Frankie Boyle, Free Speech and Not Being Funny

So, I see that Frankie Boyle’s got himself in a spot of bother owing to a bad taste joke (well, jokes) about Jordan’s disabled kid. And I have to say that, as with the Family Guy insult to Sarah Palin’s offspring, this is a great example of free speech working perfectly. Boyle is allowed to make offensive jokes, and Jordan is allowed to protest and take offence. No-one is being silenced; the controversy is out there for everyone not directly involved but still interested to make their own judgments about.

And my take on what Boyle said? Well, it made me laugh – but mainly in that “Good God, did he actually say that?” kind of way. It didn’t offend me (except for the fact that I had to watch most of an episode of the execrable Tramadol Nights in order to actually hear the joke). But it did sum up quite nicely both the strengths and weaknesses of Boyle’s show – he can provoke laughter by being offensive, but he sometimes seems to miss the point that being controversial/offensive is no guarantee of actually being funny. And that is the real problem with the show; not that it offends people (which is inevitable, given Boyle sets out to be offensive) but rather that it has nothing beyond being offensive to offer. The endless, unfunny sketches and film pastiches show Boyle is a one-trick pony – capable of being offensive in a witty way, but not capable of writing a decent sketch or performing any such sketch well.