Steve Allen - Voltaire - Margaret Rutherford - Horace Walpole - Ann Widdecombe TV - Bronson 2009 - Crimes & Misdemeanors 1989 - Blackadder TV - Rude Britannia TV - George Carlin - esias - William Shakespeare - William Congreve - Samuel Johnson - Charlie Chaplin - Angela Carter - Philip Sidney - John Cleese - William Hazlitt - Eric Idle - Will Durst - Denis Leary - Mark Twain - The Office UK TV - Richard Dawkins - Sigmund Freud - Steve Coogan - Woody Allen - 100 Greatest Stand Ups 2012 - Richard Belzer - Sean Hughes - Comedy Legends TV - History of Comedy TV - The Unforgettable … TV - Joan Rivers - Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work 2010 - House of Commons - Bill Hicks - American: The Bill Hicks Story TV – Bill Hicks: Sane Man TV - Bill Hicks: It’s Just a Ride - Tommy Cooper - Ken Tyler - Ed Sullivan TV - Jim Tavare - Joe Pasquale - BBC report - The Art of Tommy Cooper TV - Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This TV - Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words TV - Joyce Grenfell - Clive James TV - James Roose-Evans - TV - Nigel Havers - Terry-Thomas - TV - Michael Grade - Frankie Howerd on Campus 1990 - Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me TV - Frankie Howerd TV - Reputations I: Frankie Howerd TV - Up the Chastity Belt 1972 - June Whitfield -
132,807. See the comedian by the very nature of what he is is a troublemaker. He is an iconoclast, he is a playful troublemaker, a good natured troublemaker, but a troublemaker. And therefore he must recognise the existence of certain taboos. Steve Allen, 1960, cited The History of Comedy s1e2: F****** Funny, Sky Arts 2020
29. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. (God & Comedy & Laugh) Voltaire
50,581. You never have a comedian who hasn't got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy. (Sadness & Comedy & Clown) Margaret Rutherford
1,073. The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those that feel. (Life’s Like That & Comedy & Think & Tragedy & Feeling & World) Horace Walpole 1776
12,884. Humour about Christianity ranges from gentle mockery, though sharply critical, to the downright hurtful. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) Ann Widdecombe, Are You Having a Laugh? Comedy & Christianity, BBC 2013
12,885. Comedy can be a window into the state of our society. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,886. Christianity is now being subject to a level of mockery that some find disturbing. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,887. The mocking of Jesus Christ is deeply hurtful. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,888. Upon the release of The Life of Brian thousands protested. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,889. The change isn’t accidental and it isn’t the product of ignorance, it is deliberate, and it sets out to vilify and to ridicule Christianity and Christian belief. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
12,890. At its best, comedy can be provocative, truthful and can offer a check and balance for all of us. (Christian & Humour & Comedy) ibid.
21,187. I’ve always fancied myself as being a comedian. (GBH Films & Prison & Comedy) Bronson 2009 starring Tom Hardy & Matt King & James Lance & Amanda Burton & Kelly Adams & Jonathan Phillips & Mark Powley & Joe Tuckeret al, director Nicolas Winding Refn
22,635. I said, Comedy is Tragedy plus Time. (GBH Films & Comedy) Crimes and Misdemeanors 1989 starring Woody Allen & Martin Landau & Anjelica Huston & Mia Farrow & Alan Alda & Jerry Orbach & Joanna Gleason & Claire Bloom & Sam Waterston & Caroline Aaron et al, director Woody Allen, Alda
26,443. I find his [Charlie Chaplin] films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and then discovering there’s a gas bill tied to it. (World War I & Film & Comedy) Curtis & Elton, Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan C – Major Star
26,444. He certainly is a genius, George. He invented a way of getting paid a million dollars a year for wearing a pair of stupid trousers. (World War I & Film & Comedy) ibid.
31,032. Travel back two hundred and fifty years and witness a Britain openly, gloriously and often shockingly rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) Rude Britannia I: A History Most Satirical, Bawdy, Lewd and Offensive
31,033. We had a fierce belief in our right to be rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,034. The first chronicler of Georgian rude: William Hogarth. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,035. Hogarth made Southwark Fair a portrait of the city. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,036. The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,037. Henry Fielding – these attacks on political sleaze were even more direct than Gay in The Beggar’s Opera. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,038. The Law allowed literary bitchin’ to flourish. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,039. A master of rude words ... Alexander Pope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,040. Bawdy humour was at the heart of the success of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,041. This was the colourful world of satirical and humorous prints. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,042. A poet with the rudest reputation in Regency Britain – the devilish Lord Byron. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,043. There would always be a different, ruder country. In Rude Britannia life was celebrated in music halls with bawdy humour and lewd songs. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) Rude Britannia II: Presents Bawdy Songs & Lewd Photographs
31,044. The shock of the rude nude photograph. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photograph) ibid.
31,045. The cheeky carnival of the seaside. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Seaside) ibid.
31,046. The alliance of toffs and prolls and a racy night out was a serious threat to Victorian values. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,047. On the stage rude stars were created. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,048. Music hall had a tradition of bawdy humour and song that went back centuries. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,049. A new technology to further undermine Victorian values: photography. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography) ibid.
31,050. Rude photographs became affordable and available. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography) ibid.
31,051. Someone with a genius for the rude innuendo now needed was Victoria superstar Marie Lloyd. ibid.
31,052. Victorian moral reformers argued that music halls linked to prostitution were part of an exploitation of women undermining the morals of the nation. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Women & Prostitution) ibid.
31,053. By the Edwardian era there was a new kind of peep-show – the Mutoscope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,054. Donald McGill: McGill took a most proper part of daily British life – the postcard – and turned it rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard) ibid.
31,055. [Frank] Randle pushed the course humour of the music hall to new levels of anarchic comedic invention. Frank on stage was wild. (England & Great Britain & Comedy) ibid.
31,056. During a nationwide ‘back to basics’ campaign by the government of Winston Churchill [cf. maiden Parliament speech] McGill was investigated for obscenity. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard) ibid.
31,057. The seventy-nine-year-old artist pleaded guilty to obscenity and was fined £50. Thousands of his cards were then ordered to be destroyed. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Art & Postcard) ibid.