PREVIEW OF THE YEAR
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FRANKIE BOYLE Funny or vile? Intelligent or inhuman? The public and press will have another chance to debate the success of Frankie Boyle when he returns to Scotland with his new tour in August. In an exclusive Scottish interview he sounds off on taboos, sectarianism and the tabloids. The following are his own views in his own words. If you don’t like swearing, controversial comedy, or have been offended by him previously, look away now . . .
Why are you back on the road – is it a money, fame or love of comedy thing? Fuck knows. I’ve been writing jokes my whole life and I’ve found it hard to stop thinking of them. I was just going to do a few gigs and record them, and maybe stick it out as an audio album. Then I thought it seemed like the best stuff I’d done, so why not go shout it at people in a variety of dying towns?
Have you ever told a joke that, in retrospect, you’ve thought ‘that was a bit too far’? There is no ‘too far’. You ever hear George Carlin’s thing about, ‘My job is to find out where the line is and step over it?’ Remember, taboos are just a map of what a society feels it’s acceptable to be neurotic about. Taboos aren’t rational. At the minute, it’s kind of acceptable to do a joke about cancer but not one involving disability. Certain types of cancer are a lot more serious and debilitating than a lot of disabilities. So it’s not rational. We’re in this kind of decadent society where we imagine ourselves to be progressive and enlightened and we’re just barbarians. Everybody says they have no hang-ups about sex but we watch porn all the time. Everybody says they have no taboos but they’re offended all the time. It’s like that Kafka thing, ‘There is an infinity of subversion but not for us’. I got a bit of stick years ago for using the word ‘mongoloid’ on stage, but I only used it to describe Vernon Kay. To be clear, Vernon Kay looks like a learning disabled adult who has been taken to one
of those people that draw your portrait in a tourist place, the ones that always do a really upbeat version of people? That’s Vernon Kay to me, an upbeat caricature of a learning disabled adult.
Have you been following the Leveson Inquiry into press standards? Does it please you to see the red tops getting a kicking (even considering your Sun column)? Yeah, I saw the McCanns on there and really wanted them to go, ‘Could you round it up in the next five minutes mate? We’ve left the kids over in Starbucks.’ Just to show they can still have a bit of a laugh. I think the tabloids do deserve what they’re getting, yes. I feel a bit uncomfortable, though, because there’s this idea of the public interest versus what the public is interested in. The overall consensus in the broadsheets seems to be that someone else needs to tell the public what they should be interested in, which is basically patrician. The broadsheets are a lot less relevant if you don’t have money, they’re all about consumption – city breaks, holiday homes, boxsets. Maybe if you’ve just got 30p all you want is a paper that will tell you who Rio Ferdinand is pumping. At the same time, the tabloids present a tortured, warped reality. It’s a picture of humanity that would only be recognised by an enraged sex criminal. Let’s be honest, they’re like some bleak telescope focussed on a schizoid apocalypse. But you do get the odd funny headline.
5 Jan–2 Feb 2012 THE LIST 25