The Infallible Argument from Comedy

I used to be a fan of Eddie Izzard, when he was telling jokes about laundry, cats drilling, Greek mythology. Then I finally got to see him live and, instead of comedy, he started by telling us not to vote for the BNP, then told us God didn't exist. He ended his show telling us we should all work for the same wages (minimum wage, I think he was getting at). I wondered if such an adoption would make tickets to his show cheaper.

The non-existence of God was pretty much his theme for the evening, with such evidence offered as the fact God didn't flick off Hitler's head before he did so many terrible things and the fact God didn't show up to congratulate the human race when they reached the Moon.

Instead, Izzard told us he "believes in us!", in human beings, a state often recognised in theology as what happens when people reject the idea of gods - rather than stopping worshipping, they start worshipping themselves, each other or anything else they can find. Believing in the greatness of humans (except members of the BNP, obviously) would, you would think, make Izzard be grateful God didn't flick off Hitler's head - it gave an opportunity to show how great humans can be in the face of evil. As for the Moon, why wouldn't the supposed Creator of the Universe be impressed that, despite all the atrocities humans committed in the 20th Century, they managed to travel a quarter of a million miles (about 0.00000000000000003% of the width of the universe) and back?

I don't know how long celebrities have been using their celebrity status to sound off their views in public, usually demonstrating they have become celebrities by being great at exactly one thing. It's probably always been that way.

"Rock stars: is there anything they don't know?" - Homer Simpson

Of course, there's always Stephen Fry, who is hailed as a celebrity genius. I've heard the guy really is quite smart, but I can't help feeling most people accept his genius because he hosts QI. (Fewer would reach the same conclusion about Richard Whiteley, late host of Countdown, but there you go.)

Now, I'm not really saying celebrities lack the skills to shine in other areas - there are plenty of examples of comedians successfully moving to acting (and plenty of examples of musicians moving unsuccessfully to acting). There are many cases where someone has become famous for something that wasn't necessarily their passion, but gave them the chance to pursue their passion later (though I can't think of an example offhand!).

So it's entirely possible a show-business celebrity can have deep insight into politics, religion, history, etc. But I think many people listen to and take on board celebrity views only because they like their comedy, their songs, their films, etc. It's a lazy way to form an opinion.

Speaking of lazy, I occasionally stumble across one of Tim Minchin's comedy shows being televised. Talk about preaching to the converted. Last night I heard him do his own take on a refrain Ben Elton and Billy Connolly have done in the past. The bit starts off with something like, "Some people don't like my swearing," and ends with the comedian swearing. Tim Minchin's take was to segue from swearing to religion, with the punchline that he was now going to do a song about "anal sex and God", to which he received rapturous applause, before and after said song. (To my ear, the song used the same technique Russell Brand uses: multi-syllabic words disguising themselves as intellectual content.)

Comedians these days are in a particular position of power in espousing their viewpoints - firstly, their occupation literally is standing up, spouting their thoughts unchallenged. Secondly, they usually have a faithful congregation to preach to. Thirdly, and most powerful of all, if anyone does challenge them, the obvious response is, "It's comedy, get over it."

So I really shouldn't have bothered.