Is David Brent as bad as Bernard Manning? Ricky Gervais in The Office
As the New York Times recently reported, the spirit of Bernard Manning lives on in some very unusual places. From 30 Rock to Curb Your Enthusiasm to Family Guy, America is currently seeing a revival in racial-based comedy routines.
Obviously, there's a crucial difference in these contemporary examples: each example shown above uses the mores of racial stereotyping to make a sensitive, and often subtle, point (the Family Guy snippet, for instance, is clearly mocking racially insensitive comedies of the 80s). And yet each still relies on racism for its punchline. And even if this is done behind the veneer of irony, isn't it still racism?
British comedy has also been following a similar path in recent years - witness David Brent's tactless blundering. When the joke is on the racist characters, does that make it OK to repeat the racism? It's a subtlety that is often lost on the audience - witness Johnny Speight's attempts to make a laughable fool out of Alf Garnett, only for him to be seen as a champion of the right.
There is another, a less PC-conscious answer to all this: if it's funny, it's funny; no subject is off-limits. But isn't that just the Bernard Manning defence - the defence of the bully?
