Rewriting your historical culture in case it is offensive.
I am firmly in the Boomer generation and grew up in the sixties where fewer and fewer topics were taboo. People’s education improved when they were exposed to better information, especially to do with sex and class. In 1962 the Judge in the Lady Chatterley trial inferred that it was OK for educated men to read this book but not for women or servants.
Men got to know that women can be just as rude as men and didn’t need protecting, just wanted to be treated as equals. “not in front of the ladies”
The 1960s
British humour in public, film and TV became much more liberal and the British specialisation of Double Entendre (no British equivalent – nearest is Double Meaning) came to the fore. In the 60s films within the ‘Carry-On’ comedy series and TV programmes such as ‘Are you being served’ (1972-1985) were experts at exploiting this. Radio such as ‘Round the Horne/Beyond our Ken’ (1958-1968), broadcast Sunday lunchtimes, used implicitly gay characters even though being gay was illegal. The rudeness was never explicit though. Men dressed as women and vice versa was common even on the radio.
There were other TV programmes which were racially offensive and others which helped the ‘native’ British get familiar with people whose backgrounds were different. The legendary visionary ‘’Till death us do part’ held up the racists to ridicule for those who dared to watch.
The older generations in the 1960s
But how accepting of this liberty were the older generations of that time? Again in the 1960s “Up Pompeii “, full women’s stereotypes and inuendo. was a very successful vehicle for 1940s comedian Frankie Howerd. My mother insisted that I watched it at a neighbour’s house in case my grandmother, who lived with us, got offended. Perhaps my mother was afraid my grandmother would enjoy it too much. After all there were all the double entendre songs sung in the music halls of the 1910s-1930s and before.
Swearing on TV
During a discussion on censorship, The critic Kenneth Tynan became the first person to say “ f**k” on British television in 1965. After that there was always discussions about how many f**ks you could have in a radio or TV broadcast. British political comedy “The thick of it”(2005-2012) wins my prize as to just how many times it’s possible to say f**k in a programme in order to be authentic.
Changes in the new century
Then things began to change. Things which were deemed funny in the 1960s became offensive in the 2000s and it is increasing .
Does this mean that the GenZ, Millennials who are now controlling the game are failing to see the fun?
Fear of offending
For example Little Britain (2003-2006) – the TV series which pointed the mirror at British society has been taken off the air. A theatre has banned a stage version of a BBC sitcom ‘are you being served’ partly based on the writers’ experiences of a former department store in Paignton after it was considered ‘demeaning to women and outdated’ (but only in Torquay). Apparently irrelevant that had been successful in many other (less) provincial towns.
Returning to the Victorian Era?
Does this mean we are returning to
• The Victorians chopping off Penises on statue
• The genitals of Christ being painted over (very badly) in the Sistine Chapel
• Books being re-engineered and censored
Or are we being censored by the Zuckerberg’s and Musk’s to only publish that which is acceptable in certain parts of America?
The genres which you can make fun of are shrinking all the time, so the only answer is to make fun of all of them .
Personal Experience
Recently I posted an extremely witty but rude joke on Facebook which required knowledge about James Bond books. I got castigated because it apparently offended about Trans people. If it wasn’t very clever I wouldn’t have posted it. However, the point is, why should I specifically be aware of sensitivities of trans-people and not for other groups? My trans friends make better and ruder jokes than I do, and so do my black friends and my gay friends .
So I shall continue making jokes about all, and if the GenZs and Millennials don’t like it – then tough.
Note: This article is based upon British history as I was there. In other places it may have been different. David Rigby is an expert on Interculturality and Diversity including Generational Diversity and believes that your historical culture should not have to be re-written or removed to avoid offending different generations or nations.
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Written by David Rigby © 2024 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd