struck a nerve with that guy!

What a wanker, if someone did that to me i'd kick their head in.

Yup. Now *that* was a heckle.
God knows what he said to offend him so much. People are insane.

I read somewhere, i think on chortle, that it may have been a joke that offended a woman he was with or near, so it may have been the joke about the wierd looking c**t after all. Its still not right so.

I liked that joke about the Russian sub. How could anyone NOT see the joke?

And Ajp ...
"I would never ever make a joke that was cruel to a minority or someone who is suffering." I thought you took the piss out of Bush.

Quote: ajp29 @ April 19, 2007, 1:01 AM

I made a joke about the VT thing in America which was really about George Bush's response.

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Any chance knowing what the joke was?