In 1905 Sigmund Freud claimed to have basically sucked the fun out of comedy by “having reduced the mechanism of humorous pleasure to a formula…The pleasure in jokes has seemed to us to arise from an economy in expenditure upon inhibition, the pleasure in the comic from an economy in expenditure upon ideation…and the pleasure in humour from an economy in expenditure upon feeling. In all three modes of working of our mental apparatus the pleasure is derived from an economy.”  He also argued that an effective joke can function like a bribe, using pleasure to trick us into collusion: “In the case of aggressive purposes it employs…[this] method in order to turn the hearer, who was indifferent to begin with, into a co-hater or co-despiser, and creates for the enemy a host of opponents where at first there was only one.” 

 In 2022 the first observation was echoed by former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky: “Jesters were allowed to tell the truth in ancient kingdoms…complex mechanisms and political formulations are difficult for humans to grasp.  But through humour, it’s easy: it’s a shortcut” and the second by notably humourless culture warrior Titania McGrath: “Comedy is a tool used by fascists to spread hate. A kind of hate spatula, if you will.”

Professional comedian and Frankenstein to Titania’s monster Andrew Doyle has latterly joined the ranks of those celebrating the death of woke.  But for others, if woke is dead, then someone needs to tell the corpse. In at least some circles there are still very significant penalties for those jesters who draw attention to the identitarian king’s lack of clothes.  

Simultaneously however, albeit in another country and at a whole other level of fame, the world’s most listened to standup is now accused of having moved along the trajectory from plucky underdog to mainstream establishment to pernicious bully: from king teaser to kingmaker.  During his election campaign in 2024 Donald Trump spent three hours in conversation with Joe Rogan and a further hour with standup Theo Von: both of whom were duly invited to his inauguration ceremony in 2025.  Journalist Helen Lewis has repeatedly compared Trump himself to a standup, whilst Rogan is now accused of weaponising not just his massive platform but the plausible deniability conferred by his comedy background to spread deadly misinformation.  

Back on this side of the pond those present, former and potential future political leaders who have appeared on TRIGGERnometry - hosted by former standups Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin - now include:Tony Abbot, Kemi Badenoch, Boris Johnson, Binyamin Netanyahu, Pierre Poilievre and Liz Truss.  Nigel Farage has appeared four times.  

In 2026, what’s going on with comedy…and how seriously should we be taking it?

This salon will be chaired by salon regular Rebecca Rosewarne and we will be joined by:

Claire Berry: Claire Berry started doing standup comedy in 2019 and founded and hosted Fem de la Femme CIC in Liverpool, which ran for three years.  The project ran sell out events and workshops for female comics and began to put women on the comedy map in Merseyside.  

In 2025 Claire was hounded out of the local comedy circuit after referencing the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex in the Equality Act. Claire will discuss the current state of comedy, in particular for women who are now battling with old school and progressive misogyny in addition to the censorship of material at grassroots comedy events. 

Simon Kirchin: Simon Kirchin is Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds, and Director of IDEA: the Ethics Centre.  He works on ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of art.  Over the past few years he has been working with comedians and writers about the philosophy of comedy, thinking about how ethical issues interact with comedy and humour.  He is currently writing a short book on comedy and freedom of speech.   

The following references are available free online or from Birmingham libraries

Decoding the Gurus (podcast): Joe Rogan: Just an average Joe…(18/12/21); Robert Malone & Peter McCullough: a litany of untruths(13/01/22); Special: Joe Rogan ‘Sorry, not sorry’ (04/02/22)

Fara Dabhoiwala: What is free speech?: the history of a dangerous idea(2025)

Andrew Doyle: Free speech and why it matters (2021); The new puritans: how the religion of social justice captured the Western world(2022); The end of woke: how the culture war went too far and what to expect from the counter-revolution (2025)

Oliver Double (ed.) The Cambridge companion to stand-up comedy(2025)

The Elephant Graveyard (YouTube): How comedy became a dystopian imperial hell world (08/01/25)

Sigmund Freud: The Penguin Freud reader (selected and introduced by Adam Phillips) (2006)

Helen Lewis and Armando Iannucci: Strong message here: Trump derangement syndrome (30/01/25)

John Morreall: Philosophy of Humor in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy