Just been watching so-called highlights of the Edinburgh fringe on BBC3 and saw what you might recognise, if you’ve seen it, as the “Daniel Day Lewis” sketch (skip ahead to 7 minutes in):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00jw48c/comedy_the_fringe_adam_riches/

OK, I get that a lot of comedy is about pushing limits. I’d like to think that had I been in that situation I’d have lamped him in the face with his own smoke machine, but equally I can imagine the rabbit-in-the-headlights expression and the tape inside my head screaming “OH MY GOD THIS IS NOT HAPPENING” on repeat. It’s not something that the poor bastard in question is going to forget in a hurry.

Isn’t it more or less borderline sexual assault?

That was quite funny. Lighten up dude.

He would have got my knee in the bollox for that stunt.

That was about as unfunny as it gets…

I giggled. To be fair – if he had kissed the girl – and she was my girlfriend – then I would have lamped him. Otherwise – serves him right for sitting in the front rows! Worse happens.

Yeah, I did wonder if I was just being boring.

Agreed.

The one rule about involving the audience on stage is that you don’t humiliate them. It’s not funny, it’s bullying.
It’s saying “I’m making this person feel small to amuse everyone else and make me look great”.

I’m pretty sure the audience know what they’re letting themselves in for, within reason of course.

That was quite funny. Lighten up dude.

I think that says a lot about you though.

Look, audience stuff aside, he just wasn’t funny. The audience was laughing out of nervous embarrassment more than anything.

Rubbish, I hate this kind of “comedy”.

I think that says a lot about you though.

OP thought a comedy show was borderline sexual assault, I thought it was quite funny.
Yep, says quite alot about me. Audience shocked by shocking comedian shocker, doesn’t really wash, does it?

Not that shocking apart form just being completely unfunny.

I saw Nick Helm at Machynlleth comedy festival and he got some woman gaffer taped up to a mic stand so she actually couldn’t get away – she was up on stage for ages and looked really uncomfortable. He was at least kind of funny though, in a very silly shouty kind of way.

Not funny.

Did i miss something,where was the shocking part.

The one rule about involving the audience on stage is that you don’t humiliate them. It’s not funny, it’s bullying.

Unless its a heckler. If the audience member starts it, its ok for the comedian to finish it. Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ioBZ5fNJO8

Any of you lot ever been to see Fringe Comedy? Most of it you have to have sunk a few beforehand to get into the right mood. Not the same atmosphere watching it on your own in your living room.

Isn’t it more or less borderline sexual assault?

Yup. And if he really did use his tongue (I couldn’t tell) then more than just borderline. No one should get away with making inappropriate sexual contact with someone for “laughs”. In the same way as smacking someone in the teeth or in anyway hurting them, just for a laugh, wouldn’t be acceptable. And I would expect the person responsible to face possible prosecution.

Anyone who watches that vid beyond fifteen seconds deserves to be offended (I turned off). It’s obvious from the outset that the man is a unpleasant example of his species so walk/click out. I’m not keen on mixing my bodily fluids with those of twenty other people so I don’t frequent the local massage parlour. I don’t like sharing space with offensive people that think they’re funny so I don’t frequent fringe. Stay/continue to watch and you get paid/clicked for.

Boxing clubs don’t get prosecuted for assault, outdoor activity centres for dunking children in white water or reality shows for draping hunks/totty over married people. There is the notion of consent when you join in with activities and I think that paying to watch a comic includes consenting to be made a fool of and mildly assaulted.

It’s freedom of action and choice. I have no intention of getting within 100m of the man but defend his right to be odious to a public that likes people being odious to them.

Edit: the posts on this thread are very funny though. When I click on an STW threadI hope/expect to be provoked into at least two of the following reactions:

shaking my head in dismay

an arf arf snigger

an under-my-breath dismissive insult or “oh FFS”

a wry smile

a what-paper-does-he/she-read thought

“precisely” with a nod

I’m here for

The STW Moral Majority is out in force today, I see. What was the problem? lot of traffic on the school run?

Boxing clubs don’t get prosecuted for assault……… There is the notion of consent ………

When you step into a boxing ring there is usually have a reasonable understanding that someone might punch you. In all the times I’ve been to see comedy acts never once did I expect someone to assault me, either by punching me or shoving their tongue in my mouth.

I fail to see the connection between normal piss-taking banter which is associated with comedy, and the inappropriate assault in that video.

You fail to see lots of things, Ernie.

That’s a bit tasteless DrJ, considering the particularly tragic circumstances of Christopher Reeve’s death and the fact that he needed breathing apparatus for the last ten years of his life.

Or is that the point you’re trying to make ……..there’s no such thing as “common decency” when trying to make people laugh, and anything goes no matter how tasteless and offensive it might be ?

EDIT : Obviously you’ve answered that question by editing your original post now.

The whole point of “fringe” is that it’s pushing the limits. If it were boringly main stream (which I turn of just as quickly) it would be in some main stream show or more probably in no show at all.

“comic fringe” tells you that it probably won’t comply with “common decency” and if it did then the audience would be disappointed.

I didnt find it funny but i dont think it is edgy or pushing limits either. It is very mild and gentle compared to some of the things that are on in the Fringe!

EDIT : Obviously you’ve answered that question by editing your original post now.

Indeed. Some things are tasteless, but the Fringe sketch, while not particularly funny, was not very offensive, and certainly not worth this outpouring of self-righteousness.

Why is he shouting so much?

I made it to 4mins. But the bloke just wasn’t funny, so couldn’t watch anymore.
Jongleurs on hen nights is about his limit.

….not worth this outpouring of self-righteousness.

This outpouring of self-righteousness ? LOL ! 😀

So if anyone dares to think that comedians shouldn’t have a carte blanche to touch members of their audience in a sexual or inappropriate manner freely, it can only be described as an “outpouring of self-righteousness” ? !

Calm down mate, and just accept that some men don’t like other men giving them prolonged kisses on the lips, even if it is ‘just for a laugh’. I certainly wouldn’t – it has nothing to do with self-righteousness, outpouring or otherwise.

I can’t see the video so could someone summarise so I know whether to go all Daily Mail on this thread or not.

Bored, wasn’t funny at all.

Craig Campbell was far funnier at the Fringe and he’s not even featured there.

My view is that comedy should be almost entirely without restraint – the proviso being that it be funny (and I appreciate how subjective a statement that is), but I can’t imagine by anyone’s standpoint that raising a smile – utterly hopeless, mediocre shit3. A case of the self proclaimed office funnyman who has over extended himself.

That’s mild as ****. I remember a show at Cafe Graffiti where a guy would sook up a basin full of water using his bum, then spray it all over the audience! I thought it was hilarious (but I was ten – my dad worked in the publicity office). The same guy did stuff with sausages which would have some of you frantically getting through reams of A4 for letters to the Daily Wail….

Not sexual assault, just shite. I would have stuck the tongue in just to screw with his mind.

Are people really still using the Daily Mail as their phrase of choice when trying to win an argument?

It’s 2011 not the 1990s. Tedious feckaz.

Funnier still is deliberately mis-spelling it as in “Daily Wail”. Oh my sides, stop, please, too, too funny.