COMEDY fans are preparing themselves for the post-Covid return of the huge jamboree of humour that is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As they do so, stand-up comedy is embroiled in a so-called “culture war” between “woke” comedians (who believe that comedy carries some kind of socio-political responsibility) and “anti-woke” acts (who, broadly, think no subject is off-limits for comedy).
However, as the good book tells us, “there is nothing new under the sun”. The current debate over “wokeness” is, in many ways, a re-run of the tussle over “alternative comedy” and “political correctness” in the 1980s.
